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ERIC Number: EJ1426062
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024-May
Pages: N/A
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1540-8000
EISSN: N/A
Opportunities and Challenges for Preschool Expansion
Allison Friedman-Krauss; Steven Barnett
State Education Standard, v24 n2 2024
For two decades, the state role in educating children before kindergarten has been growing, and it is accelerating. Enrollment in state-funded preschool today far exceeds that in federal Head Start, and states are the dominant provider at age 4, serving about half of all four-year-olds who attend any preschool program. New universal preschool initiatives in states around the country are poised to generate an unprecedented boom in state-funded preschool over the next decade. Children's "hard" and "soft" skills -- language, literacy, math, science, and social and emotional development -- improve in the short run. In the long term, they see increased achievement, better classroom behavior, less grade retention and special education, reduced delinquency and crime, and increased educational attainment. To ensure that programs deliver these outcomes, state policymakers must attend to access, quality, funding, and supports for continuous improvement. Preschool for all requires legislating preschool as an entitlement and ensuring that adequate funding follows enrollment. Great opportunities and challenges lie ahead for state boards that seek to improve children's early education and long-term educational success. While the opportunities and challenges vary by state, every state will need to address enrollment, quality standards, funding adequacy, evaluation and continuous improvement, state capacity, and alignment with K-12.
National Association of State Boards of Education. 2121 Crystal Drive Suite 350, Arlington, VA 22202. Tel: 800-368-5023; Tel: 703-684-4000; Fax: 703-836-2313; e-mail: boards@nasbe.org; Web site: https://www.nasbe.org/category/the-standard/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Early Childhood Education; Preschool Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A