To maximize the return on its funding of early-childhood education for disadvantaged youngsters, the federal government ought to encourage states to adopt a “common approach” to setting learning content and program standards in publicly financed programs that serve children up to age 5.
That is one of 10 policy recommendations in a report from the Washington-based Center for American Progress. It draws on ideas from an array of experts on the center’s advisory panel on early childhood.
Other key areas to focus on, the report says, include: developing better assessments of programs and how children are doing in them, making a federal push for a more professional workforce, and training workers with second-language skills.
