States Move Toward Closer Scrutiny of Preschools
While most policymakers still agree that preschoolers are too young to be graded for their academic work, some states are moving ahead with efforts to certify early-childhood programs according to how well children who go through those programs perform in kindergarten.
Among the latest is Texas, which last month released a Web-accessible list of 451 preschool classrooms that are the first group to be certified as “school ready” under a new system based in part on the reading and social-skills scores given by children’s kindergarten teachers. Work is also under way to include a math assessment.
Developed by the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, the certification program was created under a state law passed in 2005 as a way to build on work Texas was already doing to train preschool teachers, particularly in teaching early literacy skills. The state requires preschool teachers in programs receiving public funding to have at...
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