US House Approves Legislation to Support Quality Early Learning

It was an exciting week last week, as the US House passed the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (H.R. 3221) by a vote of 251 to 171 on Thursday. The bill includes $8 billion for the new Early Learning Challenge Fund which would provide competitive grants to challenge states to build comprehensive, high-quality early learning systems for children up to age five. The Senate is expected to take up their version of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act soon. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, be sure to thank the Minnesota representatives who voted in favor of the legislation, Reps. Ellison, McCollum, Oberstar, Peterson and Walz. You can be connected to your representative by calling (202) 225-1904 or find out who represents you by clicking here.

Senator Harkin is New Chair of HELP Committee

The sad passing of Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass) last month left vacant the chairmanship of the powerful Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP), which oversees the Child Care and Development Block Grant, Head Start, education for young children with disabilities and special needs, Title I, and Higher Education.

We are pleased to announce that longtime friend to Minnesota and champion of education, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) has graciously accepted the chairmanship, while Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark) will replace Sen. Harkin as Chair of the Agricultural Committee, which is responsible for child nutrition programs including the Child and Adult Care Food Program. Read his announcement here.

Innovation for Family, Friend and Neighbor Care continues

Today in Minnesota is the second of a two day national meeting on Family, Friend and Neighbor (FFN) care. The meeting is put on by the national Build and attendees from various Build states are attending. Ready 4 K is the home of Build in Minnesota. According to the National Build Initiative, the goals of the meeting include:

• Increase dialogue and build momentum among all stakeholders to advance support for Family, Friend and Neighbor (FFN) caregivers.
• Provide a forum for peer-to-peer and expert information and strategy sharing to examine emerging models and the lessons that can be taken from them.
  
• Foster an understanding of how to integrate FFN care into early childhood systems and how to create and advance a policy agenda for FFN care.
• Foster an understanding of how the strengths of FFN care relate to our long-standing conceptions about quality and quality improvement, particularly related to cultural compatibility between a child’s family life and his/her child care life.
• Stimulate thought about next steps to forward our shared agendas in the field.

Minnesota was chosen to host this meeting partly because of the groundbreaking legislation passed in 2007 that made Minnesota the first state to dedicate money to supporting Family, Friend and Neighbor caregivers. Richard Chase from Wilder Research published a case study of Minnesota's success, State Policies for Supporting Family Friend and Neighbor Care.

There's also exciting things happening around the country. Representatives from Washington state and Illinois also share what is happening in their states. In Illinois, great innovation is happening by using dollars from their Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) to reimburse FFN providers when the children they care for participate in the state's Pre-K program four days a week and have a weekly home visit.

The next steps in Minnesota are:

• to continue DHS FFN pilots with CCDF quality set-aside/ARRA stimulus funding (see Ready 4 K's Milestones article, "Family Friend and Neighbor Grants Renewed")
  
• create a webpage on the Child Care Resource & Referral network website devoted to FFNs
• further work from systems building efforts such as Build and MECCS and state departments to improve quality of FFNs
  

Take Action! US House to Vote on Early Learning this Week!

What’s Happening

This week, Congress is going to vote on the most major piece of federal early care and education legislation in almost a decade. The Early Learning Challenge Fund, included in H.R. 3221, the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009, would support critical quality improvements for young children.

The legislation would provide $1 billion a year for eight years to states to develop and enhance high-quality early learning opportunities for all young children, especially those at-risk of not coming to school ready to learn.

This bill, paired with existing supports for current providers, sends a strong signal about the need to invest in comprehensive initiatives at the state level to increase the quality of early learning programs to ensure that children succeed. The bill will also create federal partnerships to help improve the quality of early care and education programs for children from birth to five in all educational settings.

What you can do

Please e-mail and call your US Representative today and urge them to:

Support the Early Learning Challenge Fund included in H.R. 3221, the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009. This bill supports critical quality improvements so that young children are prepared for school. It will give states like Minnesota the support we need to deliver high quality early learning programming for young children. Please support the Early Learning Challenge fund in H.R. 3221.

See Ready 4 K's Action Page for more information.

Deadline: End of the day, Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Find your US Representative here (enter zip in upper left corner). If you know your US Representative, you can reach the main Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to them.

photo by kimberyfaye

Momentum for Early Care and Education at the Federal Level

More resources to states in support of early care and education are one step further in the political process. Demonstrating a strong commitment to early childhood, Congress is proposing $8 billion over eight years to states in the form of Early Learning Challenge Grants. The Early Learning Challenge Grants are part of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009 (also known as SAFRA or HR 3221). SAFRA passed the House Education and Labor Committee today with a 30-17 vote. The Early Learning Challenge Grants are under Title IV of SAFRA.

What does this bill do?

The focus of this legislation is to encourage states to develop a comprehensive quality early learning system for children birth to five, particularly for children who are at risk of starting school not fully prepared. The system needs to include:

• Early Learning Standards Reform
• Evidence-based program quality standards.
• Enhanced program review and monitoring of program quality.
• Comprehensive professional development.
• Coordinated system for facilitating screenings for disability, health, and mental health needs.
• Improved support to parents.
• Process for assessing children’s school readiness.
• Use data to improve child outcomes.

There will be two types of challenge grants, Quality Pathways grants for states that already have many of the system components in place and Development grants for states that have pieces of a system but need resources to move to a comprehensive system. States can use the grants to further several aspects of a quality early learning system such as professional development of the early learning workforce, a quality rating system, improving the quality of programs, parent outreach and coordination with other programs that serve children and families. Because of the comprehensive nature of the system, all types of early learning settings would be eligible to receive resources including child care, Head Start and school based programs.

What does this mean for Minnesota?

This will mean more resources for our state to help more kids start kindergarten fully prepared. Minnesota has pieces of a quality early learning system and federal resources will help families and children be able to access higher quality early childhood opportunities.

What’s next?

The bill will need to be heard by the full House and take a floor vote. The Education and Labor Committee is hoping to take the bill to a floor vote before Congress takes their August Recess. A companion bill has not yet been introduced in the Senate. The earliest this will happen is this fall. A Senate version will need to be heard in committees and voted on by the full Senate before going to a Conference committee and eventually being signed by President Obama.

What can you do?

Call your Congressperson and urge them to support the Early Learning Challenge Fund in H.R. 3221.

You can contact your Congressperson by calling the U.S. House at (202) 224-3121.

The Message: Please support the Early Learning Challenge Fund as part of the higher education student loan program changes in H.R 3221. It will provide a significant increase in resources for improving the quality of early childhood education in Minnesota. Raising the quality of early learning and development wherever children spend their time is important to their school and lifelong success.

See our Action Alert page for more information.

Links and resources

On Monday July 20, several national groups held a conference call with Dr. Ruth Friedman, Senior Education Policy Advisory to the House Committee on Education and Labor. You can find an audio recording and transcript of the call here.

There is also a summary of the Early Learning Challenge Grants put out by the House Education and Labor Committee and the full text of the legislation.

Only in Minnesota! National Civic Summit

Today and tomorrow I'm participating in the National Civic Summit, put on by Secretary of State Mark Richie, the Citizen's League and the Minnesota League of Women Voters and sponsored by Target, Best Buy, Blue Earth Interactive, the Midwest Democracy Network, and Genral Mills.

As the Civic Engagement Specialist at Ready 4 K, I get excited about how we can work together to strengthen our communities for young children through shared participation. I strongly believe that we all need to work together to create social change and we all have a roll to play in making it happen.

Presenters from around the country are gathering to discuss how we can create a civil civic society. The opening keynote was given by Nate Garvis (@nategarvis) as he discussed how we can create a civic society were process is more important than issues. We as citizens can’t just be customers of government, we have to be the co-producers. We get the government that we create and it’s time for all sectors of society - nonprofits, business, education, faith - come together to create a process that benefits as many people as possible.

Themes throughout this summit include:

• Voter engagement and participation

• The role of social media in democracy

• Working toward a common good and building strong connections

The National Civic Summit is free and open to the public. If you are in the Twin Cities, stop by the Minneapolis Hilton and join us. If you are not able to be here in person, join the discussion online at http://www.nationalcivicsummit.com/ or by following @civicsummit09 on twitter.

-kat

ps- don't forget to also check out Ready 4 K on twitter @ready4k and Facebook facebook.com/ready4k

Star Tribune Echoes Concerns about Kindergarten Readiness

Today's editorial in the StarTribune once again highlights the need for greater investments in quality early learning experiences for our youngest citizens. Citing the Kindergarten Readiness Study released earlier this month, the editorial shows how a lack of investment has created a lack of progress in getting our children prepared for school. While legislative leaders have taken steps to recognize the importance of high quality early care and education, that support has yet to be translated into funding increases.

Editorial: Make preschool a funding priority

Scores show that talk alone isn't improving early learning

What may be Minnesota's most important educational report card was issued earlier this month, and the marks weren't good. The fall 2008 results of a yearly school readiness assessment of new kindergartners were down from 2007 on all five aspects of development measured.

Fewer than half of the 6,310 kindergartners surveyed -- 10 percent of the state total -- were deemed "proficient" and fully ready for school. About two out of five were rated "in process" toward readiness. On two key measures, language/literacy and mathematical thinking, one child in eight was judged "not yet" prepared.

Those are troubling findings -- particularly since they come in the sixth year of the assessment, five years after the formation of the Legislature's early childhood caucus, and almost a decade after research and grass-roots advocacy efforts coalesced to put early education on state policy agendas.

Despite those efforts, too many children are still arriving in kindergarten behind and, research says, prone to stay behind throughout their school years. "Why would there have been progress?" asked Todd Otis, executive director of the advocacy group Ready 4 K. Though policymakers are talking more about the value of early learning, "we haven't done anything different to change these numbers."

Read the full Star Tribune editorial here.

Lack of Investment = Lack of Progress

Results from the Minnesota Department of Education’s 2008 School Readiness Study, released this month, confirm what we already know: Minnesota’s lack of additional investment in early care and education has negative consequences. The study, which uses the Work Sampling System to gain a sense of how Minnesota kindergartners are doing in five domains of development, shows that the number of Minnesota children who are rated “proficient” in kindergarten readiness skills has decreased from past years’ studies.

All five domains—physical development, the arts, personal and social development, language and literacy, and mathematical thinking—saw decreases of 3 to 6 percentage points in the number of children rated proficient, with the only domain above 50% proficient being physical development. What does it mean to be proficient? Based on MDE’s definition, “proficient” means that the child can reliably and consistently demonstrate the skill, knowledge, behavior or accomplishment.

In addition, the percentage of children rated as “not yet” ready (indicating that the child cannot perform the indicator) has grown from last year, by as much as four percent.

Does this mean that early learning programs aren’t performing? NO. High quality early learning programs consistently demonstrate good outcomes in terms of school readiness. But the study results aren’t really a surprise. State funding for high quality early learning has been stagnant for years, and has failed to keep up not only with inflation but with the growing need. Early learning programs – like Head Start, School Readiness and child care – that are funded are showing good results, but far too many children lack access to these quality programs. For instance, Head Start funding in Minnesota is sufficient to serve just 1 out of every 3 children who are eligible for the program.

Does funding actually make a difference? Of course it does. For example, in Maryland, where they use a similar method for assessing school readiness, 68% of children are rated proficient (they call it “fully ready”) and the state has consistently shown improvements over the last six years. Since Maryland has increased its investment in early care and education, children’s performance has steadily improved in every domain, including for all racial groups.

Ready 4 K is concerned that even though we know that a majority of our children are coming to kindergarten unprepared, we continue to withhold the resources necessary to move the needle. While the Minnesota Legislature has proposed significant investments in early care and education, those proposals have not been approved. It’s time to reverse this trend, which will not only have the short term benefit of getting out children prepared for school, but better prepare our children for life.