Early-Childhood Issues Raised for NCLB Law

Some say federal statute does not adequately address those in pre-K.

With the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act scheduled to begin next year, the Bush administration has raised the idea of expanding the law’s requirements into high schools. But some educators think the attention should be directed downward—toward the preschool years.

As states continue to add public preschool programs—in the hope that greater access to early-childhood education will improve schools’ chances of meeting the NCLB law’s targets—it’s not surprising that some organizations are pushing to increase the federal government’s role in the years before kindergarten.

The federal law “does not adequately address the critical education of children under age 5. This must change,” Libby Doggett, the executive director of the Washington-based advocacy group Pre-K Now, said when she spoke this past summer to members of the Commission on No Child Left Behind. The bipartisan, 15-member panel, formed by the Aspen Institute, is formulating recommendations for reauthorizing...