Education policymakers must put more focus on teaching and learning in the early years and continue that work up through third grade, according to Beyond “Subprime Learning”: Accelerating Progress in Early Education, a new report from New America’s Early Education Initiative. New America points to two approaches that will spur the most impact towards that goal: streamlining programs, standards, and eligibility requirements and tapping into sources for predictable, sustainable, and increased public funding. The report is a followup to Subprime Learning: Early Education in America since the Great Recession released in January, which found that from 2009-2013 states primarily focused on building infrastructure, such as rating systems that aim to help parents sort through different early childhood programs. But access to high-quality early education opportunities for every child who needs them — especially for every child in low-income working families — remains elusive. Among the many recommendations in the report, it says policymakers should: Enact policies for teacher preparation, professional learning, accountability, and teacher evaluation systems that put a premium on the quality of interactions between adults and children and the learning that results; Revamp state teaching licenses; Re-envision Head Start for 3- and 4-year-olds and; Borrow the Pell Grant model which helps students from low-income families afford college. This report is graphically organized to help policymakers at all levels — federal, state, and local as well as teacher preparation programs — clearly see changes they shouldmake.
Read the report here.