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Early Education Is More Demanding Than Ever, and Experts Have Concerns

The approach, stress and rigidity that often accompanies modern lesson plans may cause young children to feel frustrated or disengaged.

By Melinda Wenner Moyer

This story was originally published on Aug. 12, 2019 in NYT Parenting.

On a recent trip to the eye doctor, my 4-year-old stumbled over some letters on her vision test. She didn’t falter because she couldn’t see the letters; it was because she couldn’t name them. I didn’t think it was a big deal, but my optometrist was concerned. She really needed to know her letters by the time she entered kindergarten in the fall, he said. Otherwise she would inevitably struggle in school.

It didn’t used to be this way. In a 2016 study , researchers from the University of Virginia analyzed kindergarten classrooms and teacher expectations in public schools in the United States from 1998 and compared them to those in 2010. While only 29 percent of the 2,500 teachers surveyed in 1998 thought parents needed to ensure their kids knew the alphabet before kindergarten, 62 percent of the 2,700 surveyed in 2010 thought so.

The school routines of kindergarteners have changed too: Over the 12 years covered in the study, kindergarteners began spending less time on music, art, dance and theater, and more time doing worksheets. Time doing child-led activities — such as reading, playing with Legos, or doing arts and crafts — dropped, while teacher-directed instruction rose. The findings paint a clear picture: Kindergarten involves a lot more academic instruction than it used to, and teacher expectations have grown.

Older elementary grades seem to be following the same trend. In 2006, about 79 percent of elementary school districts in the United States provided regularly scheduled recess, whereas in 2016, about 65 percent did, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study . Also, surveys of more than 400 elementary school teachers compiled by the University of Phoenix showed that in 2013, only 2 percent of those teachers assigned more than 10 hours of homework per week to kindergarten through fifth graders, while 8 percent did in 2015.

Why are these changes happening, and are they ultimately good or bad? I reached out to a handful of early education and child development researchers to find out.

How we got here

To understand why early childhood education has changed so much, I had to go back to a 1983 report called “A Nation at Risk.” Written by President Ronald Reagan’s National Commission on Excellence in Education, the report argued that “the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a nation and a people.” It demanded that more resources be allocated to public education and that states adopt more rigorous educational standards.

Then, in 2002, President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act , which held public schools more accountable for their performance and began requiring more standardized testing for elementary school and middle school students as a way to measure their success. Schools that did not meet test targets could lose funding or even get shut down, so school administrators began to prioritize test scores over almost everything else. The best way to boost test scores, they thought, was to change the way students were taught — to have teachers use more direct, rote instruction to drill students on topics covered in tests. To make room for test prep, they reduced time spent on child-led, curiosity-driven lessons.

“It made the whole atmosphere of education become over-focused on learning certain facts and skills at certain ages,” said Nancy Carlsson-Paige, Ed. D., a professor emerita and teacher educator at Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass. Continuing this trend, in 2009, President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law, which allocated money to create the Race to the Top Fund , a competitive grant program for states that encouraged and rewarded them for, among other things, high student test scores.

Effects on learning

An increased focus on academics in and of itself isn’t a problem, according to Daphna Bassok, Ph.D., a University of Virginia psychologist and a co-author of the 2016 study analyzing how kindergarten has changed. Kids are often deeply interested in math, history, literacy and science “because those topics are about engaging with the world around them, figuring out new things, and making exciting discoveries,” Dr. Bassok explained. “When children learn academic content in a way that’s fun and playful and engaging, and meets them where they are, it can be very empowering.”

The problem, she said, arises when these lessons are given in a way that is not developmentally appropriate — when young kids are required to sit still for long periods of time, for instance, or do piles of worksheets. “It’s not so much about the academic content itself but about the approach, and stress, and rigidity that sometimes comes with it,” she said, which can lead young kids to feel frustrated or disengaged.

Making matters worse, direct, teacher-led instruction may ultimately teach kids less. “If you say what you want is for kids to do better on tests, then you have to ask: What gets you better scores on the tests?” said Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Ph.D., a psychologist at Temple University who studies how children learn. “It turns out the answer is not just teaching to the test,” she said, because when teachers rely on rote instruction, kids are less likely to retain the information.

In a study of 70 4- and 5-year-olds that Dr. Hirsh-Pasek co-published in 2013, she and her colleagues found that kids learned more about the features of geometric shapes when they played with the shapes compared with when teachers lectured to them. The kids who played with the shapes were also more likely to remember the details a week later. And research suggests that preschool-age kids also learn more new words when their learning is play-based and self-directed rather than teacher-taught.

When it comes to the benefits of elementary school homework, findings aren’t promising either. In the most thorough review of the research on the issue to date, published in 2006, researchers at Duke University concluded that the amount of homework done by kindergarten through sixth-grade students had no bearing on their grades or their standardized test scores.

The increased focus on academic instruction also doesn’t seem to be boosting overall educational performance in the United States. Although No Child Left Behind led to some educational gains, particularly in math among disadvantaged students, an August 2016 bipartisan report by the National Conference of State Legislatures concluded that during the decade after the act went into effect, “the United States was outperformed not only by a majority of the advanced industrial nations, but by a growing number of less-developed nations as well.”

Effects on mental health

One important question is whether growing school pressures are worsening anxiety and depression among American children. According to a 2019 study published in the Journal of Pediatrics, about 7 percent of kids between ages 3 and 17 suffer from anxiety, while about 3 percent are depressed. This prevalence is twice as high as those found in earlier studies, which suggests that anxiety and depression are increasing among kids. Other factors, such as increasing use of technology, social media and cyberbullying, undoubtedly contribute, but school pressures may be playing a role as well. Homework can also be a source of stress for kids from low-income families, who may not have computers at home, parents who can help or quiet places to work, Carlsson-Paige said.

This shift in school expectations may also be pathologizing normal child behavior. Preschool and elementary school kids who are naturally wiggly and not quite ready to sit still at school may be chastised and labeled as having behavioral problems, even if they’re actually acting appropriately for their age, Dr. Bassok said. In a 2011 study, researchers reported that children up to age 17 in states with higher school accountability pressures were more likely to be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and prescribed stimulants than were students in states with less school accountability pressures.

But the push for more academic instruction may be easing in some districts. In recent years, some schools have decided to ban homework in early elementary grades, for instance, and recess time has increased in certain schools. “In some communities, the trend toward more structure and academic focus seems to be intensifying, but there are also schools and districts that appear to be moving in the other direction,” Dr. Bassok said.

Dr. Hirsh-Pasek also noted that early education researchers are now largely in agreement about the benefits of child-led learning over rote instruction. “You can have really good academic and social skill content, and build strong relationships, while at the same time doing it in a playful context,” she said. “And I think everybody’s come around to that.” It’s just a matter of waiting for the science to trickle down into the classrooms.

Melinda Wenner Moyer is a mom of two and a science journalist who writes for Slate, Mother Jones, Scientific American and O, The Oprah Magazine, among other publications.

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A top researcher says it's time to rethink our entire approach to preschool

Anya Kamenetz

Researchers are joining the play movement after decades of studying state-run pre-K.

Dale Farran has been studying early childhood education for half a century. Yet her most recent scientific publication has made her question everything she thought she knew.

"It really has required a lot of soul-searching, a lot of reading of the literature to try to think of what were plausible reasons that might account for this."

And by "this," she means the outcome of a study that lasted more than a decade. It included 2,990 low-income children in Tennessee who applied to free, public prekindergarten programs. Some were admitted by lottery, and the others were rejected, creating the closest thing you can get in the real world to a randomized, controlled trial — the gold standard in showing causality in science.

The Tennessee Pre-K Debate: Spinach Vs. Easter Grass

Farran and her co-authors at Vanderbilt University followed both groups of children all the way through sixth grade. At the end of their first year, the kids who went to pre-K scored higher on school readiness — as expected.

But after third grade, they were doing worse than the control group. And at the end of sixth grade, they were doing even worse. They had lower test scores, were more likely to be in special education, and were more likely to get into trouble in school, including serious trouble like suspensions.

"Whereas in third grade we saw negative effects on one of the three state achievement tests, in sixth grade we saw it on all three — math, science and reading," says Farran. "In third grade, where we had seen effects on one type of suspension, which is minor violations, by sixth grade we're seeing it on both types of suspensions, both major and minor."

That's right. A statewide public pre-K program, taught by licensed teachers, housed in public schools, had a measurable and statistically significant negative effect on the children in this study.

Farran hadn't expected it. She didn't like it. But her study design was unusually strong, so she couldn't easily explain it away.

"This is still the only randomized controlled trial of a statewide pre-K, and I know that people get upset about this and don't want it to be true."

Why it's a bad time for bad news

It's a bad time for early childhood advocates to get bad news about public pre-K. Federally funded universal prekindergarten for 3- and 4-year-olds has been a cornerstone of President Biden's social agenda, and there are talks about resurrecting it from the stalled-out "Build Back Better" plan. Preschool has been expanding in recent years and is currently publicly funded to some extent in 46 states. About 7 in 10 4-year-olds now attend some kind of academic program.

Preschoolers in state-run programs are falling behind.

This enthusiasm has rested in part on research going back to the 1970s. Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman, among others, showed substantial long-term returns on investment for specially designed and carefully implemented programs.

To put it crudely, policymakers and experts have touted for decades now that if you give a 4-year-old who is growing up in poverty a good dose of story time and block play, they'll be more likely to grow up to become a high-earning, productive citizen.

What went wrong in Tennessee

No study is the last word. The research on pre-K continues to be mixed. In May 2021, a working paper (not yet peer reviewed) came out that looked at Boston's pre-K program. The study was a similar size to Farran's, used a similar quasi-experimental design based on random assignment, and also followed up with students for years. This study found that the preschool kids had better disciplinary records and were much more likely to graduate from high school, take the SATs and go to college, though their test scores didn't show a difference.

Farran believes that, with a citywide program, there's more opportunity for quality control than in her statewide study. Boston's program spent more per student, and it also was mixed-income, whereas Tennessee's program is for low-income kids only.

So what went wrong in Tennessee? Farran has some ideas — and they challenge almost everything about how we do school. How teachers are prepared, how programs are funded and where they are located. Even something as simple as where the bathrooms are.

In short, Farran is rethinking her own preconceptions, which are an entire field's preconceptions, about what constitutes quality pre-K.

Do kids in poverty deserve the same teaching as rich kids?

"One of the biases that I hadn't examined in myself is the idea that poor children need a different sort of preparation from children of higher-income families."

Preschoolers learn through play and experimentation.

She's talking about drilling kids on basic skills. Worksheets for tracing letters and numbers. A teacher giving 10-minute lectures to a whole class of 25 kids who are expected to sit on their hands and listen, only five of whom may be paying any attention.

A Harsh Critique Of Federally Funded Pre-K

"Higher-income families are not choosing this kind of preparation," she explains. "And why would we assume that we need to train children of lower-income families earlier?"

Farran points out that families of means tend to choose play-based preschool programs with art, movement, music and nature. Children are asked open-ended questions, and they are listened to.

5 Proven Benefits Of Play

This is not what Farran is seeing in classrooms full of kids in poverty, where "teachers talk a lot, but they seldom listen to children." She thinks that part of the problem is that teachers in many states are certified for teaching students in prekindergarten through grade 5, or sometimes even pre-K-8. Very little of their training focuses on the youngest learners.

So another major bias that she's challenging is the idea that teacher certification equals quality. "There have been three very large studies, the latest one in 2018, which are not showing any relationship between quality and licensure."

Putting a bubble in your mouth

In 2016, Farran published a study based on her observations of publicly funded Tennessee pre-K classrooms similar to those included in this paper. She found then that the largest chunk of the day was spent in transition time. This means simply moving kids around the building.

Preschoolers should all be given the same chance at high-quality, play-based education.

Partly this is an architectural problem. Private preschools, even home-based day cares, tend to be laid out with little bodies in mind. There are bathrooms just off the classrooms. Children eat in, or very near, the classroom, too. And there is outdoor play space nearby with equipment suitable for short people.

Putting these same programs in public schools can make the whole day more inconvenient.

"So if you're in an older elementary school, the bathroom is going to be down the hall. You've got to take your children out, line them up and then they wait," Farran says. "And then, if you have to use the cafeteria, it's the same thing. You have to walk through the halls, you know: 'Don't touch your neighbor, don't touch the wall, put a bubble in your mouth because you have to be quiet.' "

One of Farran's most intriguing conjectures is that this need for control could explain the extra discipline problems seen later on in her most recent study.

"I think children are not learning internal control. And if anything, they're learning sort of an almost allergic reaction to the amount of external control that they're having, that they're having to experience in school."

In other words, regularly reprimanding kids for doing normal kid stuff at 4 years old, even suspending them, could backfire down the road as children experience school as a place of unreasonable expectations.

We know from other research that the control of children's bodies at school can have disparate racial impact. Other studies have suggested that Black children are disciplined more often in preschool, as they are in later grades. Farran's study, where 70% of the kids were white, found interactions between race, gender, and discipline problems, but no extra effect of attending preschool was detected.

Preschool Suspensions Really Happen And That's Not OK With Connecticut

Where to go from here.

The United States has a child care crisis that COVID-19 both intensified and highlighted. Progressive policymakers and advocates have tried for years to expand public support for child care by "pushing it down" from the existing public school system, using the teachers and the buildings.

Farran praises the direction that New York City, for one, has taken instead: a "mixed-delivery" program with slots for 3- and 4-year-olds. Some kids attend free public preschool in existing nonprofit day care centers, some in Head Start programs and some in traditional schools.

But the biggest lesson Farran has drawn from her research is that we've simply asked too much of pre-K, based on early results from what were essentially showcase pilot programs. "We tend to want a magic bullet," she says.

"Whoever thought that you could provide a 4-year-old from an impoverished family with 5 1/2 hours a day, nine months a year of preschool, and close the achievement gap, and send them to college at a higher rate?" she asks. "I mean, why? Why do we put so much pressure on our pre-K programs?"

We might actually get better results, she says, from simply letting little children play.

How the Pandemic Devastated State-Run Early Education

Enrollment in state-funded preschool dropped for the first time in 20 years with the pandemic, erasing a decade of growth and resulting in a nearly 20% decline in a single year.

Preschool and the Pandemic

Michael Loccisano | Getty Images

A Pre-K student sits with a teacher outside a classroom at Yung Wing School P.S. 124 on March 07, 2022 in New York City.

The coronavirus pandemic wiped out a decade of progress in increasing preschool enrollment – slashing care for more than a quarter-million children – even as it led to major decreases in state investment and made it nearly impossible for operators to meet best practices.

While child care and preschool operators, teachers and parents have long lamented the pandemic’s impact on the early education system in the U.S. – one already rife with long-standing challenges surrounding access, cost and quality – a new assessment of state-funded care for 3- and 4-year-olds shows just how precarious the system is.

“The pandemic highlighted and exacerbated long-standing problems of inadequate enrollment, quality and funding,” said Steven Barnett, senior co-director and founder of the National Institute for Early Education Research.

“For the first time in at least 20 years, enrollment in state-funded preschool declined and the pandemic erased an entire decade of progress in preschool enrollment,” he said. “Challenges such as health risks, closed classrooms and remote classrooms disrupted an already fragile system.”

The 2021 State of Preschool report, published Tuesday by the institute, documents the impact of the pandemic on early education programs provided during the 2020-2021 school year, the first school year to be fully impacted by the COVID-19 disruptions.

Among other things, the report shows that enrollment in state-funded preschool dropped for the first time in 20 years, erasing a decade of growth and resulting in a decline of nearly 20%, or 300,000 children, in a single year. The greatest negative impact was on children from low-income families and racial and ethnic minorities.

Prior to the pandemic, six states – Florida, Iowa, Oklahoma, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin – along with Washington, D.C., were serving at least 70% of 4-year-olds, and seven other states were in striking distance of hitting that same goal. Only Washington, which operates a universal prekindergarten program as part of its public school system, managed to maintain those high rates of enrollment, serving 84% of 4-year-olds and 64% of 3-year-olds.

In total, 26 states reduced spending on early education – a decrease of $254 million compared to the prior year. However, due to $440 million in federal COVID-19 aid, nine states were able to increase spending on preschool by more than $10 million, led by Maryland with an $84 million increase and New Jersey with a $78 million increase.

“States did a remarkable job to support their programs despite the pandemic, helped critically by the federal pandemic relief funds, which played a key role in preserving funding levels,” Barnett said. “Unfortunately, funding remains far short of what's needed for high-quality programs, full-day programs.”

Strained budgets, staffing shortages and general health risks involved with operating early education programs impeded best practices for children, the report found, and meant the vast majority of providers were operating with inadequate quality and not able to provide developmentally appropriate activities.

“Many of us know how the pandemic set us back,” Health and Human Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a call with reporters. “It is critical that we learn from what the pandemic has taught us to move forward.”

“We know that things aren’t where they should be,” he said. “This is a time when we need to move.”

Even before the pandemic, the sector was reeling from a multi-pronged problem: It’s unaffordable for most families. Average child care in Washington, D.C., for example, costs roughly $25,000 a year – and it pays workers far too little pay for the scope of work, degrees and certifications that are required for employment. The average hourly wage of a child care worker in the nation’s capital, by comparison, is $18, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics .

The Best Cartoons on Education

Nationally, the workforce is still 12% below pre-pandemic levels, with workers being wooed away by companies like Amazon that are offering hourly wages well above what the average child care worker currently makes, as well as other benefits like health care and tuition assistance. The problem was so acute in Washington, D.C., that local officials recently approved a plan to give child care workers one-time payments between $10,000 to $14,000 to boost their salaries.

Complicating the landscape further, with children under 5 not yet eligible for vaccinations, child care centers are still being forced to shut down for days at a time as staffers filter in and out of quarantines and isolations.

The last three years have taken a toll on the industry: According to a new report published this month by Child Care Aware of America, nearly 16,000 child care programs across 37 states have permanently closed since the pandemic began – a 9% decline in the number of licensed child care providers.

The volatility of the sector has even contributed to women’s ability to maintain employment during the pandemic. In the first few months of the pandemic, roughly 3.5 million mothers with school-age children either lost their job, took a leave of absence or left the labor market altogether, according to an analysis by the Census Bureau. A year later, 1.3 million were still locked out of the labor force.

While women have clawed back lost work, a concerning gender gap remains.

The most recent analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey performed by Gusto in February, which has been analyzing quit rates by gender since January 2020, shows that the gender gap in quit rates rose in January 2022, with 4.1% of women quitting their job compared to 3.4% of men. The increase was the first documented since August 2021.

With Congress back from recess this week, early education advocates plan to lobby members to revive the $400 billion child care and pre-kindergarten proposal included in the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better package.

But the ability of Congress to deliver is not in their favor.

While Democrats are intent on peeling off one or two major policy proposals housed within the Build Back Better proposal to try to pass as standalone measures, they’re still negotiating within their own caucus to identify which policies to push forward. And even though boosting funding for child care has long been a bipartisan issue, especially at the state and local level, it’s virtually a nonstarter for Republicans in Congress who are loath to support a major new national initiative.

Republicans would prefer to increase funding for the long-standing Child Care Development Block Grant, a federal program that provinces aid to states for child care subsidies for low-income families with children under age 13. It’s currently funded at $5.8 billion per year.

Any significant federal investment would be noteworthy for a service long considered a blight on the country’s education system. When it comes to early education – both child care and pre-kindergarten – the U.S. is dwarfed by the types of services and access other industrialized countries provide for families.

In fact, out of 41 industrialized nations, the U.S. ranked fourth to last in the percentage of children 3-5 years old enrolled in early childhood education, according to a report released last year by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Only Costa Rica, Switzerland, Turkey and Saudi Arabia trail the U.S., which has an enrollment rate of 65%. More than half of the countries in the analysis enroll upward of 90% of their children 3-5 years old.

If Congress isn’t able to approve a broad package, as was originally envisioned in the Build Back Better proposal, a small matching grants program could greatly accelerate progress, the report shows. For example, a five-year commitment of just $1 billion in the first year, with another $1 billion added each year up to $5 billion in the fifth year, could increase enrollment in high-quality programs by 1 million children over those five years.

Underscoring the negative impact the pandemic had on early education programs in the U.S., the report shows that even if states recuperate from losses due to the pandemic and return to prior enrollment growth rates, states are likely to enroll just 40% of 4-year-olds and 8% of 3-year-olds 10 years from now.

“Preschool should be available for everyone,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said on a call with reporters. “But right now it’s not.”

“Even if we fully rebounded we’re not where we need to be,” Cardona said. “It’s unacceptable to just go back to where we were.”

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Tags: public schools , education , Coronavirus , early childhood education

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Articles on Early childhood

Displaying 1 - 20 of 87 articles.

3 years after Canada’s landmark investment in child care, 3 priorities all levels of government should heed

Elizabeth Dhuey , University of Toronto

How effective is fear as a teaching tool? How and what do we learn when we are scared?

Deborah Pino Pasternak , University of Canberra

How counting by 10 helps children learn about the meaning of numbers

Helena Osana , Concordia University ; Jairo A. Navarrete-Ulloa , Universidad de O’Higgins (Chile) , and Vera Wagner , Concordia University

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Sarah Blunden , CQUniversity Australia

How children’s secure attachment sets the stage for positive well-being

Marissa Nivison , University of Calgary ; Audrey-Ann Deneault , University of Calgary , and Sheri Madigan , University of Calgary

‘Child care’ or education? Words matter in how we envision living well with children

Nicole Land , Toronto Metropolitan University and Kathleen Kummen , Capilano University

How a Canadian program that helps educators ‘thrive’ not just ‘survive’ could help address Australia’s childcare staff shortage

Marg Rogers , University of New England ; Laura K. Doan , Thompson Rivers University , and Navjot Bhullar , Edith Cowan University

Misleading food labels contribute to babies and toddlers eating too much sugar. 3 things parents can do

Jennifer McCann , Deakin University and Miaobing (Jazzmin) Zheng , Deakin University

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Clara G. Zundel , Wayne State University

Development of vision in early childhood: No screens before age two

Langis Michaud , Université de Montréal

Business mentoring and support in South Africa: how principals can improve early childhood development centres

Jessica Ronaasen , Stellenbosch University

How caregivers can help build children’s emerging language skills

Audrey-Ann Deneault , University of Calgary ; Lorraine Reggin , University of Calgary ; Penny Pexman , University of Calgary ; Sheri Madigan , University of Calgary , and Susan Graham , University of Calgary

There is an urgent need to prevent the lifelong damage caused by adverse childhood experiences

Wolfgang Linden , University of British Columbia and Joelle LeMoult , University of British Columbia

Book Week: it’s not the costume that matters, but falling in love with reading

Joanne O'Mara , Deakin University

COVID changed drop-off and pick ups – but parents can still have a strong relationship with their child’s educators

Katherine Bussey , Deakin University ; Deborah Moore , Monash University ; Natalie Robertson , Deakin University , and Shelli Giosis , Deakin University

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Sarah Hellewell , Curtin University

Pandemic babies with developmental delays can be helped to make up for lost social interaction – 5 tips for parents

Abigail A. Allen , Clemson University

Denying abortion access has a negative impact on children and families

Charlie Rioux , University of Manitoba ; Leslie E. Roos , University of Manitoba , and Lianne Tomfohr-Madsen , University of Calgary

Why children learn how to say ‘spoon’ before ‘sky’

Emiko Muraki , University of Calgary and Penny Pexman , University of Calgary

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Anne Douglass , UMass Boston

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Professor, Canada Research Chair in Determinants of Child Development, Owerko Centre at the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary

Program Head of Early Childhood Studies, University of Guelph-Humber

Adjunct Professor, Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development at Ontario Institute for the Study of Education (OISE) and Senior Policy Fellow at the Atkinson Centre, University of Toronto

Atkinson Chair of Early Child Development and Education and Director of the Atkinson Centre, University of Toronto

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Early Childhood Development: the Promise, the Problem, and the Path Forward

Subscribe to the center for universal education bulletin, tamar manuelyan atinc and tamar manuelyan atinc nonresident senior fellow - global economy and development , center for universal education @tamar_istanbul emily gustafsson-wright emily gustafsson-wright senior fellow - global economy and development , center for universal education @egwbrookings.

November 25, 2013

17 min read

Access more content from the Center for Universal Education here , including work on early childhood education .

Early Childhood: The Scale of the Problem

More than 200 million children under the age of five in the developing world are at risk of not reaching their full development potential because they suffer from the negative consequences of poverty, nutritional deficiencies and inadequate learning opportunities (Lancet 2007). In addition, 165 million children (one in four) are stunted, with 90 percent of those children living in Africa and Asia (UNICEF et al, 2012). And while some progress has been made globally, child malnutrition remains a serious public health problem with enormous human and economic costs. Child death is a tragedy. At 6 million deaths a year, far too many children perish before reaching the age of five, but the near certainty that 200 million children today will fall far below their development potential is no less a tragedy.

There is now an expanding body of literature on the determining influence of early development on the chances of success later in life. The first 1,000 days from conception to age two are increasingly being recognized as critical to the development of neural pathways that lead to linguistic, cognitive and socio-emotional capacities that are also predictors of labor market outcomes later in life. Poverty, malnutrition, and lack of proper interaction in early childhood can exact large costs on individuals, their communities and society more generally. The effects are cumulative and the absence of appropriate childcare and education in the three to five age range can exacerbate further the poor outcomes expected for children who suffer from inadequate nurturing during the critical first 1,000 days.

The Good News: ECD Interventions Are Effective

Research shows that there are large gains to be had from investing in early childhood development. For example, estimates place the gains from the elimination of malnutrition at 1 to 2 percentage points of gross domestic product (GDP) annually (World Bank, 2006). Analysis of results from OECD’s 2009 Program of International Student Assessment (PISA) reveals that school systems that have a 10 percentage-point advantage in the proportion of students who have attended preprimary school score an average of 12 points higher in the PISA reading assessment (OECD and Statistics Canada, 2011). Also, a simulation model of the potential long-term economic effects of increasing preschool enrollment to 25 percent or 50 percent in every low-income and middle-income country showed a benefit-to-cost ratio ranging from 6.4 to 17.6, depending on the preschool enrollment rate and the discount rate used (Lancet, 2011).

Indeed, poor and neglected children benefit disproportionately from early childhood development programs, making these interventions among the more compelling policy tools for fighting poverty and reducing inequality. ECD programs are comprised of a range of interventions that aim for: a healthy pregnancy; proper nutrition with exclusive breast feeding through six months of age and adequate micronutrient content in diet; regular growth monitoring and immunization; frequent and structured interactions with a caring adult; and improving the parenting skills of caregivers.

The Reality: ECD Has Not Been a Priority

Yet despite all the evidence on the benefits of ECD, no country in the developing world can boast of comprehensive programs that reach all children, and unfortunately many fall far short. Programs catering to the very young are typically operated at small scale and usually through external donors or NGOs, but these too remain limited. For example, a recent study found that the World Bank made only $2.1 billion of investments in ECD in the last 10 years, equivalent to just a little over 3 percent of the overall portfolio of the human development network, which totals some $60 billion (Sayre et al, 2013).

The following are important inputs into the development of healthy and productive children and adults, but unfortunately these issues are often not addressed effectively:

Maternal Health. Maternal undernutrition affects 10 to 19 percent of women in most developing countries (Lancet, 2011) and 16 percent of births are low birth weight (27 percent in South Asia). Malnutrition during pregnancy is linked to low birth weight and impaired physical development in children, with possible links also to the development of their social and cognitive skills. Pre-natal care is critical for a healthy pregnancy and birth. Yet data from 49 low-income countries show that only 40 percent of pregnant women have access to four or more antenatal care visits (Taskforce on Innovative International Financing for Health Systems, 2009). Maternal depression also affects the quality of caregiving and compromises early child development.

Child Care and Parenting Practices. The home environment, including parent-child interactions and exposure to stressful experiences, influences the cognitive and socio-emotional development of children. For instance, only 39 percent of infants aged zero to six months in low and middle-income countries are exclusively breast-fed, despite strong evidence on its benefits (Lancet, 2011). Also, in half of the 38 countries for which UNICEF collects data, mothers engage in activities that promote learning with less that 40 percent of children under the age of six. Societal violence and conflict are also detrimental to a child’s development, a fact well known to around 300 million children under the age of four that live in conflict-affected states.

Child Health and Nutrition. Healthy and well-nourished children are more likely to develop to their full physical, cognitive and socio-emotional potential than children who are frequently ill, suffer from vitamin or other deficiencies and are stunted or underweight. Yet, for instance, an estimated 30 percent of households in the developing world do not consume iodized salt, putting 41 million infants at risk for developing iodine deficiency which is the primary cause of preventable mental retardation and brain damage, and also increases the chance of infant mortality, miscarriage and stillbirth. An estimated 40 to 50 percent of young children in developing countries are also iron deficient with similarly negative consequences (UNICEF 2008). Diarrhea, malaria and HIV infection are other dangers with a deficit of treatment in early childhood that lead to various poor outcomes later in life.

Preprimary Schooling. Participation in good quality preprimary programs has been shown to have beneficial effects on the cognitive development of children and their longevity in the school system. Yet despite gains, enrollment remains woefully inadequate in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East and North Africa. Moreover, national averages usually hide significant inequalities across socio-economic groups in access and almost certainly in quality. In all regions, except South Asia, there is a strong income gradient for the proportion of 3 and 4 year olds attending preschool.

Impediments to Scaling Up

So what are the impediments to scaling up these known interventions and reaping the benefits of improved learning, higher productivity, lower poverty and lower inequality for societies as a whole? There are a range of impediments that include knowledge gaps (especially in designing cost-effective and scalable interventions of acceptable quality), fiscal constraints and coordination failures triggered by institutional organization and political economy.

Knowledge Gaps . Despite recent advances in the area, there is still insufficient awareness of the importance of brain development in the early years of life on future well-being and of the benefits of ECD interventions. Those who work in this area take the science and the evaluation evidence for granted. Yet awareness among crucial actors in developing countries—policymakers, parents and teachers—cannot be taken for granted.

At the same time much of the evaluation evidence from small programs attests to the efficacy of interventions, we do not yet know whether large scale programs are as effective. The early evidence came primarily from small pilots (involving about 10 to 120 children) from developed countries. [1] ;While there is now considerable evidence from developing countries as well, such programs still tend to be boutique operations and therefore questions regarding their scalability and cost-effectiveness.

There are also significant gaps in our knowledge as to what specific intervention design works in which context in terms of both the demand for and the provision of the services. These knowledge gaps include the need for more evidence on: i) the best delivery mode – center, family or community based, ii) the delivery agents – community health workers, mothers selected by the community, teachers, iii) whether or not the programs should be universal or targeted, national or local, iv) the frequency and duration of interventions, of training for the delivery agents and of supervision, v) the relative value of nutritional versus stimulative interventions and the benefits from the delivery of an integrated package of services versus sector specific services that are coordinated at the point of delivery, vi) the most effective curricula and material to be used, vii) the relative effectiveness of methods for stimulating demand – information via individual contact, group sessions, media, conditional cash transfers etc. In all these design questions, cost-effectiveness is a concern and leads to the need to explore the possibility of building on an existing infrastructure. There is also a need for more evidence on the kinds of standards, training and supervision that are conducive to Safeguarding the quality of the intervention at scale.

Fiscal Constraints . Fiscal concerns at the aggregate level are also an issue and force inter-sectoral trade-offs that are difficult to make. Is it reasonable to expect countries to put money into ECD when problems persist in terms of both access and poor learning outcomes in primary schools and beyond? Even though school readiness and teacher quality may be the most important determinants of learning outcomes in primary schools, resource allocation shifts are not easy to make for policymakers. In addition, as discussed above, we do not yet have good answers to the questions around the cost implications of high quality design at scale.

Institutional Coordination and Political Context. Successful interventions are multi-sectoral in nature (whether they are integrated from the outset or coordinated at the point of delivery) and neither governments nor donor institutions are structured to address well issues that require cross-sectoral cooperation. When programs are housed in the education ministry, they tend to focus on preprimary concerns. When housed in the health ministry, programs ignore early stimulation. We do not know well what institutional structure works best in different contexts, including how decentralization may affect choices about institutional set ups.

There are also deeper questions about the nature of the social contract in any country that shapes views about the role of government and the distribution of benefits across the different segments of the population. Some countries consider that the responsibilities of the public sector start when children reach school age and view the issues around the development of children at a younger age to be the purview of families. And in many countries, policies that benefit children get short shrift because children do not have political voice and their parents are imperfect agents for their children’s needs. Inadequate political support then means that the legislative framework for early year interventions is lacking and that there is limited public spending on programs that benefit the young. For example, public spending on social pensions in Brazil is about 1.2 percent of GDP whereas transfers for Bolsa Familia which targets poor children are only 0.4 percent of GDP (Levy and Schady 2013). In Turkey, only 6.5 percent of central government funds are directed to children ages zero to 6, while the population above 44 receives a per capita transfer of at least 2.5 times as large as children today (World Bank, 2010). Finally, the long gestation period needed to achieve tangible results compounds the limited appeal of ECD investments given the short planning horizon of many political actors.

The Future: An Agenda for Scaling Up ECD

Addressing the constraints to scaling up ECD requires action across a range of areas, including more research and access to know how, global and country level advocacy, leveraging the private sector, and regular monitoring of progress.

Operational Research and Learning Networks. Within the EDC research agenda, a priority should be the operational research that is needed to go to scale. This research includes questions around service delivery models, including in particular their cost effectiveness and sustainability. Beyond individual program design, there are broader institutional and policy questions that need systematic assessment. These questions center on issues including the inter-agency and intergovernmental coordination modalities which are best suited for an integrated delivery of the package of ECD services. They also cover the institutional set-ups for quality assurance, funding modalities, and the role of the private sector. Finally, research is also needed to examine the political economy of successful implementation of ECD programs at scale.

Also necessary are learning networks that can play a powerful role in disseminating research findings and in particular good practice across boundaries. Many of the issues regarding the impediments for scaling up are quite context specific and not amenable to generic or off-the-shelf solutions. A network of peer learning could be a powerful avenue for policymakers to have deeper and face-to-face interactions about successful approaches to scaling up. South-South exchanges were an enormously valuable tool in the propagation of conditional cash transfer schemes both within Latin America and globally. These types of exchanges could be equally powerful for ECD interventions

Advocacy. There is a need for a more visible global push for the agenda, complemented by advocacy at country or regional levels and a strong role for business leaders. It should be brought to the attention of policymakers that ECD is not a fringe issue and that it is a matter of economic stability to the entire world. It is also in the interest of business leaders to support the development of young children to ensure a productive work force in the future and a thriving economy. Currently, there is insufficient recognition of the scale of the issues and the effectiveness of known interventions. And while there are pockets of research excellence, there is a gap in the translation of this work into effective policies on the ground. The nutrition agenda has recently received a great deal of global attention through the 1000 days campaign and the Scaling up Nutrition Movement led by the United States and others. Other key ECD interventions and the integration and complementarities between the multi-sectoral interventions have received less attention however. The packaging of a minimum set of services that all countries should aspire to provide to its children aged zero to six would be an important step towards progress. The time is ripe as discussions around the post-2015 development framework are in full swing, to position ECD as a critical first step in the development of healthy children, capable of learning and becoming productive adults.

Leveraging the Private Sector. The non-state sector already plays a dominant role in providing early childhood care, education and healthcare services in many countries. This represents both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is that the public sector typically lacks the capacity to ensure quality in the provision of services and research evidence shows that poor quality child care and education services are not just ineffective; they can be detrimental (Lancet 2011). The challenge is all the greater given that going to scale will require large numbers of providers and we know that regulation works better and is less costly in markets with fewer actors. On the opportunity side of the ledger, there is scope for expanding the engagement of the organized private sector. The private sector can contribute by providing universal access for its own workforce, through for-profit investments, and in the context of corporate social responsibility activities. Public-private partnerships can span the range of activities, including providing educational material for home-based parenting programs; developing and delivering parent education content through media or through the distribution chains of some consumer goods or even financial products; training preprimary teachers; and providing microfinance for home or center-based childcare centers. Innovative financing mechanisms, such as those in the social impact investing arena, may provide necessary financing, important demonstration effects and quality assurance for struggling public systems. Such innovations are expanding in the United States, paving the way for middle and low-income countries to follow.

ECD Metrics. A key ingredient for scaling up is the ability to monitor progress. This is important both for galvanizing political support for the desired interventions and to provide a feedback loop for policymakers and practitioners. There are several metrics that are in use by researchers in specific projects but are not yet internationally accepted measures of early child development that can be used to report on outcomes globally. While we can report on the share of children that are under-weight or stunted, we cannot yet provide the fuller answer to this question which would require a gauge of their cognitive and socio-emotional development. There are some noteworthy recent initiatives which will help fill this gap. The UNICEF-administered Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 4 includes an ECD module and a similar initiative from the Inter-American Development Bank collects ECD outcome data in a handful of Latin American countries. The World Health Organization has launched work that will lead to a proposal on indicators of development for zero to 3 year old children while UNESCO is taking the lead on developing readiness to learn indicators (for children around age 6) as a follow up to the recommendations of the Learning Metrics Task Force (LMTF) which is co-convened by UNESCO and the Center for Universal Education at Brookings.

The LMTF aims to make recommendations for learning goals at the global level and has been a useful mechanism for coordination across agencies and other stakeholders. A related gap in measurement has to do with the quality of ECD services (e.g., quality of daycare). Overcoming this measurement gap is critical for establishing standards and for monitoring compliance and can be used to inform parental decisions about where to send their kids.

ECD programs have a powerful equalizing potential for societies and ensuring equitable investment in such programs is likely to be far more cost-effective than compensating for the difference in outcomes later in life. Expanding access to quality ECD services so that they include children from poor and disadvantaged families is an investment in the future of not only those children but also their communities and societies. Getting there will require concerted action to organize delivery systems that are financially sustainable, monitor the quality of programming and outcomes and reach the needy.

Lancet (2007). Child development in developing countries series. The Lancet, 369, 8-9, 60-70, 145, 57, 229-42. http://www.thelancet.com/series /child-development-in-developing-countries.

Lancet (2011). Child development in developing countries series 2. The Lancet, 378, 1325-28, 1339- 53. http://www.thelancet.com/series/child-development-in-developing-countries-2.

Levy, S. and Schady, N. (2013). Latin America’s Social Policy Challenge: Education, social Insurance, Redistribution. Journal of Economic Perspectives 27(2) , 193-218.

OECD and Statistics Canada (2011). Literacy for Life: Further Results from the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey. Paris/Ottawa: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development/Canada Minister of Industry.

Sayre, R.K., Devercelli, A.E., Neuman, M.J. (2013). World Bank Investments in Early Childhood: Findings from Portfolio Review of World Bank Early Childhood Development Projects from FY01-FY11. Draft, March 2013, Mimeo.

Taskforce on Innovative International Financing for Health Systems (2009). More money for health, and more health for the money: final report. Geneva: International Health Partnership. http://www.internationalhealthpartnership.net//CMS_files/documents/taskforce_report_EN.pdf

United Nations Children’s Fund (2005). Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 3. UNICEF. http://www.childinfo.org/mics3_surveys.html.

United Nations Children’s Fund (2008). Sustainable Elimination of Iodine Deficiency: Progress since the1990 World Summit on Children. New York: UNICEF.

United Nations Children’s Fund, World Health Organization and The World Bank (2012). UNICEF- WHO-World Bank Joint Child Malnutrition Estimates. New York: UNICEF; Geneva: WHO; Washington D.C.: The World Bank.

World Bank (2006). Repositioning Nutrition as Central to Development: A Strategy for Large-Scale Action. Directions in Development series. Washington D.C.: The World Bank.

World Bank (2010). Turkey: Expanding Opportunities for the Next Generation- A Report on Life Chances. Report No 48627-TR. Washington D.C.: The World Bank.

World Bank (2013). World Development Indicators 2013. Washington D.C.: The World Bank.

[1] The Perry preschool and Abecedarian programs in the United States have been rigorously studied and show tremendous benefits for children in terms of cognitive ability, academic performance and tenure within the school system and suggest benefits later on in life that include higher incomes, higher incidence of home ownership, lower propensity to be on welfare and lower rates of incarceration and arrest.

Early Childhood Education Global Education

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May 2, 2024

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Covering Innovation & Inequality in Education

OPINION: A hopeful note for early childhood education in 2024 — Some states are stepping up investment

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Indiana improved early childhood education. It's still not enough.

The clear support for early childhood education in Indiana’s 2024 legislative session is a victory for our state, and we at the United Way of Central Indiana and the Indiana Chamber of Commerce applaud the bipartisan momentum on this issue that is foundational to our collective future prosperity.

Indiana’s legislative and executive branches took important steps on multiple fronts: increasing workforce training and credentialing opportunities for early learning professionals, streamlining existing childcare regulations, expanding options in hard-to-serve areas with a microcenter pilot, creating easier pathways for schools to become pre-kindergarten providers and ensuring greater data transparency and reporting regarding the state’s investments in early learning.

And all of this was done with little to no fiscal impact on our current state budget.

However — and this is a big however — we are not done. Why? Because early childhood education is a statewide infrastructure issue, and we must treat it as such.

Thousands of Hoosiers cannot participate in Indiana’s workforce because they lack affordable childcare options. Indiana ranks 18th worst in the country for most expensive infant care, with the cost for just one child exceeding the average annual cost of in-state college tuition.

We also face a severe shortage of early care workers in Indiana, with a childcare workforce that decreased by nearly a quarter during the pandemic, and has yet to fully recover. This not only exacerbates our childcare access and affordability challenges, but also prevents parents and caregivers alike from attaining the in-demand skills and credentials needed to thrive in today’s labor market.

The linkages between education and workforce are the centerpiece of the Indiana Chamber’s economic vision plan for the state, Indiana Prosperity 2035 . And with employers across Indiana consistently citing inadequate childcare among their top workforce challenges, failure to address this issue puts our strong business climate and future economic growth at risk.

Similarly, the United Way of Central Indiana has identified early care and learning as a priority issue in its goal of eliminating poverty . Increasing literacy outcomes and learning success for young children is key to reducing the number of households facing financial instability.

In short: Indiana’s childcare crisis is inhibiting the ability of individuals, businesses and communities to prosper. We must continue to work collaboratively to strengthen our childcare workforce and build early learning capacity with common-sense reforms, strategic investments and intentional public-private partnerships that ensure Hoosiers in every community and every corner of Indiana have access to high-quality early childhood care and education options.

Sam Snideman is Vice President of Government Relations for the United Way of Central Indiana. Jason Bearce is Vice President, Education and Workforce for the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.

10 things to know about Virginia Tech child care resources in 2024

Elena Conway
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Four early educators smile around a table with flowers at the Inn at Virginia Tech.

It’s often said that “it takes a village to raise a child.” Since 2021, Virginia Tech’s Early Childhood Education Initiatives has been expanding child care resources in order to grow that village for faculty, staff, students, and community members.

Here are the 10 things to know about the Early Childhood Education Initiatives’ work:

1. Virginia Tech partners with five locally owned child care centers.

To meet the growing demand for high-quality, affordable child care services, Virginia Tech has developed partnerships with child care programs in the New River Valley and Roanoke, four of which are new for 2023-24.

Champion Early Learning Center in Roanoke
Children’s Nest in Blacksburg
Giles Health & Family Center in Pearisburg
Rainbow Riders in Blacksburg
Valley Interfaith Child Care Center in Blacksburg

These licensed programs go through a review process led by Early Childhood Education Initiatives to ensure high-quality education standards and receive yearly support to assist sustained education programming. Those interested can contact these partners to learn about their enrollment protocol.

2. Regional summer camps are posted yearly.

Summer camps are a fun way to give children the chance to develop lifelong skills and friendships. Early Childhood Education Initiatives has compiled lists of summer camps available for children and teenagers this year at Virginia Tech, in the New River Valley, and in Roanoke. Check the “summer camps” tab under General Campus Resources for updated lists.

3. Find lactation spaces and diaper changing tables using the interactive campus map.

You can locate lactation spaces and diaper changing tables using Virginia Tech’s interactive campus map . To see these locations highlighted, click the “Layer List” on the side panel and check the box beside “Lactation Spaces” and “Baby Changing Tables.” Information on requesting lactation room access can be found on the Hokie Wellness Lactation Support page .

4. Virginia Tech employee have exclusive discounts toward au pairs and back-up care.

If you are looking for child care and are interested in the cultural experience offered by hosting an au pair, then Cultural Care Au Pair may be for you. This service pairs host families with au pairs who have child care experience, CPR, and first aid certification. Employees receive a discount as new families to the service. Learn more about Cultural Care Au Pair at caregiving.vt.edu or watch the recorded information session .

Employees have unlimited, premium access to the Care.com network . You can book short- and long-term care with providers experienced in assisting children and adults.

5. Your college might reimburse you for child care when traveling for work.

The Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost is piloting the Dependent Care Travel Grant Program , which reimburses faculty as much as $1,000 per academic year toward additional dependent care-related expenses incurred while traveling for work. Contact the dean’s office of your college for more information about the availability of the program.

6. You can learn about caregiving topics through monthly webinars.

Early Childhood Education Initiatives collaborates with regional partners to offer monthly lunch-and-learns on topics ranging from finding the right child care program to child development and learning to raising a child with a disability. You can register for upcoming seminars and watch recordings from past programs .

7. There’s a community of caregivers at Virginia Tech.

Join the Working Parents at VT Facebook page to share resources with other Virginia Tech working parents and caregivers as well as stay up-to-date on resources available to faculty, staff, and students.

8. Your colleagues are available to answer your questions at office hours.

Employees can schedule confidential, no-cost appointments with Virginia Tech colleagues to ask about their experiences as parents while employed by the university. These virtual sessions are scheduled in 30-minute blocks and are open to anyone with children or expecting children. Topics can include caregiving benefits, leave, financial support, work-life policies, and exploring other resources that may be available to parents.

9. Early Childhood Education Initiatives is working with community partners to support, advocate for, and grow Virginia’s early childhood education workforce.

Access to affordable child care is an essential resource for communities — but child care programs need support to ensure they can deliver high-quality care now and in years to come. That’s why Early Childhood Education Initiatives works with local partners to create opportunities to develop the local early childhood workforce and advocate for its future:

The NRV Regional Childcare Summit Series connects local leaders in government, business, and child care to one another, and educates on issues affecting the child care industry.
At the Igniting Connections Early Childhood Symposium , early childhood educators from across the New River and Roanoke valleys receive a free day of professional, hands-on development.
Outreach events in local high schools allow students interested in early childhood education to learn more about the field.

10. Keep an eye out for more developments in the next fiscal year.

Based on the results of last fall’s Childcare Needs Survey , plans are underway to support caregivers through expanded access to quality early care and education programs, implement more outreach programs to support employees, and strengthen community partnerships.

Learn more about Early Childhood Education Initiatives and caregiving resources at caregiving.vt.edu .

Mark Owczarski

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Roanoke, Va.

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The US has a childcare crisis. Enter: Jeff Bezos? Amazon tycoon bets big on Bezos Academy

In 2018, Jeff Bezos, one of the richest people in the world, announced that he would create a network of free Montessori-inspired preschools . The move was met with surprise from some Montessori educators and a fair bit of skepticism from many in the early childhood education space. Bezos has said he was inspired by his experience as a child at a Montessori preschool in New Mexico to invest in high-quality early education.

Five years later, Bezos Academy is here. And it’s expanding.

The network now has 16 preschools across Washington, Texas and Florida, with the goal of getting to nearly 20 by the end of the year.

Of course, that’s not nearly enough to make up for the nationwide dearth of affordable programs offering high-quality care and education for young children. Half of Americans live in a “child care desert,” or a census tract with more than 50 children under the age of 5 that has either no or very limited licensed care providers, according to estimates by the Center for American Progress. Nearly 16,000 child care programs across dozens of U.S. states permanently closed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a 2022 report from Child Care Aware of America, a national membership association that works to improve child care and the early childhood profession.

A new venture: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announces $2 billion fund to build preschools, help homeless families

Programs that remain open often can’t serve all interested families, in part because of difficulties hiring and retaining enough workers. Additionally, many child care providers are struggling financially due to high inflation. These trends have led experts to say that the early education system is still in dire straits, and it will take more than one billionaire to fix it.

“We’re not going to solve our child care and early education shortage by depending on very wealthy people making schools,” said Aaron Loewenberg, a senior policy analyst for education at the left-leaning think tank New America. “Early signs are good at the Bezos Academy, but we need to have a better long-term strategy as a nation to provide access to high-quality child care and pre-K, and a huge part of that has to be more significant federal funding for those types of programs.”

Yet some observers also believe that Bezos Academy is a promising model in the few regions where it’s operating so far, and that early results have been encouraging there.

Child care crisis: What costly daycare and fewer workers mean for US economy and taxpayers

How do Bezos Academy Preschools work?

Bezos Academy preschools are free for children ages 3 through 5 and open to families who make less than 400 percent of the federal poverty line. That’s a bit more than $92,000 annually for a family of three, according to Bezos Academy eligibility guidelines for this school year. They are open year-round and typically from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. They provide children with three meals per day, plus snacks.

The preschools are situated within other institutions, like elementary schools and community colleges, which provide space to the academies for free. The partnership can benefit host organizations by creating affordable child care options for the people that they serve. Rob DeHaas, vice provost of the School of Education at Dallas College, said this is the case for the college, which is hosting a Bezos Academy site.

“A lack of access to child care is one of those barriers that our employees, our students, and specifically these communities in the southern sector of Dallas County have experienced,” he said. “We really feel like this is an opportunity.”

The preschools take inspiration from the Montessori education curriculum, which was founded in Italy in the early 20th century. The focus is typically on allowing students to learn through experience rather than direct instruction and letting students choose their activities. Montessori is often associated with wealthy families at private schools, but there are programs aimed at low-income children.

More: Why children of color aren't getting the physical, speech therapy some need

“It provides a good structure. It’s a program that encourages a child to use their language, to use their words, to look at processes,” said Chris Duggan, executive director of the Florida chapter of the National Association for the Education of Young Children. “It’s a very highly respected curriculum.”

The Bezos schools are distinctive when it comes to pay. The nationwide median for preschool teachers is just a little over $30,000 per year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Hourly, that works out to less than $15. And educators and caregivers who work with younger children earn even less, about $13 an hour.

Jeff Bezos’ main venture, Amazon, has drawn criticism from labor advocates for poor working conditions among delivery drivers and warehouse staff. Some have accused the company of union busting.

OPINION: Hoisting heavy bins, racing the rush of orders, Amazon doesn’t keep employees like me safe

But his chain of preschools offers compensation packages that surprised experts. For an assistant Bezos Academy teacher in Washington state, for example, the bottom of the salary range is about $50,000, with 10 days of paid time off and seven days paid sick time, as well as medical insurance.

First in line: Jeff Bezos to open a free preschool for children from low-income families in October

“Oftentimes early educators don’t have access to things like retirement or even health insurance,” said Loewenberg, at New America – which means the benefits for Bezos Academy educators are noteworthy.

It's not clear how much is money the preschools have access to. Bezos' 2018 pledge about the schools committed $2 billion to the effort, along with other work to help homeless families, but the nonprofit that supports the programs declined to say how much is allocated for the early childhood work.

‘We need to have a better long-term strategy’

Many families make too much money to qualify for federally subsidized child care programs but still struggle to find an affordable option for children. If the Bezos Academy preschools can effectively target those children, the model could have a positive effect on the system.

More: Pandemic babies are behind after years of stress, isolation affected brain development

There is evidence that that sort of targeting may not be happening to the best effect everywhere.

In Washington state, for example, home to eight Bezos Academy preschools, the model has real potential to bridge access to child care and early education for families who don’t qualify for state-funded programs and can’t afford other high-quality options, said Joel Ryan. Ryan is the executive director of the Washington State Association of Head Start and ECEAP, the state’s Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program. But most of the Head Start and ECEAP directors Ryan said he’s spoken to feel that the Bezos Academy preschools compete with them for low-income students instead of targeting those middle-income families.

Competition for low-income students who have other options could also leave more middle-income families unserved, and lead to a decrease in funding at some Head Start and ECEAP centers, which are underenrolled and have room for more students. In addition, while families participating at private Bezos Academy preschools will still be getting an education for their children, they won’t be part of the public systems that offer outreach and social services to parents and families. These can take the form of job, housing and education assistance.

“Bezos Academy is welcome, it's an important player. There’s plenty of need and I think that they can absolutely serve a critical gap,” Ryan said. “But the majority of people who responded to my queries on this have said Bezos operates on an island. They’re not particularly collaborative.”

Ryan said those who work for Head Start and ECEAP programs are interested in partnering with the Bezos Academy preschools to better serve families and target enrollment.

That’s already happening in some areas. Michelle Rahl-Lewis, director of early learning for Tacoma School District in Washington state, said the two private preschools embedded at elementary schools in the system, serving about 100 children, work closely with the district.

“It’s been going great,” she said. “We’ve had lots of great communication about the best way to serve the most families within our community and making sure we’re catching those families that are at that cliff where they don’t quite qualify for Head Start or ECEAP which we offer but don’t make enough money for private Montessori placement.”

Michael Abello, chief education officer at Bezos Academy, said that the network is very thoughtful about where to place new preschools, using data to identify areas where there are not enough seats to serve children in the community.

“If we are entering a community and have an adverse effect on another program, that’s counter to our mission,” he said. “We’ve actually had a really positive reception from families and communities and frankly other early learning providers that we’ve had a chance to collaborate with on that admissions model.”

One goal is to allow families to identify the right program for them and allow them to consider Montessori as an option, Abello said.

“In large part, our work is going to be dependent on partnership, learning from and learning with those leaders in the early learning space,” he said.

The Bezos Academy preschools aim to serve 1,000 children by the end of the year, a relatively small figure considering there are 4 million 4-year-olds in the country alone.

How affordable is child care near me? Search our database of day care prices by county

But Bezos Academy is growing far more modestly than Bezos’ main business: Amazon.

That means other entities have a huge role to fill when it comes to meeting the nation’s early childhood education needs – if policymakers can agree it’s a priority. President Joe Biden’s proposed Build Back Better plan included significant investments in early childhood education, but failed to pass. (The president did sign an executive order in April asking federal agencies to find ways to make child care more affordable and accessible.) That’s left it to states, including California, Colorado and New Mexico, to take on filling the void, Loewenberg said.

“The issue of solving the child care crisis is multifaceted,” said DeHaas, from Dallas College. “There needs to be a multifaceted approach.”

This article was co-published with EdSurge. EdSurge is a nonprofit newsroom that covers education through original journalism and research. Lilah Burke is a freelance reporter from New York

Young Children Were Massively Overlooked for Special Education. How Will Schools Respond?

As Connecticut public schools returned to in-person learning last year, early childhood education Commissioner Beth Bye was “blown away” by the gaps in the earliest grades. Of the 15,000 students who didn’t show up for class, 8,000 were preschoolers and kindergartners—and students who did show up showed significant delays in school readiness.

“But that was really the tip of the iceberg. Parents often don’t know what’s typical or atypical [child] development. So for those two years when parents were holding their young children out, they weren’t just missing out on peer experiences and preschool experiences, they were missing out on that early-childhood specialist who is just there to coach parents,” Bye said. “So we knew that because fewer children were in preschool, fewer children were with teachers who were trained to recognize issues and we were going to have a big problem in Connecticut.”

The Nutmeg State, which last year launched a statewide, app-based screening tool to help parents identify potential red flags in their children’s development and behavior, is far from alone. Schools are struggling to separate students with true learning disabilities from those with delays caused by pandemic-related stress, disruptions, and social isolation. Moreover, limited access to early special education services in recent years means students who do have disabilities are often coming in with higher needs.

The number of young children who received special education services dropped 40 percent nationwide during the pandemic, with 320,000 fewer children ages 3-5 served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 2021 than in 2018. As those toddlers come of age to enter elementary school, schools are playing catch-up to identify and serve students with disabilities while also coping with broad school-readiness delays that complicate identification.

While there are no national data so far this school year, Gracie Branch, the associate executive director of the National Association of Elementary School Principals, said principals report more students with delays in language and fine-motor skills entering preschool and kindergarten this fall.

“Most of the schools I know of have hired extra interventionists or social workers to work with families to accommodate the growth in students who seem to have been impacted by trauma,” Branch said. “They are seeing some fairly significant [numbers of] students with special needs coming from the lower grades.”

Technology support for special education screening

Connecticut’s Sparkler app connects parents to special education referrals as well as therapeutic activities they can begin with their children at home.

Moreover, the program sends data to local school districts and special education providers to help educators prepare for incoming students’ needs. As of this spring, Connecticut schools saw more than 1,200 students referred through the app, with nearly 700 deemed eligible for special education services—a 130 percent jump from before the pandemic, Bye said. More than half of students referred for special education services this year were identified as having school-readiness skills 2 standard deviations lower than typical for their age, with communications and gross-motor delays the most common problems.

Cheshire, one of the first districts in Connecticut to pilot the new screening tool, has been “bursting” with new special education referrals, said Jennifer Buffington, a special education teacher and the director of early intervention for Cheshire. Across three towns, “we really are working more hours in evaluations, ... but we are trying to be very creative, too.”

Young children may not understand what a pandemic is, but they know that they weren’t allowed to go outside and play with people, and it wasn’t safe to touch anyone because there was a superbug. The messages that they received are that the world is not a safe place and others aren’t safe to be with.

“We get a steady flow of communication delays, but what we’re seeing that’s changed is around the social-emotional piece and behaviors that parents struggle with,” Buffington said. “When [students] can’t communicate as well, you can become frustrated, and we definitely see the levels of frustration becoming more intense; we’ve had quite a few [students] coming through with head-banging and other self-soothing behaviors. So self-regulation is a big piece.”

Specialists see a direct connection to what children experienced during the pandemic.

“Young children may not understand what a pandemic is, but they know that they weren’t allowed to go outside and play with people, and it wasn’t safe to touch anyone because there was a superbug. The messages that they received are that the world is not a safe place and others aren’t safe to be with,” said Maggie Parker, an assistant professor of counseling and human development at George Washington University, who has studied the pandemic’s effects on young children. “And so then you throw them into a school setting where you’re sitting at a desk and expected to engage with others and sit in a circle and trust other people and work with other people, and it goes against everything that they’ve been taught or experienced in the world thus far.”

Donna Volpe, the director of special services for the Ramsey, N.J., school district, said she also has seen more special education referrals in kindergarten for self-regulation problems. “We’re seeing academic behaviors missing in a lot of our students, [such as] the ability to sit in a classroom, the ability to have impulse control, the ability to socialize and follow directions—not to mention skills like reading,” she said.

But because so many students may be delayed due to missed schooling rather than particular learning disabilities such as autism, “we’re trying to be more creative and give students the support they need without necessarily classifying them. If the students don’t make gains with those supports, then we have to take a minute ... and determine whether or not it’s a disability versus just because they weren’t exposed to things like those soft preschooling skills,” Volpe said.

The Ramsey district is training teachers to do more “soft starts” in kindergarten. “So, instead of starting the day with academics right away, the kids get like 15 minutes to just come to school and do what they prefer to do: maybe lay on a bean bag, maybe play with some toys just to decompress,” Volpe said. “It’s been built into our schedule for the students to be able to just take a minute, and we’ve seen an impact in students’ readiness to be educated.”

NAESP’s Branch cautioned that educators and administrators should take care not to overemphasize academic interventions for their youngest students with learning delays.

“The numbers of students that have been impacted by this traumatic situation with COVID just grew the numbers of students who need some special interventions. Not all of them need to go into special education classes, but we’re really looking deeply at interventions, whether that’s to help them with emotional outbursts or their academic skills that they might need extra supports with,” Branch said.

“With this higher sense of urgency that principals have—because students certainly have some deficits in their academic learning—we don’t want [educators] to overreact and forget how children in the early grades learn best,” Branch said. “We want them to let [students] play and to focus on content but do it through increasing more playful learning opportunities for pre-K through 3rd grade.”

Coverage of students with learning differences and issues of race, opportunity, and equity is supported in part by a grant from the Oak Foundation, at www.oakfnd.org . Education Week retains sole editorial control over the content of this coverage. A version of this article appeared in the October 26, 2022 edition of Education Week as Young Children Were Massively Overlooked for Special Education

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Recent grant will enhance CUC library’s early childhood education collection

CUC’s education students and faculty, along with students enrolled at the Early Childhood Education Center, will soon benefit from access to a significant number of new reading resources thanks to a grant from the Reaching Across Illinois Libraries System (RAILS).

By improving the library’s early childhood education collection, the library will be able to offer additional resources for College of Education faculty and students, ECEC teachers, additional story times hosted by the Klinck Memorial Library, and collaborating with student clubs on campus, making a positive and memorable impact for all involved.

Concordia-Chicago was one of 28 institutions selected by RAILS to receive the “My Library Is…” grants, which provide an opportunity for libraries to focus on projects that help tell the library story and increase visibility and support for libraries in general.

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