Connecticut

The Day

Getting Early Childhood Education Right

Comment: It's like saying, "Every family needs to live in a three bedroom house, sit down at the table for such and such a meal at such and such a time, and everyone should take vitamins. " There are so many professionals who want to trump up education to preschools, and the only thing they can think to do is procure money. I've said it before: shouldn't the plan be in place first?

There is no plan because when you speak of really educating very young children, most people don't have a clue about what that means. Because very young children don't read, the idea is that they can't really learn. Yet at the same time, professionals concede that the human being learns more during the preschool years than he will ever learn.

If that was different; if the human being learned more in the college years, and we made him dig ditches during those years, it would be a good insight into what's wrong with today's early childhood plan.

Article:

She offered a five-year plan for greater investment in PreK-16 education, a new kind of family-school-government partnership, and a clearly articulated statement of accountability for child outcomes and educational program performance.

This is not about tinkering around the edges. Funding for the preschool years and for the critical K-12 and higher education years that follow would be dramatically increased.

On March 2, the co-chairmmen of the General Assembly's Education Committee pressed representatives of the administration on questions of timing and pacing, management and accountability.

Although everyone is using different words, the governor's message and the message of legislative leadership has been virtually the same: Let's get it done, but let's get it right.

Last summer, the state's Early Childhood Education Cabinet published a set of goals and proposed action steps to “get it right” for our youngest children. The report is short. Its title is catchy. And nearly 1,000 citizens have talked about it over the fall. In their view, the direction is right and we should get on with it.

In just six short words, the cabinet conveyed its goals for young children: Ready by 5, Fine by 9.

All children should be ready for the grand adventure of schooling as they enter kindergarten. All children should be achieving school success by the end of third grade, as measured by their reading scores.

The early childhood focus and the kindergarten-through-college focus are both built on a set of clear values and principles.

To have ready children, the cabinet reasoned, we need “ready families” because families are children's protectors, caregivers, and first teachers. To have ready families, we need “ready communities” because children and families live, work and thrive (or not) in 169 Connecticut communities and thousands of neighborhoods.

To have children who achieve as students, we need “ready schools” that welcome, challenge and support both children and their families.

But families, schools, communities and local providers cannot do this alone, either. To achieve Connecticut's two goals for early childhood — ready by five and fine by nine — we also need a “ready state.”

Connecticut already invests more than a half-billion dollars in programs for children to age five. Some argue that this is not enough. Indeed, the Governor's budget proposes that we spend an additional $83 million over the next two years to help achieve our early childhood goals, and more after that. Beyond that, education aid to cities and towns would increase, over five years, by 59 percent.

How can we know that we are getting our money's worth? How can we make these existing and new resources work better, smarter and harder for all of us? How can we make sure that our agencies and programs work together so every child, every family, and every dollar gets our personal attention? This the proper work of a “ready state.”

Last December, the Early Childhood Research and Policy Council — established by executive order and led by the business, philanthropic and education sectors — proposed up an Early Childhood Investment Plan. It makes a strong case for matching program expansion with investments in quality, accountability, management and data.

In short, they said, “Let's get it done, but get it right.”

Last year about 41,500 babies were born in Connecticut. Unless things change dramatically, nearly half of them will come to the kindergarten door in 2011 without the full set of skills that they need for early schooling. If nothing changes, by 2015, one third of them will not have the academic skills to succeed in the 4th grade and beyond. And the pipeline to later school failure, teen pregnancy and crime will continue to be filled. Equally important, our employers — small and large — will not have access to the kind of smart, well-educated work force that they need to remain competitive in today's “flat” world.

Some argue that we can build preschools or prisons; it's our choice. While there are no silver bullets in this world or this work, the statement of making a “policy choice” is not far off the mark. Connecticut's pipeline to educational, personal, societal and economic challenge (and, for too many, failure) begins here.

However the details of these investment proposals are finally shaped, we must be guided by one simple principle.

Let's get it done, but get it right.

Janice M. Gruendel, Ph.D., is Gov. Rell's senior advisor on Early Childhood Education and co-chairperson of the Early Childhood Education Cabinet. She lives in Branford.