From PEN Blast Weekly (click to subscribe) : Pre-K/4K/EC Programs: the biggest bang for your education buck
A new study by Wilder Research of St. Paul, Minn., undertaken at the behest of Michigan nonprofit Early Childhood Investment Corp., finds that Michigan preschool programs over the past 25 years are saving the state $1 billion this year in crime and education costs, as well as contributing to increased state productivity. Michigan school superintendent Mike Flanagan said the study shows the state should spend much more than it does getting pre-kindergarten children ready for school, and suggested that the state and districts consider reducing the cost of school employee benefits and using the savings to expand preschool programs. "In a K-12 system, we spend $1 billion a grade, but we don't spend anywhere close to that where it would get the biggest bang for the buck." Among the savings cited in the study were a $220 million savings to public schools because fewer students repeat grades and there is less need for special education instruction; $584 million less for programs for juvenile corrections, child abuse, and welfare; and $347 million less in social costs as a result of less crime and substance abuse, as well as increased income for parents. It also affected state unemployment, and boosted work productivity when children enter the workforce.
See the Report.
(excerpt): "Community leaders, child advocates and state lawmakers spoke out Friday in support of Gov. Jim Doyle's plan to rate child-care centers in Wisconsin and link their performance to state subsidy payments."
(excerpt): Many long-time supporters of a Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) got a boost when Governor Jim Doyle announced his proposal for a $10 million investment at a press conference January 22 in Milwaukee. Surrounded by preschool children from Malaika Early Learning Center, the Governor unveiled his QRIS proposal, called YoungStar, aimed at improving the overall quality of child care in Wisconsin.
Eighty percent of Wisconsin school districts now offer 4-year-old kindergarten (4K), State Superintendent Tony Evers announced. Sixteen districts added 4K programs this year. The 333 districts now offering 4K serve 38,075 children, up 4,000 from last year.
Of these 333 districts, 101 offer 4K through the community approach, which blends public and private resources. Wisconsin is one of the nation’s leading models for combining educational and community care services for 4-year-olds.
Licensed teachers provide instruction for all public school district 4K programs.
Research has shown that children who attend developmentally appropriate early learning programs do better in school, have fewer referrals for special education, and are less likely to need extra services or to be held back in grade. Additionally, children who attend quality early childhood programs are more likely to graduate from high school, work, and avoid incarceration.
Wisconsin was one of five states involved in the National Center for Early Development and Learning study of State-Wide Early Education Programs (SWEEP). Key findings showed Wisconsin 4K students were above the national average on three of the four academic skills assessed. The SWEEP study found improvement in all four dimensions of children’s social skills: assertiveness, frustration tolerance, task orientation, and peer social skills.
The latest issue of the CCIC newsletter focuses on groups of children who require adaptations in their care or more background understanding on the part of caregivers. Some of those include children with health conditions, disabilities, incarcerated parents, or parents deployed in the military. Find the newsletter online at: http://dpi.wi.gov/ccic/pdf/issue58.pdf
In This Issue: Oct. 2009
Early Learning Challenge Fund Making Progress in Congress
Home Visiting Legislation Looks Promising in DC
DCF Suspends 99 Child Care Programs Suspected of Fraud
Mandatory Kindergarten Signed into Law
In the News
Check out the WCCF blog!
Support WCCF
Education Matters: WGTDs Education Matters Broadcast on Early Literacy--Broadcast Nov. 23, 2008:
Interviews with Wisconsin Consultants including CESA 2's Early Childhood Consultant, Susan Donahoe
To listen to this broadcast from Nov. 22, 2008 click HERE 41.2 MB. (Note--Internet Explorer Users will find the whole file needs to be downloaded before the broadcast starts. Firefox and Opera Browsers will find the broadcast "streams" and plays while it downloads--you must have an mp3 player installed on your computer.)
IZA research consistently indicates that an increased focus on individual teacher performance caused a significant decline in student achievement in Portugal, particularly with respect to scores on national exams; the study also documents a significant increase in grade inflation.
Teacher-Performance Incentives and Student Outcomes in Portugal" from Public Education Network Weekly NewsBlast. To subscribe, go to PEN's website: http://www.publiceducation.org and follow the instructions in the lower left-hand section of the homepage.
A recent paper from the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn, Germany examines individual, performance-related teacher pay in Portugal's public schools, introduced seven years ago. The study matched student-school data for secondary school national exams, then analyzed the same for two control groups: public schools in autonomous regions exposed to lighter versions of the reform; and private schools subject to the same national exams but whose teachers were unaffected by the reform. In what the researchers found to be scant literature on the topic, their study is the first to look at a reform applied across an entire country (rather than a localized pilot study), and to conduct an analysis with representative population data. Up to this point, research on incentive pay has faced severe data constraints and therefore tended to be based on case studies of individual organizations, making the results harder to extrapolate for larger populations. Looking at a reform in
its entirety, the IZA research consistently indicates that an increased focus on individual teacher performance caused a significant decline in student achievement in Portugal, particularly with respect to scores on national exams; the study also documents a significant increase in grade inflation.
See the report: http://ftp.iza.org/dp4051.pdf
