Sara Mead's Policy Notebook
Sara Mead was a senior associate with Bellwether Education Partners who wrote about education policy, with particular attention to early childhood education, school reform, and improving educational outcomes for low-income students. This blog is no longer being updated.
Education
Opinion
Catharine Bellinger and Alexis Morin, Co-Founders and Co-Executive Directors, Students for Education Reform
For all the lip service paid to "putting students first," the actual voices of students themselves are largely absent from contemporary education policy debates. Catharine Bellinger and Alexis Morin are working to change that. As students at Princeton, they founded Students for Education Reform to engage and organize college students--most of whom were recently public school students themselves--around education reform. Today, SFER has over 3,000 members in more than 100 chapters in over 30 states and is working to increase awareness of education issues, build the pipeline of talented college students going into education, and influence state policy change in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota and New York. And its founders haven't even graduated yet!
Education
Opinion
Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj, Assistant Professor, Seton Hall University
How do various types of families engage with and make school choices? How do immigrant and English language learner students and their families engage with public schools, and what factors influence that engagement? As an assistant professor at Seton Hall University, where she also co-directs the Center for College Readiness, Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj uses both qualitative and quantitative methods to engage some of the most interesting and complicated questions in education today, and works to make those findings accessible to a policy and lay audience. A Connecticut native, Sattin-Bajaj graduated from Duke University and worked for the New York City Department of Education before earning her Ph.D. in International Education from New York University. She lives with her husband in Brooklyn, New York.
Education
Opinion
These People are Going to Shape Education for the Next Generation
Last year, I published a list of 16 young men and women who are going to lead the transformation of education in this country in the coming generation. But the challenges--and opportunities--facing public education in the next few decades are so big, they're going to require more talent and expertise than even those exceptional 16 folks can offer. So, this year I'm back with a list of 17 more leaders who are going to help define the shape of public education for the coming generation:
Early Childhood
Opinion
Building Systemic Capacity for High-Quality ECE
Guest post by Louise Stoney
Since my focus is finance, I always worry about sustainability. As states craft QRIS, they struggle with the inevitable financial trade-offs. Most states are challenged with budget deficits and hesitant to make long-term financial commitments. They frequently structure QRIS technical assistance as a short-term intervention from a contractor (such as a CCR&R or educational institution) and QRIS financial incentives as small grants, often one-time, focused largely on materials. This is understandable, given resource limitations. But unfortunately this approach doesn't address the very real institutional capacity challenges. To stay focused on continuous quality improvement, most ECE teachers need strong, consistent leadership and supervision on a daily basis - not just a coach who comes into the center for a short stint. And to recruit and retain skilled teaching staff, ECE programs need increased operating revenues for better wages and benefits, not just small, time-limited grants to buy more toys or manipulatives.
Since my focus is finance, I always worry about sustainability. As states craft QRIS, they struggle with the inevitable financial trade-offs. Most states are challenged with budget deficits and hesitant to make long-term financial commitments. They frequently structure QRIS technical assistance as a short-term intervention from a contractor (such as a CCR&R or educational institution) and QRIS financial incentives as small grants, often one-time, focused largely on materials. This is understandable, given resource limitations. But unfortunately this approach doesn't address the very real institutional capacity challenges. To stay focused on continuous quality improvement, most ECE teachers need strong, consistent leadership and supervision on a daily basis - not just a coach who comes into the center for a short stint. And to recruit and retain skilled teaching staff, ECE programs need increased operating revenues for better wages and benefits, not just small, time-limited grants to buy more toys or manipulatives.
Early Childhood
Opinion
Effective QRIS Technical Assistance and Coaching: Challenges and Opportunities
Guest post by Louise Stoney
Quality standards have meaning only when compliance with them results in improved practice among a significant percentage of programs and practitioners. Results come from a combination of factors -- standards that focus on what matters most, programs that have the desire and resources needed to improve, and access to the technical assistance, training and coaching needed to improve quality. State Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) include a technical assistance (TA) component aimed at strengthening ECE program capacity to meet standards. Today's blog will explore the challenges and opportunities of QRIS-related technical assistance.
Quality standards have meaning only when compliance with them results in improved practice among a significant percentage of programs and practitioners. Results come from a combination of factors -- standards that focus on what matters most, programs that have the desire and resources needed to improve, and access to the technical assistance, training and coaching needed to improve quality. State Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) include a technical assistance (TA) component aimed at strengthening ECE program capacity to meet standards. Today's blog will explore the challenges and opportunities of QRIS-related technical assistance.
Early Childhood
Opinion
Crafting QRIS Standards That Work Across Sectors
Guest post by Louise Stoney.
In my previous post I described QRIS as a powerful tool for early care and education (ECE) system reform if it is used as a framework for co-creating a new, cross-sector structure for quality, accountability and finance. Let's look more closely at what that statement means and how it might look in various states.
In my previous post I described QRIS as a powerful tool for early care and education (ECE) system reform if it is used as a framework for co-creating a new, cross-sector structure for quality, accountability and finance. Let's look more closely at what that statement means and how it might look in various states.
Early Childhood
Opinion
QRIS: A Powerful Tool for System Reform
Guest post by Louise Stoney
As someone who has worked on early care and education policy and finance in many states, I have come to believe that Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) are an incredibly powerful tool for system reform. Why? Because a QRIS is more than just a way to involve parents and funders who seek to differentiate early care and education (ECE) programs by quality, or a way to encourage programs to invest time and resources into improving quality; it can also be a way to structure and shape ECE markets. QRIS is a unique accountability and finance mechanism with the capacity to work in both market-based and government-funded ECE. And it is one of the few quality improvement mechanisms --perhaps the only one--that can not only survive, but actually garner support, in very conservative, cash-strapped, states. QRIS also offers a unique opportunity to begin linking finance to program costs and, in this way, to pave the way for a truly cross-sector structure that bridges funding streams focused on both education and care. I will briefly explore each of these ideas in this introductory blog, and then follow-up with more depth later in the week.
As someone who has worked on early care and education policy and finance in many states, I have come to believe that Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) are an incredibly powerful tool for system reform. Why? Because a QRIS is more than just a way to involve parents and funders who seek to differentiate early care and education (ECE) programs by quality, or a way to encourage programs to invest time and resources into improving quality; it can also be a way to structure and shape ECE markets. QRIS is a unique accountability and finance mechanism with the capacity to work in both market-based and government-funded ECE. And it is one of the few quality improvement mechanisms --perhaps the only one--that can not only survive, but actually garner support, in very conservative, cash-strapped, states. QRIS also offers a unique opportunity to begin linking finance to program costs and, in this way, to pave the way for a truly cross-sector structure that bridges funding streams focused on both education and care. I will briefly explore each of these ideas in this introductory blog, and then follow-up with more depth later in the week.
Early Childhood
Opinion
Head Start Designation Renewal Round-Up
*Office of Head Start Director Yvette Sanchez Fuentes makes the case for competition in Politico.
Education Funding
Opinion
HHS Releases Head Start Applications
So it begins: The Department of Health and Human Services today officially announced Head Start funding opportunities in 97 geographic areas across the country where current grantees have been identified for designation renewal. Applicants, including current grantees, will have 90 days to prepare their applications, longer than the 60 days many expected. A separate group of 100 funding opportunities will be announced in in May.
Early Childhood
Opinion
Comparing Pre-K and K-12 Spending Trends: It's Not Just the Economy, Stupid
Per yesterday's post on the new NIEER Pre-K Yearbook and declining state per-pupil spending on pre-k: I think it's useful to contrast these trends in state pre-k spending with the contemporaneous trends in per pupil spending for public elementary and secondary schools over the past decade.
Early Childhood
Opinion
New Pre-K Yearbook Documents State Pre-K Cuts
The National Institute for Early Education Research released its annual "State of Preschool Yearbook" today. The report, which my colleague Andrew Rotherham teased at TIME last week, is a comprehensive national look at spending, enrollment, and a host of other features in state-funded pre-k programs.
Early Childhood
Opinion
Evolving Field on Early Childhood Assessment
Useful new report from NAEYC outlines key considerations in implementing Kindergarten entry and other large scale assessments for young children. It's a very thorough and informative piece and is, given the subject matter, shockingly clearly written. I particularly liked this refreshingly truthful discussion of standardized assessment:
Education Funding
Opinion
Federal Early Childhood Policy Needs to Fix Existing Programs
My colleague Andy Rotherham has a new TIME column looking at early childhood education and the cuts that states have been making in pre-k in recent years. Andy doesn't mention it, but states have also made sharp cuts in childcare funding, which enables low-income parents to work and helps some of their children attend preschool.
Teaching Profession
Opinion
Teacher Prep Accountability Is Coming, and That's Important
If you haven't already, you should really, really read my fellow Ed Week blogger Stephen Sawchuck's exemplary coverage of what's happening with the negotiated rulemaking for HEA Title II, which addresses teacher preparation programs. Basically, the feds want to grade teacher prep programs on a mix of measures that include their graduates' impact on student learning, and they want to allow an institution's students to receive federal TEACH grants--additional student aid for students who plan to go into teaching--only if they receive higher grades.