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ERIC Number: ED615906
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2021-Oct
Pages: 6
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Challenge and Opportunity: Equitable Pre-K Measures for Early Learning
Hsueh, JoAnn
MDRC
Research shows that high-quality pre-K can have lasting impacts on children's learning and development, with the largest effects clustered among children of color, multilin­gual learners, and children experiencing poverty. Yet policymakers, administrators, and teachers often wrestle with the complexities of providing these programs on a large scale and in rapidly evolving contexts. This can undermine opportunities to close income and racial inequities in early learning. A key challenge is the lack of reliable, unbiased data about children's skills, knowledge, behaviors, and classroom experiences--information that could guide teacher practice and inform investments in early learning systems. The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the pressing need to collect this type of data as part of the normal operation of pre-K sys­tems. As the nation emerges from the pandemic, in-person pre-K activities have resumed with scant information about how children fared over the past year and a half. This limits how instruction and support can be effectively aligned to meet the needs of teachers and the young children they serve. The routine collection of such information on a scale large enough to appropriately answer questions about what works and why, for whom, and under what conditions, is critical to the future of effective and equitable pre-K programming. MDRC, in collaboration with Substantial, a human-centered design firm, and with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is leading an initiative aimed at shifting the data landscape across the early learning and pre-K field. This brief presents some starting points the team will examine with states, districts, other pre-K providers, and researchers.
MDRC. 16 East 34th Street 19th Floor, New York, NY 10016-4326. Tel: 212-532-3200; Fax: 212-684-0832; e-mail: publications@mdrc.org; Web site: http://www.mdrc.org
Publication Type: Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Early Childhood Education; Preschool Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Authoring Institution: MDRC
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A