Opinion
Education Letter to the Editor

Essay on Early Learning ‘Danced Around’ Issues

October 04, 2010 2 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

To the Editor:

The Commentary by Paul Vallas and Nina Rees danced around the issues crucial to getting preschool education policy right (“From the Cradle to the Classroom,” Sept. 22, 2010). The problem is not the shortage of interdepartmental coordinating committees or meetings between principals and preschool operators. Putting more money into day-care centers will, likely, worsen the problem, as will relying on for-profit operators.

The authors simply ignore the quality problem in day-care centers and Head Start programs. Only high-quality preschool improves the odds of children from poor families having a fighting chance to be literate by 3rd grade. Funds should flow to improve quality and open new preschools of excellence, not to reinforce custodial day care.

Second, the authors assume that most K-12 educators embrace high-quality preschool as essential to closing the achievement gap. They don’t, at least not when budgets are struck and policies made.

Third, the authors offer New Orleans as a model. Other struggling districts do not get to start over with emergency powers and only half their students. When baseline results are shockingly low, as they were in New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina, the rate of improvement is likely to be greater than in neighboring districts.

Fourth, Mr. Vallas and Ms. Rees urge the inclusion of for-profit operators. There is no strong evidence that for-profit preschools do well in poor neighborhoods. In fact, they avoid them. For-profits are driven by the funding, not the difficult work of connecting preschool practices with those of primary schools.

New Jersey’s extensive experience in implementing preschool in poor cities—that was closely connected to intensive early literacy—is instructive. First, it is possible, but not inexpensive or simple, to convert day-care programs to high-quality preschools. It requires a combination of early-childhood expertise, clear and concrete standards, and relentless focus by both district and state educators.

Second, many urban superintendents in the state saw preschool as just another mandate. They were unwilling to oversee the expansion of preschool and its integration with primary-grade literacy instruction. Superintendents who undertook the difficult effort to intensify instruction in the primary grades realized dramatic improvements in literacy.

Improving early education so that poor children are strong readers by 3rd grade takes a lot more than policy boards, more meetings, and more dollars.

Gordon MacInnes

Fellow

The Century Foundation

New York, N.Y.

The writer served from 2002 to 2007 as the New Jersey Department of Education’s assistant commissioner for implementation of the Abbott v. Burke school finance decision.

A version of this article appeared in the October 06, 2010 edition of Education Week as Essay on Early Learning ‘Danced Around’ Issues

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Education Briefly Stated: January 17, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
9 min read
Education In Their Own Words The Stories That Stuck With Us, 2023 Edition
Our newsroom selected five stories as among the highlights of our work. Here's why.
4 min read
102523 IMSE Reading BS
Adria Malcolm for Education Week
Education Opinion The 10 Most-Read Opinions of 2023
Here are Education Week’s most-read Opinion blog posts and essays of 2023.
2 min read
Collage of lead images for various opinion stories.
F. Sheehan for Education Week / Getty
Education Letter to the Editor EdWeek's Most-Read Letters of 2023
Read the most-read Letters to the Editor of the past year.
1 min read
Illustration of a line of diverse hands holding up speech bubbles in front of a subtle textured newspaper background
iStock/Getty