Early Learning in the US
and the
Economic Crisis
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7 th M e e t i n g o f t h e O E C D N e t w o r k o n E a r l y C h i l d h o o d
and Care:
Financing ECE Services
Paris, France
June 22, 2010
Jacqueline Jones, PhD
Senior Advisor to the Secretary for Early Learning
Us Department Of Education
Washington, DC
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“It will be the goal of this administration to ensure
that every child has access to a complete and
competitive education from the day they are born
to the day they begin a career ... we know that the
most formative learning comes in those first years
of life”.
President Obama
February 24, 2009
Early Learning Goal
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The Education Department’s early learning
initiative is intended to improve the health,
social-emotional, and cognitive outcomes for
all children birth through 3rd grade, especially
those with high-needs.
Early Learning: A Range of Ages
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
Infants and Toddlers - Birth to 3 years

Pre-Kindergarten (3- and 4-year-olds)

K–3
Domains of Learning
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
Physical health and well-being

Social-emotional development

Approaches to learning

Language and literacy

Cognitive skills
Major Public Funding Streams
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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services



Early Head Start
Head Start
Child Care
U.S. Department of Education


Special Education
Title I Preschool
U.S. Department of Defense
State-funded Preschool Programs
District/Local Programs
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Interagency Collaboration
Interagency Early Learning Initiative
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 Study Groups
 Encouraging Coordinated State Early Learning
Systems
Six Study Groups
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 Standards, Curriculum and Assessment
 Program Standards
 Family Engagement
 Health Promotion
 Workforce and Professional Development
 Data Systems
Components of a
Coordinated State Early Learning Systems
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 Aligned early learning and development standards,
curriculum and assessments
 Program quality and rating system with a review, monitoring
and improvement system
 Plan for human capital
 Strategies for family engagement
 Systems to facilitate health screening and referrals
 Coordinated zero to 5 data infrastructure
Children in Poverty
Percentage of children under 18 years living in
poverty may peak at 21% (15.6M) in 2010 – highest
in 20 years
Foundation for Child Development
2010 Child Well-Being Index
Impact on Child Care Facilities
Reduction in the number of children in child care
programs
Increased vacancies in child care programs
Closure of some childcare programs
NCCRRA Survey
State–funded Preschool
Difficult State budgets in 2010 and 2011
Dramatic increase in State-funded preschool
funding may be over
New Mexico, Florida, Illinois, Wisconsin, New
York, Arizona, and others … considering, or have
implemented, cuts to early learning programs
Head Start
ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of
2009):
 $1B Head Start
 $1.1B Early Head Start
FY 2011:
$989 increase in the total funding for Head Start, to
over $8.2 billion
ARRA (cont,)
 Teacher Incentive Fund ($200M)
 Teacher Quality Enhancement ($100M)
 Statewide Data Systems ($250M)
Title 1
Improving the Academic Achievement of the
Disadvantaged
ARRA:
$10B to State Educational Agencies
Maternal, Infant and Childhood Home
Visiting Program Grants
$90M: The Affordable Care Act
Evidence-based home visiting strategies that help
families create a nurturing environment for young
children and connect to a range of services,
including:
health,
early education,
early intervention and more
 an early childhood service system in every State that
supports high-quality, evidence-based practice.
 coordinated services to improve maternal and child
health and promote healthy child development in our
communities most in need.
 additional funding to Tribal programs
Increase the quality and availability
of Child Care
Child Care and Development Block Grant
FY 2011:
 $1.6B addition to child care funding to extend child
care assistance to approximately 235,000 more
children (total = $6.644B).
 Largest increase in child care funding in over 20
years.
Special Education
 Additional $250M in formula grants for a total of $11.76
billion to help States pay the extra costs of providing special
education and related services to an estimated 6.7M
children with disabilities aged 3 through 21 years
 Maintains $374.1M in additional support to States for
providing special education and related services to
preschoolers with disabilities ages 3 through 5
 Maintains $439.4M investment to help States implement
statewide systems of early intervention services for all
eligible children from birth through age 2 and their families
Race to the Top
ARRA: $4.3B - Race to the Top (Rounds 1 and 2)
FY 2010:
 $1.35B (Round 3)
The initial competition, includes an invitational
priority for activities that improve outcomes for highneed students who are young children (birth through
3rd grade)
Investing in Innovation (i3) Program
ARRA: $650M
FY2011:
$500M to identify, develop, and scale up promising
models and interventions.
The initial competition, funded by the Recovery Act,
includes a competitive priority for activities to
improve outcomes for high-need students who are
young children (birth through 3rd grade)
Promise Neighborhoods
ARRA: $10M
FY 2011:
$210M: to provide funding for another cohort of
competitive planning grants and new implementation
grants to community-based organizations for the
development of comprehensive neighborhood
programs, with effective schools at the center.
Effective Teaching and Learning: Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)
FY 2011: $300M:
Supports State and local efforts aimed at
implementing and supporting a comprehensive
STEM strategy for the provision of high-quality
STEM instruction and support to students from
prekindergarten through grade 12 by funding the
competitive grant program at
Effective Teaching and Learning: Literacy
FY 2011: $450M:
Supports State and local efforts aimed at
implementing and supporting a comprehensive
literacy strategy that provides high-quality literacy
instruction and support to students from
prekindergarten through grade 12
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ESEA
REAUTHORIZATION
Overarching Principles
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 Raise the bar for all students. Close the gap.
 Tight on goals. Loose on means.
 Foster innovation and reward success.
 Build on the four assurances
.
Four Assurances
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Raise standards
and improve
assessments.
Recruit, retain & support
effective educators, and
ensure equitable
distribution.
Build robust data systems
that track student progress
and improve practice.
Turn around lowperforming schools,
focusing on dropout factories
and their feeder schools.
Early Learning
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ESEA reauthorization:

Alignment of standards and assessments

Coordination of professional development

Integration of high-quality early learning
programs into school reform efforts
High-quality early learning approaches
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Continued Title I Support of Preschool
A Birth-Through-College-to-Career Agenda
Promise Neighborhood grants
Comprehensive Education Reforms
Race to the Top
Innovation in Early Learning
Investing in Innovation (i3)
Supports early learning professionals
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Joint Professional Development
Expanded Administrators’ Knowledge of Early
Learning
Support for Teachers of Young Children.
Expands learning opportunities
for young children
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Seamless Transitions and Improved
Coordination
Strengthened Literacy and STEM P-12 Plans
Increased Learning Time for Young Children
Comprehensive Early Learning Assessment
Systems
Looking at Assessment
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The process of collecting, interpreting and
evaluating evidence of learning in order to
make informed judgments
An Assessment System
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A coordinated system of assessments and
strategies intended to collect information
about the process and context of young
children’s learning and development in
order to make informed instructional and
programmatic decisions.
Purpose
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To monitor the learning and development of children
prior to third grade
To monitor program effectiveness and support
continuous improvement
Types of Measures
Screenings
Diagnostic
Formative
Formal
Observational
measures
Descriptive data
Questions
 How is Johnny doing?
 Do all children have the basic health, social-
emotional, and cognitive competencies needed to be
successful in school?
 Are children progressing along a trajectory that will
lead to school success?
Questions
 How is the program doing?
 Does the program have sufficient resources
(human/financial) to be successful?
 Are program standards being met?
 Are quality measures leading to improved outcomes
for children?
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 Early Learning Standards: A comprehensive, well-
articulated set of standards that define what children
should know and be able to do.
 Program Quality Standards: A comprehensive set of
standards that describe program quality.
 Assessments: Multiple approaches to documenting
children’s learning and reviewing program quality.
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 Opportunity to learn: assessment of the
environments in which children are spending time.
 Inclusion: ensuring that all children served by the
program will be assessed fairly, regardless of their
language, culture, or disabilities.
 Resources: Assurance of adequate financial
resources to ensure the development and
implementation of the system components.
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 Reporting: Maintenance of an integrated database of
assessment instruments and results, accessible to potential
users, that
 provides information about how the instruments and
scores relate to standards, and that
 can generate reports for the varied audiences and
purposes.
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 Professional Development: Ongoing
opportunities at all levels to understand the
standards and the assessments and to learn to use
the data and data reports with integrity for their
own purposes.
 Monitoring and evaluation: Monitoring of the
system itself to ensure continuous improvement.
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