eNotes
October 21, 2016In this Issue:
- Federal Guidance - Supporting Early Learning through the ESSA Source: U.S. Department of Education - October 20, 2016
- GAO Report - Child Care: Information on Integrating Early Care and Education Funding Source: U.S. Government Accountability Office - October 14, 2016
- Early Childhood Expulsion / Suspension and Opportunity Gaps for Boys of Color Source: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Child Care Aware - October 14, 2016
- 50-State Comparison: Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems Source: Education Commission of the States - October 18, 2016
- Home Visiting Programs: Reviewing Evidence of Effectiveness Source: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation - October 3, 2016
- Kindergarten Entry Assessments - Use and Relationship with Children's Early Learning Source: Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast and Islands - October 20, 2016
- Cost, Quality, and Availability of Child Care Across the United States Source: New America, Better Life Lab, and Care.com - September 28, 2016
1. Federal Guidance - Supporting Early Learning through the ESSA
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) includes provisions to: promote coordination in early learning among local communities; align preschool with early elementary school; and build the capacity of teachers, leaders and others serving young children to provide high-quality early learning opportunities. The ESSA also authorizes Preschool Development Grants to ensure that more children have access to high-quality preschool. New Non-Regulatory Guidance from the U.S. Department of Education has been released to:
- remind state and local decision-makers about the importance of investing in early learning;
- highlight the opportunities available under the new law to strengthen early education; and
- provide examples of how states and local communities can support young children's success in school.
This and additional guidance related to the ESSA can be found at http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/essa/index.html
2. GAO Report - Child Care: Information on Integrating Early Care and Education Funding
On October 14, 2016, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a new report, Child Care: Information on Integrating Early Care and Education Funding (GAO-16-775R, September 14, 2016). The report looks at how state and local providers of early care and education programs are managing multiple funding sources and partnering with other providers to provide quality early care. It describes what selected state officials and local child care providers identified as:
- the benefits to integrating funding from federal Head Start, the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), and state Pre-K programs and partnering with other providers;
- factors that adversely affect integration and partnering; and
- ways these adverse impacts were mitigated.
3. Early Childhood Expulsion / Suspension and Opportunity Gaps for Boys of Color
Two recently published briefs examine issues related to early childhood expulsion and suspension, as well as barriers to accessing quality early childhood education for young boys of color in the U.S.
- Early Childhood Expulsions and Suspensions Undermine Our Nation's Most Promising Agent of Opportunity and Social Justice (2016) Walter S. Gilliam - Presents the latest information regarding early childhood expulsions and suspensions, with a focus on gender and race disparities. Looks at how these disparities violate the civil rights of many young children of color in the U.S. and contribute to the nation's costly achievement gap.
- Unequal Access: Barriers to Early Childhood Education for Boys of Color (2016) Dionne Dobbins, Michelle McCready, Laurie Rackas - Discusses barriers to accessing quality early childhood education for boys of color (high costs; insufficient availability of free or subsidized programs; and implicit biases, which consistently send boys of color negative messages about their behavior, identity, and future) and discusses possible solutions to these issues.
These two briefs are part of a series of issue briefs commissioned by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Forward Promise Initiative.
4. 50-State Comparison: Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems
The ability to examine data that connects students' early education years to their postsecondary education and the workforce can help support successful outcomes. A new report, 50-State Comparison: Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems (October 2016), provides a national comparison of how all 50 states plus Washington, D.C. approach policies related to Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS). Some key takeaways from the report include:
- All 50 states plus Washington D.C., have the ability to connect data between systems.
- Thirty-eight states plus Washington D.C., connect data between at least two of four core systems (early learning, K-12, postsecondary and workforce).
- Seventeen states plus Washington D.C., have a full data system that connects data from all four core agencies across the education spectrum.
5. Home Visiting Programs: Reviewing Evidence of Effectiveness
The Home Visiting Evidence of Effectiveness (HomVEE) project was launched in Fall 2009 to conduct a thorough and transparent review of the home visiting research literature and to provide an assessment of the evidence of effectiveness for home visiting program models that serve families with pregnant women and children from birth to age 5. Its latest brief describes the HomVEE review process, review results, and the 19 program models determined to meet the Department of Health and Human Services' criteria for an "evidence-based early childhood home visiting service delivery model."
- Research Brief - Home Visiting Programs: Reviewing Evidence of Effectiveness (OPRE Report #2016-73, September 2016)
- Executive Summary - Home Visiting Evidence of Effectiveness Review (OPRE Report #2016-72, September 2016)
6. Kindergarten Entry Assessments - Use and Relationship with Children's Early Learning
A new report, How Kindergarten Entry Assessments are Used in Public Schools and How They Correlate with Spring Assessments (October 2016), discusses findings from a study that examined: how many public schools used kindergarten entry assessments (KEAs) and for what purposes; what types of public schools used KEAs; and whether the use of KEAs was correlated with children's early learning assessment scores in reading and math in spring of the kindergarten year.
7. Cost, Quality, and Availability of Child Care Across the United States
The Care Report (2016) examines the cost, quality, and availability of child care in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, finding that no state does well in all three categories. Some of the results show that:
- Nationally, the average cost of full-time care in child care centers for children ages 0-4 is $9,589 a year, which is higher than the average cost of in-state college tuition ($9,410), and 85% of the monthly U.S. median cost of rent.
- The cost of infant care in centers is 12% higher than for older children, and higher than the cost of in-state tuition and fees in 33 states.
- The average cost of full-time care using an in-home caregiver is $28,353 a year, which is 53% of U.S. median household income, 188% of income for a minimum wage earner, and three times the average cost of in-state college tuition.
- Nationally, only 11% of child care establishments are accredited by the National Association for the Education of the Young Child or the National Association for Family Child Care.
- Care is most available in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. States with the lowest availability are Alaska, Hawaii, Utah, Idaho, and South Dakota.
- Care is not always available for families who need it.
- One-fifth of families surveyed have more than one child care arrangement, both paid and unpaid, in a typical week.
The report provides recommendations for systemic change to the early care and learning infrastructure in the U.S.