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research topic early childhood education

InBrief: The Science of Early Childhood Development

This brief is part of a series that summarizes essential scientific findings from Center publications.

Content in This Guide

Step 1: why is early childhood important.

: Brain Hero
: The Science of ECD (Video)
You Are Here: The Science of ECD (Text)

Step 2: How Does Early Child Development Happen?

: 3 Core Concepts in Early Development
: 8 Things to Remember about Child Development
: InBrief: The Science of Resilience

Step 3: What Can We Do to Support Child Development?

: From Best Practices to Breakthrough Impacts
: 3 Principles to Improve Outcomes

The science of early brain development can inform investments in early childhood. These basic concepts, established over decades of neuroscience and behavioral research, help illustrate why child development—particularly from birth to five years—is a foundation for a prosperous and sustainable society.

Brains are built over time, from the bottom up.

The basic architecture of the brain is constructed through an ongoing process that begins before birth and continues into adulthood. Early experiences affect the quality of that architecture by establishing either a sturdy or a fragile foundation for all of the learning, health and behavior that follow. In the first few years of life, more than 1 million new neural connections are formed every second . After this period of rapid proliferation, connections are reduced through a process called pruning, so that brain circuits become more efficient. Sensory pathways like those for basic vision and hearing are the first to develop, followed by early language skills and higher cognitive functions. Connections proliferate and prune in a prescribed order, with later, more complex brain circuits built upon earlier, simpler circuits.

In the proliferation and pruning process, simpler neural connections form first, followed by more complex circuits. The timing is genetic, but early experiences determine whether the circuits are strong or weak. Source: C.A. Nelson (2000). Credit: Center on the Developing Child

The interactive influences of genes and experience shape the developing brain.

Scientists now know a major ingredient in this developmental process is the “ serve and return ” relationship between children and their parents and other caregivers in the family or community. Young children naturally reach out for interaction through babbling, facial expressions, and gestures, and adults respond with the same kind of vocalizing and gesturing back at them. In the absence of such responses—or if the responses are unreliable or inappropriate—the brain’s architecture does not form as expected, which can lead to disparities in learning and behavior.

The brain’s capacity for change decreases with age.

The brain is most flexible, or “plastic,” early in life to accommodate a wide range of environments and interactions, but as the maturing brain becomes more specialized to assume more complex functions, it is less capable of reorganizing and adapting to new or unexpected challenges. For example, by the first year, the parts of the brain that differentiate sound are becoming specialized to the language the baby has been exposed to; at the same time, the brain is already starting to lose the ability to recognize different sounds found in other languages. Although the “windows” for language learning and other skills remain open, these brain circuits become increasingly difficult to alter over time. Early plasticity means it’s easier and more effective to influence a baby’s developing brain architecture than to rewire parts of its circuitry in the adult years.

Cognitive, emotional, and social capacities are inextricably intertwined throughout the life course.

The brain is a highly interrelated organ, and its multiple functions operate in a richly coordinated fashion. Emotional well-being and social competence provide a strong foundation for emerging cognitive abilities, and together they are the bricks and mortar that comprise the foundation of human development. The emotional and physical health, social skills, and cognitive-linguistic capacities that emerge in the early years are all important prerequisites for success in school and later in the workplace and community.

Toxic stress damages developing brain architecture, which can lead to lifelong problems in learning, behavior, and physical and mental health.

Scientists now know that chronic, unrelenting stress in early childhood, caused by extreme poverty, repeated abuse, or severe maternal depression, for example, can be toxic to the developing brain. While positive stress (moderate, short-lived physiological responses to uncomfortable experiences) is an important and necessary aspect of healthy development, toxic stress is the strong, unrelieved activation of the body’s stress management system. In the absence of the buffering protection of adult support, toxic stress becomes built into the body by processes that shape the architecture of the developing brain.

Brains subjected to toxic stress have underdeveloped neural connections in areas of the brain most important for successful learning and behavior in school and the workplace. Source: Radley et al (2004); Bock et al (2005). Credit: Center on the Developing Child.

Policy Implications

The basic principles of neuroscience indicate that early preventive intervention will be more efficient and produce more favorable outcomes than remediation later in life.
A balanced approach to emotional, social, cognitive, and language development will best prepare all children for success in school and later in the workplace and community.
Supportive relationships and positive learning experiences begin at home but can also be provided through a range of services with proven effectiveness factors. Babies’ brains require stable, caring, interactive relationships with adults — any way or any place they can be provided will benefit healthy brain development.
Science clearly demonstrates that, in situations where toxic stress is likely, intervening as early as possible is critical to achieving the best outcomes. For children experiencing toxic stress, specialized early interventions are needed to target the cause of the stress and protect the child from its consequences.

Suggested citation: Center on the Developing Child (2007). The Science of Early Childhood Development (InBrief). Retrieved from www.developingchild.harvard.edu .

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Published: 20 February 2015

Qualitative Research in Early Childhood Education and Care Implementation

Wendy K. Jarvie 1

International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy volume 6 , pages 35–43 ( 2012 ) Cite this article

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Governments around the world have boosted their early childhood education and care (ECEC) engagement and investment on the basis of evidence from neurological studies and quantitative social science research. The role of qualitative research is less understood and under-valued. At the same time the hard evidence is only of limited use in helping public servants and governments design policies that work on the ground. The paper argues that some of the key challenges in ECEC today require a focus on implementation. For this a range of qualitative research is required, including knowledge of organisational and parent behaviour, and strategies for generating support for change. This is particularly true of policies and programs aimed at ethnic minority children. It concludes that there is a need for a more systematic approach to analysing and reporting ECEC implementation, along the lines of “implementation science” developed in the health area.

Introduction

Research conducted over the last 15 years has been fundamental to generating support for ECEC policy reform and has led to increased government investments and intervention in ECEC around the world. While neurological evidence has been a powerful influence on ECEC policy practitioners, quantitative research has also been persuasive, particularly randomised trials and longitudinal studies providing evidence (1) on the impact of early childhood development experiences to school success, and to adult income and productivity, and (2) that properly constructed government intervention, particularly for the most disadvantaged children, can make a significant difference to those adult outcomes. At the same time the increased focus on evidence-informed policy has meant experimental/quantitative design studies have become the “gold standard” for producing knowledge (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005 ), and pressures for improved reporting and accountability have meant systematic research effort by government has tended to focus more on data collection and monitoring, than on qualitative research (Bink, 2007 ). In this environment the role of qualitative research has been less valued by senior government officials.

Qualitative Research-WhatIs It?

The term qualitative research means different things to different people (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005 ). For some researchers it is a way of addressing social justice issues and thus is part of radical politics to give power to the marginalised. Others see it simply as another research method that complements quantitative methodologies, without any overt political function. Whatever the definition of qualitative research, or its role, a qualitative study usually:

Features an in depth analysis of an issue, event, entity, or process. This includes literature reviews and meta studies that draw together findings from a number of studies.

Is an attempt to explain a highly complex and/or dynamic issue or process that is unsuited to experimental or quantitative analysis.

Includes a record of the views and behaviours of the players — it studies the world from the perspective of the participating individual.

Cuts across disciplines, fields and subject matter.

Uses a range of methods in one study, such as participant observation; in depth interviewing of participants, key stakeholders, and focus groups; literature review; and document analysis.

High quality qualitative research requires high levels of skill and judgement. Sometimes it requires pulling together information from a mosaic of data sources and can include quantitative data (the latter is sometimes called mixed mode studies). From a public official perspective, the weaknesses of qualitative research can include (a) the cost-it can be very expensive to undertake case studies if there are a large number of participants and issues, (b) the complexity — the reports can be highly detailed, contextually specific examples of implementation experience that while useful for service delivery and front line officials are of limited use for national policy development, (c) difficultyin generalising from poor quality and liable to researcher bias, and (d) focus, at times, more on political agendas of child rights than the most cost-effective policies to support the economic and social development of a nation. It has proved hard for qualitative research to deliver conclusions that are as powerful as those from quantitative research. Educational research too, has suffered from the view that education academics have over-used qualitative research and expert judgement, with little rigorous or quantitative verification (Cook & Gorard, 2007 ).

Qualitative Research and Early Childhood Education and Care

In fact, the strengths of qualitative ECEC research are many, and their importance for government, considerable. Qualitative research has been done in all aspects of ECEC operations and policies, from coordinating mechanisms at a national level (OECD, 2006 ), curriculum frameworks (Office for Children and Early Childhood Development, 2008 ), and determining the critical elements of preschool quality (Siraj-Blatchford et al., 2003 ), to developing services at a community level including effective outreach practices and governance arrangements. Qualitative research underpins best practice guides and regulations (Bink, 2007 ). Cross country comparative studies on policies and programs rely heavily on qualitative research methods.

For public officials qualitative components of program evaluations are essential to understanding how a program has worked, and to what extent variation in outcomes and impacts from those expected, or between communities, are the result of local or national implementation issues or policy flaws. In addition, the public/participant engagement in qualitative components of evaluations can reinforce public trust in public officials and in government more broadly.

In many ways the contrast between quantitative and qualitative research is a false dichotomy and an unproductive comparison. Qualitative research complements quantitative research, for example, through provision of background material and identification of research questions. Much quantitative research relies on qualitative research to define terms, and to identify what needs to be measured. For example, the Effective Provision of PreSchool Education (EPPE) studies, which have been very influential and is a mine of information for policy makers, rely on initial qualitative work on what is quality in a kindergarten, and how can it be assessed systematically (Siraj-Blatchford et al., 2003 ). Qualitative research too can elucidate the “how” of a quantitative result. For example, quantitative research indicates that staff qualifications are strongly associated with better child outcomes, but it is qualitative work that shows that it is not the qualification per se that has an impact on child outcomes-rather it is the ability of staff to create a high quality pedagogic environment (OECD, 2012 ).

Challenges of Early Childhood Education and Care

Systematic qualitative research focused on the design and implementation of government programs is essential for governments today.

Consider some of the big challenges facing governments in early childhood development (note this is not a complete list):

Creating coordinated national agendas for early childhood development that bring together education, health, family and community policies and programs, at national, provincial and local levels (The Lancet, 2011 ).

Building parent and community engagement in ECEC/Early Childhood Development (ECD), including increasing parental awareness of the importance of early childhood services. In highly disadvantaged or dysfunctional communities this also includes increasing their skills and abilities to provide a healthy, stimulating and supportive environment for young children, through for example parenting programs (Naudeau, Kataoka, Valerio, Neuman & Elder, 2011 ; The Lancet, 2011 ; OECD, 2012 ).

Strategies and action focused on ethnic minority children, such as outreach, ethnic minority teachers and teaching assistants and informal as well as formal programs.

Enhancing workforce quality, including reducing turnover, and improved practice (OECD, 2012 ).

Building momentum and advocacy to persuade governments to invest in the more “invisible” components of quality such as workforce professional development and community liaison infrastructure; and to maintain investment over significant periods of time (Jarvie, 2011 ).

Driving a radical change in the way health/education/familyservicepro fessions and their agencies understand each other and to work together. Effectively integrated services focused on parents, children and communities can only be achieved when professions and agencies step outside their silos (Lancet, 2011 ). This would include redesign of initial training and professional development, and fostering collaborations in research, policy design and implementation.

There are also the ongoing needs for,

Identifying and developing effective parenting programs that work in tandem with formal ECEC provision.

Experiments to determine if there are lower cost ways of delivering quality and outcomes for disadvantaged children, including the merits of adding targeted services for these children on the base of universal services.

Figuring out how to scale up from successful trials (Grunewald & Rolnick, 2007 ; Engle et al., 2011 ).

Working out how to make more effective transitions between preschool and primary school.

Making research literature more accessible to public officials (OECD, 2012 ).

Indeed it can be argued that some of the most critical policy and program imperatives are in areas where quantitative research is of little help. In particular, qualitative research on effective strategies for ethnic minority children, their parents and their communities, is urgently needed. In most countries it is the ethnic minority children who are educationally and economically the most disadvantaged, and different strategies are required to engage their parents and communities. This is an area where governments struggle for effectiveness, and public officials have poor skills and capacities. This issue is common across many developed and developing countries, including countries with indigenous children such as Australia, China, Vietnam, Chile, Canada and European countries with migrant minorities (OECD, 2006 ; COAG, 2008 ; World Bank, 2011 ). Research that is systematic and persuasive to governments is needed on for example, the relative effectiveness of having bilingual environments and ethnic minority teachers and teaching assistants in ECEC centres, compared to the simpler community outreach strategies, and how to build parent and community leadership.

Many countries are acknowledging that parental and community engagement is a critical element of effective child development outcomes (OECD, 2012 ). Yet public officials, many siloed in education and child care ministries delivering formal ECEC services, are remote from research on raising parent awareness and parenting programs. They do not see raising parental skills and awareness as core to their policy and program responsibilities. Improving parenting skills is particularly important for very young children (say 0–3) where the impact on brain development is so critical. It has been argued there needs to be a more systematic approach to parenting coach/support programs, to develop a menu of options that we know will work, to explore how informal programs can work with formal programs, and how health programs aimed young mothers or pregnant women can be enriched with education messages (The Lancet, 2011 ).

Other areas where qualitative research could assist are shown in Table 1 (see p. 40).

Implementation Science in Early Childhood Education and Care

Much of the suggested qualitative research in Table 1 is around program design and implementation . It is well-known that policies often fail because program design has not foreseen implementation issues or implementation has inadequate risk management. Early childhood programs are a classic example of the “paradox of non-evidence-based implementation of evidence-based practice” (Drake, Gorman & Torrey, 2005). Governments recognise that implementation is a serious issue: there may be a lot of general knowledge about “what works”, but there is minimal systematic information about how things actually work . One difficulty is that there is a lack of a common language and conceptual framework to describe ECEC implementation. For example, the word “consult” can describe a number of different processes, from public officials holding a one hour meeting with available parents in alocation,to ongoing structures set up which ensureall communityelementsare involved and reflect thespectrum of community views, and tocontinue tobuild up community awareness and engagement over time.

There is a need to derive robust findingsof generic value to public officials, for program design. In the health sciences, there is a developing literature on implementation, including a National implementation Research Network based in the USA, and a Journal of Implementation Science (Fixsen, Naoom, Blasé, Friedman & Wallace, 2005 ). While much of the health science literature is focused on professional practice, some of the concepts they have developed are useful for other fields, such as the concept of “fidelity” of implementation which describes the extent to which a program or service has been implemented as designed. Education program implementation is sometimes included in these fora, however, there is no equivalent significant movement in early childhood education and care.

A priority in qualitative research for ECEC of value to public officials would then appear to be a systematic focus on implementation studies, which would include developing a conceptual framework and possibly a language for systematic description of implementation, as well as, meta-studies. This need not start from scratch-much of the implementation science literature in health is relevant, especially the components around how to influence practitioners to incorporate latest evidence-based research into their practice, and the notions of fidelity of implementation. It could provide an opportunity to engage providers and ECE professionals in research, where historically ECEC research has been weak.

Essential to this would be collaborative relationships between government agencies, providers and research institutions, so that there is a flow of information and findings between all parties.

Quantitative social science research, together with studies of brain development, has successfully made the case for greater investment in the early years.There has been less emphasis on investigating what works on the ground especially for the most disadvantaged groups, and bringing findings together to inform government action. Yet many of the ECEC challenges facing governments are in implementation, and in ensuring that interventions are high quality. This is particularly true of interventions to assist ethnic minority children, who in many countries are the most marginalised and disadvantaged. Without studies that can improve the quality of ECEC implementation, governments, and other bodies implementing ECEC strategies, are at risk of not delivering the expected returns on early childhood investment. This could, over time, undermine the case for sustained government support.

It is time for a rebalancing of government research activity towards qualitative research, complemented by scaled up collaborations with ECEC providers and research institutions. A significant element of this research activity could usefully be in developing a more systematic approach to analysing and reporting implementation, and linking implementation to outcomes. This has been done quite effectively in the health sciences. An investment in developing an ECEC ‘implementation science’ would thus appear to be a worthy of focus for future work.

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This paper was originally prepared for the OECD Early Childhood Education and Care Network Meeting, 24 January 2012, Oslo, Norway.

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5 Current Issues in the Field of Early Childhood Education

Learning Objectives

Objective 1: Identify current issues that impact stakeholders in early childhood care and education.

Objective 2: Describe strategies for understanding current issues as a professional in early childhood care and education.

Objective 3: Create an informed response to a current issue as a professional in early childhood care and education.

Current Issues in the Field—Part 1

There’s one thing you can be sure of in the field of early childhood: the fact that the field is always changing. We make plans for our classrooms based on the reality we and the children in our care are living in, and then, something happens in that external world, the place where “life happens,” and our reality changes. Or sometimes it’s a slow shift: you go to a training and hear about new research, you think it over, read a few articles, and over time you realize the activities you carefully planned are no longer truly relevant to the lives children are living today, or that you know new things that make you rethink whether your practice is really meeting the needs of every child.

This is guaranteed to happen at some point. Natural events might occur that affect your community, like forest fires or tornadoes, or like COVID-19, which closed far too many child care programs and left many other early educators struggling to figure out how to work with children online. Cultural and political changes happen, which affect your children’s lives, or perhaps your understanding of their lives, like the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that brought to light how much disparity and tension exist and persist in the United States. New information may come to light through research that allows us to understand human development very differently, like the advancements in neuroscience that help us understand how trauma affects children’s brains, and how we as early educators can counteract those affects and build resilience.

And guess what—all this change is a good thing! Read this paragraph slowly—it’s important! Change is good because we as providers of early childhood care and education are working with much more than a set of academic skills that need to be imparted to children; we are working with the whole child, and preparing the child to live successfully in the world. So when history sticks its foot into our nice calm stream of practice, the waters get muddied. But the good news is that mud acts as a fertilizer so that we as educators and leaders in the field have the chance to learn and grow, to bloom into better educators for every child, and, let’s face it, to become better human beings!

The work of early childhood care and education is so full, so complex, so packed with details to track and respond to, from where Caiden left his socks, to whether Amelia’s parents are going to be receptive to considering evaluation for speech supports, and how to adapt the curriculum for the child who has never yet come to circle time. It might make you feel a little uneasy—or, let’s face it, even overwhelmed—to also consider how the course of history may cause you to deeply rethink what you do over time.

That’s normal. Thinking about the complexity of human history while pushing Keisha on the swings makes you completely normal! As leaders in the field, we must learn to expect that we will be called upon to change, maybe even dramatically, over time.

Let me share a personal story with you: I had just become director of an established small center, and was working to sort out all the details that directing encompassed: scheduling, billing policies, and most of all, staffing frustrations about who got planning time, etc. But I was also called upon to substitute teach on an almost daily basis, so there was a lot of disruption to my carefully made daily plans to address the business end, or to work with teachers to seek collaborative solutions to long-standing conflict. I was frustrated by not having time to do the work I felt I needed to do, and felt there were new small crises each day. I couldn’t get comfortable with my new position, nor with the way my days were constantly shifting away from my plans. It was then that a co-worker shared a quote with me from Thomas F. Crum, who writes about how to thrive in difficult working conditions: “Instead of seeing the rug being pulled from under us, we can learn to dance on a shifting carpet”.

Wow! That gave me a new vision, one where I wasn’t failing and flailing, but could become graceful in learning to be responsive to change big and small. I felt relieved to have a different way of looking at my progress through my days: I wasn’t flailing at all—I was dancing! Okay, it might be a clumsy dance, and I might bruise my knees, but that idea helped me respond to each day’s needs with courage and hope.

I especially like this image for those of us who work with young children. I imagine a child hopping around in the middle of a parachute, while the other children joyfully whip their corners up and down. The child in the center feels disoriented, exhilarated, surrounded by shifting color, sensation, and laughter. When I feel like there’s too much change happening, I try to see the world through that child’s eyes. It’s possible to find joy and possibility in the disorientation, and the swirl of thoughts and feelings, and new ways of seeing and being that come from change.

Key Takeaways

Our practices in the classroom and as leaders must constantly adapt to changes in our communities and our understanding of the world around us, which gives us the opportunity to continue to grow and develop.

You are a leader, and change is happening, and you are making decisions about how to move forward, and how to adapt thoughtfully. The good news is that when this change happens, our field has really amazing tools for adapting. We can develop a toolkit of trusted sources that we can turn to to provide us with information and strategies for ethical decision making.

If You’re Afraid of Falling…

One of the most important of these is the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct, which expresses a commitment to core values for the field, and a set of principles for determining ethical behavior and decision-making. As we commit to the code, we commit to:

Appreciate childhood as a unique and valuable stage of the human life cycle
Base our work on knowledge of how children develop and learn
Appreciate and support the bond between the child and family
Recognize that children are best understood and supported in the context of family, culture,* community, and society
Respect the dignity, worth, and uniqueness of each individual (child, family member, and colleague)
Respect diversity in children, families, and colleagues
Recognize that children and adults achieve their full potential in the context of relationships that are based on trust and respect.

If someone asked us to make a list of beliefs we have about children and families, we might not have been able to come up with a list that looked just like this, but, most of us in the field are here because we share these values and show up every day with them in our hearts.

The Code of Ethical Conduct can help bring what’s in your heart into your head. It’s a complete tool to help you think carefully about a dilemma, a decision, or a plan, based on these values. Sometimes we don’t make the “right” decision and need to change our minds, but as long as we make a decision based on values about the importance of the well-being of all children and families, we won’t be making a decision that we will regret.

An Awfully Big Current Issue—Let’s Not Dance Around It

In the field of early childhood, issues of prejudice have long been important to research, and in this country, Head Start was developed more than 50 years ago with an eye toward dismantling disparity based on ethnicity or skin color (among other things). However, research shows that this gap has not closed. Particularly striking, in recent years, is research addressing perceptions of the behavior of children of color and the numbers of children who are asked to leave programs.

In fact, studies of expulsion from preschool showed that black children were twice as likely to be expelled as white preschoolers, and 3.6 times as likely to receive one or more suspensions. This is deeply concerning in and of itself, but the fact that preschool expulsion is predictive of later difficulties is even more so:

Starting as young as infancy and toddlerhood, children of color are at highest risk for being expelled from early childhood care and education programs. Early expulsions and suspensions lead to greater gaps in access to resources for young children and thus create increasing gaps in later achievement and well-being… Research indicates that early expulsions and suspensions predict later expulsions and suspensions, academic failure, school dropout, and an increased likelihood of later incarceration.

Why does this happen? It’s complicated. Studies on the K-12 system show that some of the reasons include:

uneven or biased implementation of disciplinary policies
discriminatory discipline practices
school racial climate
under resourced programs
inadequate education and training for teachers on bias

In other words, educators need more support and help in reflecting on their own practices, but there are also policies and systems in place that contribute to unfair treatment of some groups of children.

Key Takeaway

So…we have a lot of research that continues to be eye opening and cause us to rethink our practices over time, plus a cultural event—in the form of the Black Lives Matter movement—that push the issue of disparity based on skin color directly in front of us. We are called to respond. You are called to respond.

How Will I Ever Learn the Steps?

Woah—how do I respond to something so big and so complex and so sensitive to so many different groups of people?

As someone drawn to early childhood care and education, you probably bring certain gifts and abilities to this work.

You probably already feel compassion for every child and want every child to have opportunities to grow into happy, responsible adults who achieve their goals. Remember the statement above about respecting the dignity and worth of every individual? That in itself is a huge start to becoming a leader working as an advocate for social justice.
You may have been to trainings that focus on anti-bias and being culturally responsive.
You may have some great activities to promote respect for diversity, and be actively looking for more.
You may be very intentional about including materials that reflect people with different racial identities, genders, family structures.
You may make sure that each family is supported in their home language and that multilingualism is valued in your program.
You may even have spent some time diving into your own internalized biases.

This list could become very long! These are extremely important aspects of addressing injustice in early education which you can do to alter your individual practice with children.

As a leader in the field, you are called to think beyond your own practice. As a leader you have the opportunity—the responsibility!—to look beyond your own practices and become an advocate for change. Two important recommendations (of many) from the NAEYC Advancing Equity in Early Childhood Education Position Statement, another important tool:

Speak out against unfair policies or practices and challenge biased perspectives. Work to embed fair and equitable approaches in all aspects of early childhood program delivery, including standards, assessments, curriculum, and personnel practices.

Look for ways to work collectively with others who are committed to equity. Consider it a professional responsibility to help challenge and change policies, laws, systems, and institutional practices that keep social inequities in place.

One take away I want you to grab from those last sentences: You are not alone. This work can be, and must be, collective.

As a leader, your sphere of influence is bigger than just you. You can influence the practices of others in your program and outside of it. You can influence policies, rules, choices about the tools you use, and ultimately, you can even challenge laws that are not fair to every child.

Who’s on your team? I want you to think for a moment about the people who help you in times where you are facing change. These are the people you can turn to for an honest conversation, where you can show your confusion and fear, and they will be supportive and think alongside you. This might include your friends, your partner, some or all of your coworkers, a former teacher of your own, a counselor, a pastor. Make a quick list of people you can turn to when you need to do some deep digging and ground yourself in your values.

And now, your workplace team: who are your fellow advocates in your workplace? Who can you reach out to when you realize something might need to change within your program?

Wonderful. You’ve got other people to lean on in times of change. More can be accomplished together than alone. Let’s consider what you can do:

What is your sphere of influence? What are some small ways you can create room for growth within your sphere of influence? What about that workplace team? Do their spheres of influence add to your own?

Try drawing your sphere of influence: Draw yourself in the middle of the page, and put another circle around yourself, another circle around that, and another around that. Fill your circles in:

Consider the first circle your personal sphere. Brainstorm family and friends who you can talk to about issues that are part of your professional life. You can put down their names, draw them, or otherwise indicate who they might be!
Next, those you influence in your daily work, such as the children in your care, their families, maybe your co-workers land here.
Next, those who make decisions about the system you are in—maybe this is your director or board, or even a PTA.
Next, think about the early childhood care and education community you work within. What kind of influence could you have on this community? Do you have friends who work at other programs you can have important conversations with to spread ideas? Are you part of a local Association for the Education of Young Children (AEYC)? Could you speak to the organizers of a local conference about including certain topics for sessions?
And finally, how about state (and even national) policies? Check out The Children’s Institute to learn about state bills that impact childcare. Do you know your local representatives? Could you write a letter to your senator? Maybe you have been frustrated with the slow reimbursement and low rates for Employment Related Day Care subsidies and can find a place to share your story. You can call your local Child Care Resource and Referral, your local or state AEYC chapter, or visit childinst.org to find out how you can increase your reach! It’s probably a lot farther than you think!

Break It Down: Systemic Racism

When you think about injustice and the kind of change you want to make, there’s an important distinction to understand in the ways injustice happens in education (or anywhere else). First, there’s personal bias and racism, and of course it’s crucial as an educator to examine ourselves and our practices and responses. We all have bias and addressing it is an act of courage that you can model for your colleagues.

In addition, there’s another kind of bias and racism, and it doesn’t live inside of individual people, but inside of the systems we have built. Systemic racism exists in the structures and processes that have come into place over time, which allow one group of people a greater chance of succeeding than other specific groups of people.

Key Takeaways (Sidebar)

Systemic racism is also called institutional racism, because it exists – sometimes unquestioned – within institutions themselves.

In early childhood care and education, there are many elements that were built with middle class white children in mind. Many of our standardized tests were made with middle class white children in mind. The curriculum we use, the assessments we use, the standards of behavior we have been taught; they may have all been developed with middle class white children in mind.

Therefore it is important to consider whether they adequately and fairly work for all of the children in your program community. Do they have relevance to all children’s lived experience, development, and abilities? Who is being left out?

Imagine a vocabulary assessment in which children are shown common household items including a lawn mower…common if you live in a house; they might well be unfamiliar to a three-year-old who lives in an apartment building, however. The child may end up receiving a lower score, though their vocabulary could be rich, full of words that do reflect the objects in their lived experience.

The test is at fault, not the child’s experience. Yet the results of that test can impact the way educators, parents, and the child see their ability and likelihood to succeed.

You Don’t Have to Invent the Steps: Using an Equity Lens

In addition to the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct and Equity Statement, another tool for addressing decision-making is an equity lens. To explain what an equity lens is, we first need to talk about equity. It’s a term you may have heard before, but sometimes people confuse it with equality. It’s a little different – equity is having the resources needed to be successful.

There’s a wonderful graphic of children looking over a fence at a baseball game. In one frame, each child stands at the fence; one is tall enough to see over the top; another stands tip-toe, straining to see; and another is simply too short. This is equality—everyone has the same chance, but not everyone is equally prepared. In the frame titled equity, each child stands on a stool just high enough so that they may all see over the fence. The stools are the supports they need to have an equitable outcome—being able to experience the same thing as their friend.

Seeking equity means considering who might not be able to see over the fence and figuring out how to build them a stool so that they have the same opportunity.

An equity lens, then, is a tool to help you look at decisions through a framework of equity. It’s a series of questions to ask yourself when making decisions. An equity lens is a process of asking a series of questions to better help you understand if something (a project, a curriculum, a parent meeting, a set of behavioral guidelines) is unfair to specific individuals or groups whose needs have been overlooked in the past. This lens might help you to identify the impact of your decisions on students of color, and you can also use the lens to consider the impact on students experiencing poverty, students in nontraditional families, students with differing abilities, students who are geographically isolated, students whose home language is other than English, etc.) The lens then helps you determine how to move past this unfairness by overcoming barriers and providing equitable opportunities to all children.

Some states have adopted a version of the equity lens for use in their early learning systems. Questions that are part of an equity lens might include:

What decision is being made, and what kind of values or assumptions are affecting how we make the decision?
Who is helping make the decision? Are there representatives of the affected group who get to have a voice in the process?
Does the new activity, rule, etc. have the potential to make disparities worse? For instance, could it mean that families who don’t have a car miss out on a family night? Or will it make those disparities better?
Who might be left out? How can we make sure they are included?
Are there any potential unforeseen consequences of the decision that will impact specific groups? How can we try to make sure the impact will be positive?

You can use this lens for all kinds of decisions, in formal settings, like staff meetings, and you can also work to make them part of your everyday thinking. I have a sticky note on my desk that asks “Who am I leaving out”? This is an especially important question if the answer points to children who are people of color, or another group that is historically disadvantaged. If that’s the answer, you don’t have to scrap your idea entirely. Celebrate your awareness, and brainstorm about how you can do better for everyone—and then do it!

Embracing our Bruised Knees: Accepting Discomfort as We Grow

Inspirational author Brene Brown, who writes books, among other things, about being an ethical leader, said something that really walloped me: if we avoid the hard work of addressing unfairness (like talking about skin color at a time when our country is divided over it) we are prioritizing our discomfort over the pain of others.

Imagine a parent who doesn’t think it’s appropriate to talk about skin color with young children, who tells you so with some anger in their voice. That’s uncomfortable, maybe even a little scary. But as you prioritize upholding the dignity, worth, and uniqueness of every individual, you can see that this is more important than trying to avoid discomfort. Changing your practice to avoid conflict with this parent means prioritizing your own momentary discomfort over the pain children of color in your program may experience over time.

We might feel vulnerable when we think about skin color, and we don’t want to have to have the difficult conversation. But if keeping ourselves safe from discomfort means that we might not be keeping children safe from very real and life-impacting racial disparity, we’re not making a choice that is based in our values.

Change is uncomfortable. It leaves us feeling vulnerable as we reexamine the ideas, strategies, even the deeply held beliefs that have served us so far. But as a leader, and with the call to support every child as they deserve, we can develop a sort of super power vision, where we can look unflinchingly around us and understand the hidden impacts of the structures we work within.

A Few Recent Dance Steps of My Own

You’re definitely not alone—researchers and thinkers in the field are doing this work alongside you, examining even our most cherished and important ideas about childhood and early education. For instance, a key phrase that we often use to underpin our decisions is developmentally appropriate practice, which NAEYC defines as “methods that promote each child’s optimal development and learning through a strengths-based, play-based approach to joyful, engaged learning.” The phrase is sometimes used to contrast against practices that might not be developmentally appropriate, like expecting three-year-olds to write their names or sit quietly in a 30 minute story time.

Let me tell you a story about how professional development is still causing me to stare change in the face! At the NAEYC conference in 2020, during a session in which Dr. Jie-Qi Chen presented on different perspectives on developmentally appropriate practice among early educators in China and the United States. She showed a video from a classroom in China to educators in both the US and in China. The video was of a circle time in which a child was retelling a story that the class knew well, and then the children were encouraged to offer feedback and rate how well the child had done. The children listened attentively, and then told the storytelling child how they had felt about his retelling, including identifying parts that had been left out, inaccuracies in the telling, and advice for speaking more clearly and loudly.

The educators were asked what the impact of the activity would be on the children and whether it was developmentally appropriate. The educators in the United States had deep concerns that the activity would be damaging to a child’s self esteem, and was therefore not developmentally appropriate. They also expressed concerns about the children being asked to sit for this amount of time. The educators in the classroom in China felt that it was developmentally appropriate and the children were learning not only storytelling skills but how to give and receive constructive criticism.

As I watched the video, I had the same thoughts as the educators from the US—I’m not used to children being encouraged to offer criticism rather than praise. But I also saw that the child in question had self-confidence and received the feedback positively. The children were very engaged and seemed to feel their feedback mattered.

What was most interesting to me here was the idea of self-esteem, and how important it is to us here in the United States, or rather, how much protecting we feel it needs. I realized that what educators were responding to weren’t questions of whether retelling a story was developmentally appropriate, or whether the critical thinking skills the children were being asked to display were developmentally appropriate, but rather whether the social scenario in which one child receives potentially negative feedback in front of their peers was developmentally appropriate, and that the responses were based in the different cultural ideas of self-esteem and individual vision versus collective success.

My point here is that even our big ideas, like developmentally appropriate practice, have an element of vulnerability to them. As courageous leaders, we need to turn our eyes even there to make sure that our cultural assumptions and biases aren’t affecting our ability to see clearly, that the reality of every child is honored within them, and that no one is being left out. And that’s okay. It doesn’t mean we should scrap them. It’s not wrong to advocate for and use developmentally appropriate practice as a framework for our work—not at all! It just means we need to remember that it’s built from values that may be specific to our culture—and not everyone may have equal access to that culture. It means we should return to our big ideas with respect and bravery and sit with them and make sure they are still the ones that serve us best in the world we are living in right now, with the best knowledge we have right now.

You, Dancing With Courage

So…As a leader is early childhood, you will be called upon to be nimble, to make new decisions and reframe your practice when current events or new understanding disrupt your plans. When this happens, professional tools are available to you to help you make choices based on your ethical commitment to children.

Change makes us feel uncomfortable but we can embrace it to do the best by the children and families we work with. We can learn to develop our critical thinking skills so that we can examine our own beliefs and assumptions, both as individuals and as a leader.

Remember that person dancing on the shifting carpet? That child in the middle of the parachute? They might be a little dizzy, but with possibility. They might lose their footing, but in that uncertainty, in the middle of the billowing parachute, there is the sensation that the very instability provides the possibility of rising up like the fabric. And besides—there are hands to hold if they lose their balance—or if you do! And so can you rise when you allow yourself to accept change and adapt to all the new possibility of growth that it opens up!

Current Issues in the Field Part 2—Dance Lessons

Okay, sure—things are gonna change, and this change is going to affect the lives of the children and families you work with, and affect you, professionally and personally. So—you’re sold, in theory, that to do the best by each one of those children, you’re just going to have to do some fancy footwork, embrace the change, and think through how to best adapt to it.

But…how? Before we talk about the kind of change that’s about rethinking your program on a broad level, let’s talk about those times we face when change happens in the spur of the moment, and impacts the lives of the children in your program—those times when your job becomes helping children process their feelings and adapt to change. Sometimes this is a really big deal, like a natural disaster. Sometimes it’s something smaller like the personal story I share below…something small, cuddly, and very important to the children.

Learning the Steps: How do I help children respond to change?

I have a sad story to share. For many years, I was the lead teacher in a classroom in which we had a pet rabbit named Flopsy. Flopsy was litter-trained and so our licensing specialist allowed us to let him hop freely around the classroom. Flopsy was very social, and liked to interact with children. He liked to be held and petted and was also playful, suddenly zooming around the classroom, hopping over toys and nudging children. Flopsy was a big part of our community and of children’s experience in our classroom.

One day, I arrived at school to be told by my distraught director that Flopsy had died in the night and she had removed his body. I had about 15 minutes before children would be arriving, and I had to figure out how to address Flopsy’s loss.

I took a few minutes to collect myself, and considered the following questions:

Yes, absolutely. The children would notice immediately that Flopsy was missing and would comment on it. It was important that I not evade their questions.

Flopsy had died. His body had stopped working. His brain had stopped working. He would not ever come back to life. We would never see Flopsy again. I wrote these sentences on a sticky note. They were short but utterly important.

I would give children the opportunity to share their feelings, and talk about my own feelings. I would read children’s books that would express feelings they might not have words for yet. I would pay extra attention to children reaching out to me and offer opportunities to affirm children’s responses by writing them down.

Human beings encounter death. Children lose pets, grandparents, and sometimes parents or siblings. I wanted these children to experience death in a way that would give them a template when they experienced more intense loss. I wanted them to know it’s okay to be sad, and that the sadness grows less acute over time. That it’s okay to feel angry or scared, and that these feelings, too, though they might be really big, will become less immediate. And that it’s okay to feel happy as you remember the one you lost.

I knew it was important not to give children mistaken impressions about death. I was careful not to compare it to sleep, because I didn’t want them to think that maybe Flopsy would wake up again. I also didn’t want them to fear that when mama fell asleep it was the same thing as death. I also wanted to be factual but leave room for families to share their religious beliefs with their children.

I didn’t have time to do research. But I mentally gathered up some wisdom from a training I’d been to, where the trainer talked about how important it is that we don’t shy away from addressing death with children. Her words gave me courage. I also gathered up some children’s books about pet death from our library.

The first thing I did was text my husband. I was really sad. I had cared for this bunny for years and I loved him too. I didn’t have time for a phone call, but that text was an important way for me to acknowledge my own feelings of grief.

Then I talked to the other teachers. I asked for their quick advice, and shared my plan, since the news would travel to other classrooms as well.

During my prep time that day, I wrote a letter to families, letting them know Flopsy had died and some basic information about how we had spoken to children about it, some resources about talking to children about death, and some titles of books about the death of pets. I knew that news of Flopsy’s death would be carried home to many families, and that parents might want to share their own belief systems about death. I also knew many parents were uncomfortable discussing death with young children and that it might be helpful to see the way we had done so.

I had curriculum planned for that day which I partially scrapped. At our first gathering time I shared the news with the whole group: I shared my sticky note of information about death. I told the children I was sad. I asked if they had questions and I answered them honestly. I listened when they shared their own feelings. I also told them I had happy memories of FLopsy and we talked about our memories.

During the course of the day, and the next few days, I gave the children invitations (but not assignments) to reflect on Flopsy and their feelings. I sat on the floor with a notebook and the invitation for children to write a “story” about Flopsy. Almost every child wanted their words recorded. Responses ranged from “Goodbye bunny” to imagined stories about Flopsy’s adventures, to a description of feelings of sadness and loss. Writing down these words helped acknowledge the children’s feelings. Some of them hung their stories on the wall, and some asked them to be read aloud, or shared them themselves, at circle time.

I also made sure there were plenty of other opportunities in the classroom for children who didn’t want to engage in these ways, or who didn’t need to.

We read “Saying Goodbye to Lulu” and “The Tenth Good Thing About Barney” in small groups; and while these books were a little bit above the developmental level of some children in the class, many children wanted to hear and discuss the books. When I became teary reading them, I didn’t try to hide it, but just said “I’m feeling sad, and it makes me cry a little bit. Everyone cries sometimes.”

This would be a good set of steps to address an event like a hurricane, wildfires, or an earthquake as well. First and foremost of course, make sure your children are safe and have their physical needs met! Remember your role as educator and caretaker; address their emotional needs, consider what you hope they will learn, gather the resources and your team, and make decisions that affirm the dignity of each child in your care.

Does the issue affect children’s lived experiences?
How much and what kind of information is appropriate for their age?
How can I best affirm their emotions?
What do I hope they will learn?
Could I accidentally be doing harm through my response?
Which resources do I need and can I gather in a timely manner?
How do I gather my team?
How can I involve families?
Now, I create and enact my plan…

Did your plan look any different for having used these questions? And did the process of making decisions as a leader look or feel different? How so?

You might not always walk yourself through a set of questions–but using an intentional tool is like counting out dance steps—there’s a lot of thinking it through at first, and maybe forgetting a step, and stumbling, and so forth. And then…somehow, you just know how to dance. And then you can learn to improvise. In other words, it is through practice that you will become adept at and confident in responding to change, and learn to move with grace on the shifting carpet of life.

Feeling the Rhythm: How do I help myself respond to change

—and grow through it.

Now, let’s address what it might look like to respond to a different kind of change, the kind in which you learn something new and realize you need to make some changes in who you are as an educator. This is hard, but there are steps you can take to make sure you keep moving forward:

Work to understand your own feelings. Write about them. Talk them through with your teams—personal and/or professional.
Take a look in the mirror, strive to see where you are at, and then be kind to yourself!
Gather your tools! Get out that dog eared copy of the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct, and look for other tools that are relevant to your situation. Root yourself in the values of early childhood care and education.
Examine your own practices in light of this change.
Examine the policies, structures, or systems that affect your program in light of this change.
Ask yourself, where could change happen? Remember your spheres of influence.
Who can you collaborate with? Who is on your team?
How can you make sure the people being affected by this change help inform your response? Sometimes people use the phrase “Nothing for us without us” to help remember that we don’t want to make decisions that affect a group of people (even if we think we’re helping) without learning more from individuals in that group about what real support looks like).
Make a plan, including a big vision and small steps, and start taking those small steps. Remember that when you are ready to bring others in, they will need to go through some of this process too, and you may need to be on their team as they look for a safe sounding board to explore their discomfort or fear.
Realize that you are a courageous advocate for children. Give yourself a hug!

Work to understand your own feelings. Write about them. Talk them through with your teams—personal and/or professional.

This might be a good time to freewrite about your feelings—just put your pencil to paper and start writing. Maybe you feel guilty because you’re afraid that too many children of color have been asked to leave your program. Maybe you feel angry about the injustice. Maybe you feel scared that this topic is politicized and people aren’t going to want to hear about it. Maybe you feel scared to even face the idea that bias could have affected children while in your care. All these feelings are okay! Maybe you talk to your partner or your friends about your fears before you’re ready to get started even thinking about taking action.

Take a look in the mirror, strive to see where you are at, and then be kind to yourself! Tell that person looking back at you: “I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.”

Yep. You love children and you did what you believed was best for the children in your program. Maybe now you can do even better by them! You are being really really brave by investigating!

Gather your tools! Get out that dog-eared copy of the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct, and look for other tools that are relevant to your situation.

Okay! This would be an excellent time to bring out the equity lens and your other tools. Read them over. Use them.

Do your practices affirm the dignity of every child and family? Ask yourself these hard questions while focusing on, in this case, how you look at behavior of children of color. Do the choices you make affirm the dignity of each unique child? Use your tools—you can pull out the equity lens here! Are you acknowledging the home realities of each child when you are having conversations that are meant to build social-emotional skills? Are you considering the needs of each child during difficult transitions? Do you provide alternative ways for children to engage if they have difficulty sitting in circle times?

And…Do your policies and structures affirm the dignity of every child and family? Use those tools! Look at your behavioral guidance policies—are you expecting children to come into your program with certain skills that may not be valued by certain cultures? What about your policies on sending children home or asking a family to leave your program? Could these policies be unfair to certain groups? In fact—given that you now know how extremely impactful expulsion is for preschoolers, could you take it off the table entirely?

Let’s say you’re a teacher, and you can look back and see that over the years you’ve been at your center, a disproportionately high number of children of color have been excluded from the program. Your director makes policy decisions—can you bring this information to him or her? Could you talk to your coworkers about how to bring it up? Maybe your sphere of influence could get even wider—could you share this information with other early educators in your community? Maybe even write a letter to your local representatives!

Who can you collaborate with? Who is on your team?

Maybe other educators? Maybe parents? Maybe your director? Maybe an old teacher of your own? Can you bring this up at a staff meeting? Or in informal conversations?

How can you make sure the people being affected by this change help inform your response?

Let’s say your director is convinced that your policies need to change in light of this new information. You want to make sure that parent voice—and especially that of parents of color—is heard! You could suggest a parent meeting on the topic; or maybe do “listening sessions” with parents of color, where you ask them open-ended questions and listen and record their responses—without adding much of your own response; maybe you could invite parents to be part of a group who looks over and works on the policies. This can feel a little scary to people in charge (see decentered leadership?)

Maybe this plan is made along with your director and includes those parent meetings, and a timeline for having revised policies, and some training for the staff. Or—let’s back it up—maybe you’re not quite to that point yet, and your plan is how you are going to approach your director, especially since they might feel criticized. Then your plan might be sharing information, communicating enthusiasm about moving forward and making positive change, and clearly stating your thoughts on where change is needed! (Also some chocolate to reward yourself for being a courageous advocate for every child.)

And, as I may have mentioned, some chocolate. You are a leader and an advocate, and a person whose action mirrors their values. You are worth admiring!

Maybe you haven’t had your mind blown with new information lately, but I’ll bet there’s something you’ve thought about that you haven’t quite acted on yet…maybe it’s about individualizing lesson plans for children with differing abilities. Maybe it’s about addressing diversity of gender in the classroom. Maybe it’s about celebrating linguistic diversity, inviting children and parents to share their home languages in the classroom, and finding authentic ways to include print in these languages.

Whatever it is—we all have room to grow.

Make a Plan!

Dancing Your Dance: Rocking Leadership in Times of Change

There will never be a time when we as educators are not having to examine and respond to “Current Issues in the Field.” Working with children means working with children in a dynamic and ever-evolving landscape of community, knowledge, and personal experience. It’s really cool that we get to do this, walk beside small human beings as they learn to traverse the big wacky world with all its potholes…and it means we get to keep getting better and better at circling around, leaping over, and, yep, dancing around or even through those very potholes.

In conclusion, all dancers feel unsteady sometimes. All dancers bruise their knees along the way. All educators make mistakes and experience discomfort. All dancers wonder if this dance just isn’t for them. All dancers think that maybe this one is just too hard and want to quit sometimes. All educators second guess their career choices. But all dancers also discover their own innate grace and their inborn ability to both learn and to change; our very muscles are made to stretch, our cells replace themselves, and we quite simply cannot stand still. All educators have the capacity to grow into compassionate, courageous leaders!

Your heart, your brain, and your antsy feet have led you to become a professional in early childhood care and education, and they will all demand that you jump into the uncertainty of leadership in times of change, and learn to dance for the sake of the children in your care. This, truly, is your call to action, and your pressing invitation to join the dance!

Brown, B. (2018). Dare to lead . Vermilion.

Broughton, A., Castro, D. and Chen, J. (2020). Three International Perspectives on Culturally Embraced Pedagogical Approaches to Early Teaching and Learning. [Conference presentation]. NAEYC Annual Conference.

Crum, T. (1987). The Magic of Conflict: Turning a Life of Work into a Work of Art. Touchstone.

Meek, S. and Gilliam, W. (2016). Expulsion and Suspension in Early Education as Matters of Social Justice and Health Equity. Perspectives: Expert Voices in Health & Health Care.

Scott, K., Looby, A., Hipp, J. and Frost, N. (2017). “Applying an Equity Lens to the Child Care Setting.” The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 45 (S1), 77-81.

Online Resources for Current Issues in the Field

Resources for opening yourself to personal growth, change, and courageous leadership:

Brown, Brenee. Daring Classrooms. https://brenebrown.com/daringclassrooms
Chang, R. (March 25, 2019). What Growth Mindset Means for Kids [Video] . TED Conferences. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66yaYmUNOx4

Resources for Thinking About Responding to Current Issues in Education

Flanagan, N. (July 31, 2020). How School Should Respond to Covid-19 [Video] . TED Conferences. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSkUHHH4nb8
Harris, N.B.. (February 217, 015). How Childhood Trauma Affects Health Across a Lifetime [Video] . TED Conferences. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95ovIJ3dsNk
Simmons, D. (August 28, 2020). 6 Ways to be an Anti Racist Educator [Video] . Edutopia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM3Lfk751cg&t=3s

Leadership in Early Care and Education Copyright © 2022 by Dr. Tammy Marino; Dr. Maidie Rosengarden; Dr. Sally Gunyon; and Taya Noland is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Expanding publicly funded pre-K: How to do it and do it well

Preschool enrollment fell across the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the nation’s lowest-income families experiencing the most precipitous drop. 1 Allison H. Friedman-Krauss et al., The state of preschool 2021 , National Institute for Early Education Research, 2022. And among school-age children, historically disadvantaged students saw achievement gaps widen even further. 2 Emma Dorn, Bryan Hancock, Jimmy Sarakatsannis, and Ellen Viruleg, “ COVID-19 and education: The lingering effects of unfinished learning ,” McKinsey, July 27, 2021.

This disruption to children’s schooling, including prekindergarten (pre-K) for children ages three through five, was a major contributor to the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on women, children, and low-income households. 3 Margaret Douglas et al., “Mitigating the wider health effects of covid-19 pandemic response,” BMJ , 2020, Volume 369. While the return to the classroom marked a return to stability for many families, the economic, health, and social challenges that disproportionately affected low-income households, women, and historically marginalized communities still exist. 4 Dan Levin, “How the pandemic has been devastating for children from low-income families,” New York Times , updated January 2, 2021. States now have an opportunity to strengthen the foundation that supports families, particularly those in poverty, by implementing best-in-class pre-K educational programs.

The potential benefits of public pre-K

Public prekindergarten (pre-K) can close as much as 50 percent of the racial achievement gap if children attend a high-quality program. 1 Gregory Camilli et al., “Meta-analysis of the effects of early education interventions on cognitive and social development,” Teachers College Record , 2010, Volume 112, Number 3. Consider that in New York City, the first cohort of students to attend universal preschool saw a significantly reduced racial achievement gap in standardized test scores in third grade in 2019. For more, see Leslie Brody, “NYC reading-test scores suggest free preschool’s potential benefits,” Wall Street Journal , August 22, 2019. In this way and many others, all of society stands to benefit from publicly funded pre-K programs.

Children benefit. Children enrolled in pre-K have higher test scores, better language development, and better motor skills than those who do not. 2 Ted Gayer and William T. Gormley Jr., “Promoting school readiness in Oklahoma: An evaluation of Tulsa’s pre-K program,” Journal of Human Resources , 2005, Volume 40, Number 3. They also often have better attendance and fewer behavioral problems in school. 3 Linda Darling-Hammond, Madelyn Gardner, and Beth Meloy, Untangling the evidence on preschool effectiveness: Insights for policymakers , Learning Policy Institute, January 2019. A study of the Abbott preschool program in New Jersey found that academic advantages for pre-K participants persisted through high school. 4 W. Steven Barnett and Kwanghee Jung, “Effects of New Jersey’s Abbott preschool program on children’s achievement, grade retention, and special education through tenth grade,” Early Childhood Research Quarterly , Volume 56, 2021. A study of Boston’s pre-K program found that it led to higher high school graduation rates, and students who attended pre-K were also more likely to take the SAT and enroll in college. 5 Guthrie Gray-Lobe, Parag A. Pathak, and Christopher R. Walters, The long-term effects of universal preschool in Boston , National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) working paper, NBER Working Paper Series, number 28756, May 2021. Later in life, children who attended high-quality pre-K programs have higher earnings as adults and are less likely to need public assistance or be imprisoned. 6 Steve Suitts et al., The promise of Georgia pre-K: Building life-long education, current budget savings and long-term economic growth in hard times , Southern Education Foundation, 2011.

Parents benefit. A randomized study of the universal pre-K program in Washington, DC, found a ten-percentage-point increase in maternal labor force participation. 7 Elias Ilin, Samantha Shampine, and Ellie Terry, Does access to free pre-kindergarten increase maternal labor supply? , Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City working paper, RWP 21-11, November 2021; Rasheed Malik, The effects of universal preschool in Washington, D.C.: Children’s learning and mothers’ earnings , Center for American Progress, September 2018. Free or affordable early childhood education may enable greater workforce participation by parents in many cities and states, which could reverse the trends toward reduced labor force participation seen over the past several years. Many such trends are described in detail in McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace series. 8 Women in the Workplace 2022 , McKinsey and LeanIn.org, October 18, 2022.

Economies benefit. As state economies continue to recover from COVID-19, business leaders may be invested in building strong early childhood programs; in fact, several cities and states have seen large employers push adequate and affordable pre-K options for their employees. 9 San Antonio is one example of a city that brought business leaders to the table when designing its pre-K initiative. Erick Trickey, “How Julián Castro bet on 4-year-olds to transform San Antonio,” Politico Magazine , August 17, 2017. And while estimates of governments’ ROI for preschool vary, they are invariably positive: one attempt to standardize ROI calculations across pre-K research studies found a benefit of between $2 and $16 for every dollar invested. 10 ROI varied depending on program quality and when impact was assessed. Lynn A. Karoly, Toward standardization of benefit-cost analyses of early childhood interventions , RAND working paper, RAND Labor and Population working paper series, WR-823, December 2010. Long-term evaluations, like the Perry Preschool and Chicago Child-Parent Center (CPC) initiatives, show increasing benefits over time, suggesting that some more recent studies may understate the long-term benefits of high-quality pre-K to adult outcomes. 11 Shirley Adelstein, Timothy J. Bartik, and William Gormley, “Earnings benefits of Tulsa’s pre-K program for different income groups,” Economics of Education Review , December 2012, Volume 31, Number 6.

These benefits are widely recognized, and there is broad support for public pre-K spending in the United States. Polling has found that most Americans, regardless of their political affiliation, believe that public policies should be designed to help families afford early care and learning. 12 Karl Agne, John Halpin, and Margie Omero, Affordable child care and early learning for all families , Center for American Progress, September 2018. Universal pre-K has been championed by leaders across the political spectrum: Oklahoma, Vermont, and West Virginia were among the first states to invest in a universal program, and there are now at least seven states with universal programs, as well as others on the pathway toward one. 13 Allison H. Friedman-Krauss et al., The state of preschool 2021 , National Institute for Early Education Research, 2022.

The benefits of a high-quality early childhood education are supported by rigorous research and can touch many corners of society. Quality pre-K education programs help children from all backgrounds, with proven long-term benefits in academic, mental-health, and social outcomes. For children from historically disadvantaged communities, pre-K can help break the cycle of poverty (see sidebar “The potential benefits of public pre-K”). 5 Henry M. Levin et al., The costs and benefits of an excellent education for all of America’s children , Teachers College, Columbia University working paper, 2006. But how state and local governments invest in pre-K education matters tremendously. Recent studies have found that investments that fail to focus on program quality can backfire and negatively affect students’ long-term achievement. 6 Kelley Durkin et al., “Effects of a statewide pre-kindergarten program on children’s achievement and behavior through sixth grade,” Developmental Psychology , March 2022, Volume 58, Number 3. High-quality programs, by contrast, can produce pre-K graduates who have stronger educational outcomes through high school and into adulthood. 7 Guthrie Gray-Lobe, Parag A. Pathak, and Christopher R. Walters, The long-term effects of universal preschool in Boston , National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) working paper, NBER Working Paper Series, number 28756, May 2021.

To ensure best-in-class, cost-effective pre-K programs, state and local leaders can assess the needs of their population and their available budget and then take lessons from districts that have implemented these programs successfully. To help with those efforts, we have identified eight elements that have yielded pre-K programs that have delivered positive impacts for students and taxpayers. Drawn from research and the experiences of dozens of jurisdictions, these elements prioritize lessons from states and municipalities with programs that have resulted in positive outcomes for children from kindergarten to 12th grade. We also explore six major decisions that states typically make regarding program design, the trade-offs those decisions could entail, 8 We examine where different high-quality public programs have made different design decisions based on their specific context. and the cost considerations for standing up a high-quality program. For states that decide to invest in pre-K, this could provide a road map for how to design a program that will be both high quality and cost-effective.

Research-backed, parent-approved: The elements of a high-quality pre-K program

Large-scale, publicly funded pre-K programs exist in many states and large cities across the country, and many have been rigorously studied. Across the research, the evidence is clear: one of the single greatest drivers of child outcomes, both academically and behaviorally, is high-quality interactions between teachers and students. 9 Marigen Narea et al., “Understanding the relationship between preschool teachers’ well-being, interaction quality and students’ well-being,” Child Indicators Research , 2022, Volume 15; Andrew J. Mashburn et al., “Measures of classroom quality in prekindergarten and children’s development of academic, language, and social skills,” Child Development , May 2008, Volume 79, Number 3.

States can make intentional design choices that could enable the kinds of high-quality teacher–student interactions that lead to positive outcomes. This often requires clear decisions and investment up front and sustained attention from stakeholders all along the delivery chain. Across successful programs, we’ve identified eight specific variables that support high-quality instruction and interactions in early childhood education. Each of the eight variables involve providing the necessary time, space, and support for teachers and students to learn and develop meaningful connections. 10 These eight elements overlap considerably with the ten benchmarks for public pre-K programs provided by the National Institute for Early Education Research, as well as the Learning Policy Institute’s recommended initiatives for effective pre-K. This growing alignment in the field can support policy makers as they prioritize where to make investments. For more, see The state of preschool 2021 , 2022; and Linda Darling-Hammond, Madelyn Gardner, and Beth Meloy, Untangling the evidence on preschool effectiveness: Insights for policymakers , Learning Policy Institute, January 2019.

Sufficient time in the classroom

Studies show that full-day pre-K programs lead to better student outcomes than half-day programs. 11 One recent study in Colorado found that full-day pre-K had substantial positive effects on children’s vocabulary and basic literacy skills when compared with half-day pre-K. For more, see Allison Atteberry, Daphna Bassok, and Vivian C. Wong, “The effects of full-day pre-kindergarten: Experimental evidence of impacts on children’s school readiness,” Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis , 2019, Volume 41, Number 4. Research also found that full-day Head Start programs boosted cognitive skill development more than half-day programs. For more, see Christopher R. Walters, “Inputs in the production of early childhood human capital: Evidence from Head Start,” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics , October 2015, Volume 7, Number 4. And parents report higher satisfaction with full-day programs because they make it easier to accommodate work and other responsibilities. 12 Yves Herry, Claire Maltais, and Katherine Thompson, “Effects of a full-day preschool program on 4-year-old children,” Early Childhood Research & Practice , 2007, Volume 9, Number 2.

Opinions vary over whether “full day” pre-K—typically about six hours—is sufficient for a full-time working parent; some systems supplement with paid aftercare or other options for working families to extend the day. 13 Louis Freedberg and Susan Frey, “Expanding early learning time: Accessing full-day preschool and kindergarten in California,” EdSource, March 2017.

Low teacher-to-child ratio

Small class sizes are easier to manage, allowing for more individualized instruction and improved safety and supervision. For this reason, high-quality programs typically limit their teacher-to-child ratio to 1:10, with a maximum of 20 children in a classroom with two adults, typically including a lead teacher and an assistant teacher. 14 The state of preschool 2021 , 2022. Interestingly, the research benefits of even smaller class sizes are not significant enough to necessarily merit the costs. For more, see Jocelyn Bonnes Bowne et al., “A meta-analysis of class sizes and ratios in early childhood education programs: Are thresholds of quality associated with greater impacts on cognitive, achievement, and socioemotional outcomes?,” Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis , 2017, Volume 39, Number 3.

Developmentally appropriate learning standards

Just as in K–12 education, standards that determine what children should learn in pre-K can drive classroom practice and accountability. Most states have a set of standards in place, but these standards vary. 15 Susan B. Neuman and Kathleen Roskos, “The state of pre-kindergarten standards,” Early Childhood Research Quarterly , 2005, Volume 20. High-quality pre-K standards in general strive to address the specific academic and social needs of four-year-olds 16 The state of preschool 2021 , 2022; Elena Bodrova, Deborah Leong, and Rima Shore, “Child outcome standards in pre-K programs: What are standards; what is needed to make them work?,” National Institute for Early Education Research, March 2004. and directly shape curricular choices and professional development for teachers. Nationally standardized expectations, such as the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework, could provide a road map for determining learning standards in line with state and local expectations of children in grades K–3. A lack of alignment risks compromising students’ learning and could require kindergarten teachers to undergo redundant instruction. 17 Laura M. Justice et al., “Academics of the early primary grades: Investigating the alignment of instructional practices from pre-K to third grade,” Early Education and Development , 2022, Volume 33, Number 7.

Just as in K–12 education, standards that determine what children should learn in pre-K can drive classroom practice and accountability.

Effective curriculums

Multiple research studies have demonstrated that young children learn social and academic skills best and most easily through play. 18 Myae Han et al., “Does play make a difference? How play intervention affects the vocabulary learning of at-risk preschoolers,” American Journal of Play , Volume 3, Number 1; Michael Yogman et al., “The power of play: A pediatric role in enhancing development in young children,” Pediatrics , September 2018, Volume 142, Number 3. Historically, more affluent families have gravitated most toward play-based early-learning models, but all children, including those from low-income households, could benefit from this approach. 19 Anya Kamenetz, “A top researcher says it’s time to rethink our entire approach to preschool,” NPR, February 10, 2022. Similar to learning standards, linking pre-K and K–3 curriculums could ensure smooth learning transitions and logical content progressions for children.

Specialized teacher education

Strong pre-K programs tend to have lead teachers with specialized training in early childhood instruction and child development. 20 Untangling the evidence , January 2019; Matthew Manning et al., “The relationship between teacher qualification and the quality of the early childhood education and care environment,” Campbell Systematic Reviews , Volume 13, Number 1; Marisa Bueno, Linda Darling-Hammond, and Danielle Gonzales, A matter of degrees: Preparing teachers for the pre-K classroom , Pew Center on the States, March 2010. At present, nearly all successful programs require a minimum of a bachelor’s degree for lead teachers. However, given the current labor shortage in early childhood education, states may want to consider a skills-based approach to identify those who have the skills to be successful but who have not yet obtained the credentials (that is, creating an on-ramp for currently uncertified early childhood teachers). 21 “Taking a skills-based approach to building the future workforce,” McKinsey, November 15, 2022.

Ongoing professional development

Successful programs offer teachers ongoing professional development that is aligned to the curriculum, incorporate on-the-job coaching, and include practical activities such as role-playing and demonstrations. This training is most effective when teachers have time to practice their new skills, are supported in reflecting on their practice, and have the time and space to set goals. 22 Catriona Elek and Jane Page, “Critical features of effective coaching for early childhood educators: A review of empirical research literature,” Professional Development in Education , Volume 45, Number 4. Coaching that specifically targets teacher–student interactions could improve student learning. 23 Daniel Lipscomb, Robert C. Pianta, and Erik Ruzek, “Indirect effects of coaching on pre-K students’ engagement and literacy skill as a function of improved teacher–student interaction,” Journal of School Psychology , April 2022, Volume 91.

Regular assessment of child progress

Individual child assessments offer visibility into a child’s progress and readiness for kindergarten. Research-backed tools such as Head Toes Knees Shoulders, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Teaching Strategies GOLD, and Woodcock–Johnson (WJ) tests measure student skills during everyday classroom activities and provide rich data for teachers to adjust their instructional practices during the year. 24 For more, see Catherine E. Snow and Susan B. Van Hemel, eds., Early childhood assessment: Why, what, and how , Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2008; Ellen C. Frede, Kwanghee Jung, and Shannon Riley-Ayers, Early learning scale: Technical report , National Institute of Early Education Research, September 2010; Megan M. McClelland et al., “The Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders revised: Links to academic outcomes and measures of EF in young children,” Frontiers in Psychology , 2021; “Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test,” ScienceDirect; “Research,” Teaching Strategies; Bashir Abu-Hamour et al., “The use of Woodcock-Johnson tests for identifying students with special needs-a comprehensive literature review,” Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences , 2012, Volume 47. Classroom-level assessments can provide data to families to inform program choice, to system administrators to maintain program accountability, and to leaders and coaches to tailor support to teachers. One of the most widely deployed assessments is the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS), which has demonstrated reliability, validity, and an ability to predict student outcomes. 25 CLASS can effectively assess teacher–student interactions in ways that have direct impacts on student outcomes. For more, see Karen M. La Paro, Robert C. Pianta, and Megan Stuhlman, “The Classroom Assessment Scoring System: Findings from the prekindergarten year,” The Elementary School Journal , May 2004, Volume 104, Number 5; Jason T. Downer et al., “The Individualized Classroom Assessment Scoring System (inCLASS): Preliminary reliability and validity of a system for observing preschoolers’ competence in classroom interactions,” Early Childhood Research Quarterly , Volume 25, Number 1; The state of preschool 2021 , 2022.

Robust data systems

Ideally, pre-K program data systems are linked to the state’s overarching K–12 data systems to track alignment and impact over time. Many states are struggling to get truly integrated systems off the ground due to a set of common barriers—fragmentation in the early childhood system, inconsistent data use and collection, and confidentiality concerns. 26 Donald J. Hernandez, “PreK-3rd: Next steps for state longitudinal data systems,” Foundation for Child Development, April 2012. Most states have adopted Quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS) as a tool to standardize and communicate publicly about early childhood program quality. Evidence from successful state programs demonstrates that pairing QRIS with other proven strategies to boost pre-K quality can be very effective. 27 Daphna Bassok, Preston Magouirk, Anna J. Markowitz, “Systemwide quality improvement in early childhood education: Evidence from Louisiana,” AERA Open , 2021, Volume 7. Some studies have cautioned that the link between QRIS scores and student outcomes is limited. For more, see Jill S. Cannon et al., “Quality Rating and Improvement Systems for early care and education programs: Making the second generation better,” RAND Corporation, 2017. This has not been the case in all states, though: for QRIS to improve quality, states should consider investing in complementary program supports.

A, B, or C: Crucial pre-K program decisions

States will weigh the trade-offs of numerous decisions. Six are particularly pressing.

Define the scope: Universal versus targeted

Considering universal versus targeted pre-k.

Universal programs are, by virtue of their sheer size, more expensive to operate—but they can introduce potential benefits as well as costs.

All children, regardless of background or socioeconomic status, gain greater language skills and experience social, emotional, and cognitive benefits in socioeconomically diverse pre-K classrooms. 1 “Strong foundations: Promoting diverse and inclusive preschool settings,” The Hunt Institute, The Education Trust, The Century Foundation, and Educational Alliance, June 2022. One study found that low-income children benefited more from universal programs than targeted programs. Though there are many variables at play, the researcher posited that at least some of the variance was due to the in-classroom peer effect of a heterogeneous classroom. For more, see Elizabeth U. Cascio, Does universal preschool hit the target? Program access and preschool impacts , National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, number 23215, March 2017. Universal programs have a higher likelihood of enrolling a socioeconomically diverse class than targeted programs, given that they are open to everyone, have simpler application processes with less of a time burden, and carry fewer social stigmas than targeted programs intended for lower-income families. Indeed, targeted programs do not appeal to everyone, even the families for whom they’re intended. Research would suggest that low-income families are more likely to enroll in a universal program than a targeted program for which they are eligible. 2 One global analysis found that highly targeted programs find takers for 56 percent of available resources at most, and some found takers for as low as 3 percent of resources. Universal programs, meanwhile, had significantly higher adoption rates, including from targeted populations. For more, see Diloá Athias and Stephen Kidd, Hit and miss: An assessment of targeting effectiveness in social protection with additional analysis , Development Pathways working paper, updated June 2020. Moreover, some research suggests that universal programs—particularly those that benefit children—enjoy a broader, more sustained coalition of support. 3 W. Steven Barnett, Kirsty Brown, and Rima Shore, “The universal vs. targeted debate: Should the United States have preschool for all?,” National Institute for Early Education Research, April 2004; Robert Greenstein, “Targeting, universalism, and other factors affecting social programs’ political strength,” Brookings, June 28, 2022.

The benefits of universal programming are clear, but everything hinges on implementation—specifically access that is both universal and inclusive, as well as sufficiently funded.

Universal access. Some localities have created programs open to all children, but due to a lack of sufficient funding or capacity, not every child who wants a seat gets one. With scarcity, children who face the greatest barriers to entry—those whose parents may lack the resources or information to enroll them—may be the least likely to gain access.

Sufficient funding. Across existing public pre-K programs, per-child spending varies widely. The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) estimated in 2020 that only four states (New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, West Virginia) and Washington, DC, were spending enough on their public pre-K program to support a full-day, high-quality program with teacher salaries comparable to those in K–12. 4 Allison H. Friedman-Krauss et al., The state of preschool 2020 , National Institute for Early Education Research, 2021. NIEER’s rationale to suggest that pre-K teachers be paid the same as K–12 teachers is tied to certification requirements, arguing that if teachers are held to the same standards in pre-K as in K–12, states will need to pay comparably to maintain a workforce. Access without quality can do a disservice to the children who participate. 5 Anya Kamenetz, “A top researcher says it’s time to rethink our entire approach to preschool,” NPR, February 10, 2022. Where states have limited funds, they should consider the balance between serving fewer children at a higher cost per child and serving all children at a lower cost per child.

Inclusive access. Some researchers caution that even the most well-intentioned universal programs will exacerbate the achievement gap as more privileged families flock to the higher-quality programs and leave lower-income families to programs of lesser caliber. 6 Scott Latham et al., “Racial disparities in pre-K quality: Evidence from New York City’s universal pre-K program,” Educational Researcher , July 2021, Volume 50, Number 9. Some states have elected to focus on closing these critical gaps by serving only those children most at risk of entering kindergarten underprepared, as compared to other students. 7 Berkeley Blog , “How public pre-K education for all can worsen racial disparities,” blog entry by Bruce Fuller, April 22, 2021. But jurisdictions can take intentional steps to ensure that all programs within a universal system are high quality through targeted coaching and additional support to programs in higher-poverty neighborhoods.

Today, there are strong examples of both targeted and universal programs, and programs of both types have struggled to achieve quality. In either model, states need to consider the other design choices that will create more even quality across the entire system, such as appropriate pay for teachers, targeted coaching and support, and additional services for at-risk families and children. Some states have also considered a hybrid—targeted universalism—in which the program is open to everyone but with focused recruitment or additional services for eligible populations. 8 William Gormley, “Universal vs. targeted pre-kindergarten: Reflections for policymakers” in The current state of scientific knowledge on pre-kindergarten effects , Brookings, April 2017.

Universal programs are open to all children, whereas targeted programs have eligibility criteria. Views differ—sometimes widely—on different program types. Ultimately, states could consider how much they could spend on pre-K and how best to meet the needs of children who stand to gain the most from a high-quality pre-K experience (see sidebar “Considering universal versus targeted pre-K”).

Locate the funding

To build a successful pre-K program, states will need a sustainable funding source, and most provide funding over and above the limited federal resources available. A few states allocate pre-K funding as part of their K–12 funding formula. 28 Bruce Atchison, Louisa Diffey, and Emily Parker, How states fund pre-K: A primer for policymakers , Education Commission of the States, February 2018. At least five states use funding from their state lottery for pre-K, and several states use so-called sin taxes from alcohol and tobacco. Some states are using one-time American Rescue Plan (ARP) funding to support pre-K expansion efforts or to expand access and eligibility, even if only temporarily. For more, see Lori Connors-Tadros, Kathy Stohr, and GG Weisenfeld, “States sharing strategies to target federal funds to an integrated, equitable, high-quality system of early care and education,” National Institute for Early Education Research, June 30, 2021. Some states (and localities) have funded pre-K out of their general budget. Others have identified new revenue sources. Still others have used public–private partnerships for specific program components, such as new program pilots, assessment rollouts, or data system expansions. However, private funding to date has not been extensive enough to support annual operating costs for large-scale pre-K programs.

Establish clear governance

In most states, the department of education has principal oversight over the statewide pre-K program. Some states have created an agency focused on early childhood education; others split responsibilities across multiple agencies; and a few have delegated such programs to health and human services departments. Regardless of who is in charge, the decisions made at the state level have implications at the local level. Some states require funding and management to flow through local education agencies (LEAs) or similar entities, which may oversee key decisions such as determining the district’s minimum hours of pre-K operation, outlining professional-development requirements for teachers, and even establishing class size and teacher-to-student ratios. 29 Special report: State preschool administration , National Institute for Early Education Research, 2020.

Determine accountability for services

States have different criteria for determining how public funds are allocated between providers. Some states mandate that funds be split between public and private providers. For example, West Virginia state law requires that 50 percent of pre-K classrooms in each county be in private settings. 30 “2019 state of West Virginia pre-K,” West Virginia Department of Education, 2020. Other states leave the decision to localities. There are examples of programs with strong outcomes in a public-school-only model, such as in Boston, and of programs that allow for multiple delivery models, such as in Oklahoma.

Decide whether to serve three-year-olds

Research suggests that children benefit from a second year of high-quality preschool, 31 Irma Arteaga et al., “One year of preschool or two – Is it important for adult outcomes? Results from the Chicago Longitudinal Study of the Child-Parent Centers,” Economics of Education Review , June 2014, Volume 40. which would translate into more children entering pre-K at age three rather than waiting until age four. Based on the research and the precedent being set by some cities, some states might consider supporting two years of preschool, which could be an immense help to low-income families. 32 “Strong foundations: Promoting diverse and inclusive preschool settings,” The Hunt Institute, The Education Trust, The Century Foundation, and Educational Alliance, June 2022.

Given limited resources, most states and localities have focused, for now, on implementing one year of preschool. Today’s existing two-year pre-K programs—such as those in Boston, New York City, and Washington, DC—started with four-year-olds and expanded to include three-year-olds because the programs demonstrated positive outcomes and cities were able to identify additional resources to support the effort.

Offer wraparound services

Federal Head Start program standards require the provision of basic health and hygiene services, referrals for coordinated services, parent education, and a role for parents in program governance. Many Head Start and other pre-K programs include families as powerful tools for improving child outcomes by recognizing the strengths and diversity of their backgrounds and by finding ways to engage them in classroom activities. Students could benefit from additional services, but there is insufficient research to definitively conclude that this is critical to quality as states prioritize where to spend their funds—particularly given that implementation of such practices is largely determined at the classroom level or center level. 33 “Family engagement,” Head Start Early Childhood Learning & Knowledge Center.

Today’s existing two-year pre-K programs started with four-year-olds and expanded to include three-year-olds because the programs demonstrated positive outcomes.

How much will this cost?

RAND’s estimated average cost of $12,700 per child to run a high-quality, full-day pre-K program in 2019 is not far from that year’s national per-child K–12 average of $13,187. 34 Lynn A. Karoly et al., Understanding the cost to deliver high-quality publicly funded pre-kindergarten programs , RAND Corporation, 2021; 2019 Public Elementary-Secondary Education Finance Data, US Census Bureau, updated October 8, 2021. Actual spending on pre-K is barely half that figure: the national average in 2021 was just $6,804. 35 The state of preschool 2021 , 2022. To fund a high-quality program, states will need to narrow this gap.

Of course, there is no magic number to be spent per child to achieve high quality. However, there are prerequisites. There need to be enough teachers to maintain a reasonable classroom ratio. A full day of services for children needs to be funded, and teacher compensation needs to be sufficient to attract qualified candidates and limit turnover. The overall scale of certain administrative operations, such as assessment and coaching, varies widely from state to state and may be funded by other sources, such as local payment matching—in which case states need not bake those costs directly into their own per-child spending. And while many states have left some one-time federal stimulus funds unspent, there may be significant up-front investments they could make now to support a pre-K expansion, including spending on facilities, workforce development, and other program start-up costs.

Pre-K is an investment that delivers proven, widespread benefits, and research suggests an increasingly clear sense of how states can design programs to unlock them. There are certainly risks, particularly if the amount spent per child is insufficient for operating a quality program. But there are steps states could take to design programs that fit local circumstances, resources, and goals. The research suggests that investing in the next generation of students, particularly as we continue to recover from the economic and educational impacts of COVID-19, is likely to prove well worth the cost.

Jake Bryant is a partner in McKinsey’s Seattle office, and Jimmy Sarakatsannis is a senior partner in the Washington, DC, office. Emmy Liss and Ellen Viruleg are advisers to McKinsey’s Education Practice. Emmy Liss worked at the New York City Department of Education from April 2015 to March 2022 and served as the chief operating officer for the Division of Early Childhood Education and Student Enrollment.

The authors wish to thank Tonika Cheek Clayton and Rachel Valentino for their contributions to this article.

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178 Childhood Education Research Topics & Essay Examples

📝 childhood education research papers examples, 🎓 simple research topics about childhood education, 👍 good childhood education essay topics to write about, ⭐ interesting topics to write about childhood education, 🏆 best childhood education essay titles, ❓ childhood education research questions.

Learning Fractions Through Gameplay Researchers of the game-based learning offer a framework that evaluates the games’ support of formal studies, focusing on inquiry, communication, construction, and expression.
Child Development and Education: Physical Exercise Human development refers to the process of growing to maturity. A child needs to have good physical activities, in order to develop to a healthy adult.
Environment in Early Childhood Education The paper reviews the history of early education and argues that the context and environment is the key strategy applied to the modern education of young children.
Curricular Issues in Early Childhood Education In the unit, “Curricular Issues,” Paciorek asserts that teachers have a role to inspire, encourage and influence children in the learning process.
Early Childhood Education Standards and Practices The purpose of developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood education is to address the issues of individual ways of children's development.
Child Advocacy in Education Children constitute some of the most vulnerable groups in society. The main aim of this paper is to address child advocacy in relation to education issues that concern children.
Early Childhood Education: Studies Review Studies on early childhood education have been conducted in various countries. This paper reviews three studies that were conducted in Germany, Netherlands and the USA.
Early Childhood Profession in Australia This report analyses the state of early childhood profession in Australia. Numerous features characterise early childhood profession.
Philosophy of Children Education A teacher to be aware of diverse learning styles to establish a style of learning for every learner and devise appropriate instructional strategies.
Educational Leadership for Children's Needs The present issues in early childhood education management and leadership prove that educational leaders need to pay more attention to the quality of leadership.
Intervention for Young Children with Learning Disabilities This paper discusses strategies that teachers could use to educate children with learning disabilities and how the Response to Intervention could support their educational outcomes.
Maria Montessori and Her Three Education Theories Maria Montessori transformed early childhood education through her theories of early childhood education. Scholars consider Montessori to be among the earliest educators.
Quality Early Childhood Program Comprehensive services are the component that improves the care given to the children within the educational facility.
Early Childhood Education: Leadership and Management Being a teacher means taking on a number of diverse roles. A teacher is a leader who should have the ability to manage children's talents and capabilities.
Early Childhood Political and Pedagogical Landscape In New Zealand the government fails to hire qualified teachers in pre-school centres and child minding facilities. This condition can affect the quality of education for children.
Extracurricular Activities for the Middle Childhood Ages Extracurricular activities are essential for children aged 6-10 as they begin to connect more with society, make friends, and enjoy being a part of a group.
The Educational Process in Early Childhood The use of a method including all types of indicators will signify the precise results of the conducted study and contribute to the development of educational strategies.
Ethical Dilemmas in Early Childhood Education One of the core ideas of ethics in early childhood education is that both a child's and a family's interests are essential in children's development.
Maria Montessori: Education as an Aid to Life In the current essay, the question of how education is an aid to life, according to Maria Montessori, is addressed.
The Process of Children’s Education: Parents’ Participation The purpose of this study is to reveal the benefits and disadvantages of the parent’s participation in the process of children’s education.
Literacy Development for Preschoolers The article focuses on the importance of early literacy development in preschoolers and methods that will help teachers in this.
Montessori Method: Human Tendencies and Inner Needs The Montessori method relies on the intrinsic desire to learn that can be encouraged in a purposefully built environment without interference from adults.
The Child Assessment Cycle in Education The purpose of this paper is to describe the child assessment cycle and related teacher responsibilities and explain how the child assessment cycle benefits students.
Early Childhood Education Children growing in proper care and correct guidance in their childhood education are more successful in their interactions with others, popular and more at ease in life.
The Curriculum at the Child Education Center The curriculum at the Child Education Center is both academic and co-curriculum based and this means that we value both the academic performance and talents of the children.
Censorship in Children’s Educational Materials It can be suggested that school materials need to be censored to some extent, and this point of view is going to be analyzed further.
Montessori Method in the Modern Times The Montessori method of education offers an alternative to traditional instructional principles, these days it is returning to the modern scientific scope.
Quality Early Childhood Education Program The educators, supervisors and caregivers involved into work with children are to be properly trained and master the practice of teaching including all techniques and methods.
Adult Education in the United States This paper uses the case of the United States to address the increasing desires and demands of adult education in contemporary times.
Importance of Conducting Effective Child Sex Education This essay will discuss the significance of conducting effective child sex education, and it will also discuss factors that have hampered the effectiveness of child sex education.
Adolescents and Disengagement from Education One out of ten teenagers between sixteen and eighteen years old is either disengaged in education, professional training, or even employment.
The United Arab Emirates Early Education Policy The UAE Early Education Policy will help to update the educational system so that students could acquire the necessary skills in a more efficient manner.
Current Issues in Primary Education. Need for a “Guardian” Through media outlets, such as the “Guardian” and the “Times”, commentators can voice their criticisms of design for the future of education in the United Kingdom.
Aspects of the Child’s Development and Education The paper states that parental involvement can be understood as the family’s participation in different aspects of their child’s development and education.
Play-Based Philosophy for Early Childhood Education Play-based educational programs use games as a context for learning, where preschoolers can explore, discover, solve problems, and experiment in playful and imaginative ways.
Overcoming Stereotypes in Early Childhood Education Overcoming stereotypes in early childhood education is essential for raising children who would recognize all people around them as equals and treat them with respect.
The Meaning of Early Childhood Educator Encouraging early childhood development is vital for assisting a child in gaining the knowledge and skills appropriate for their age at a later stage of their life.
Communication with Children within Education Communication and interaction with all stakeholders are the keys to success in any field of activity. This principle also applies to education, including the teaching of children.
Early Childhood Educator: Pedagogical Mission and Approach An early childhood educator is an important figure in a child’s life. Aside from providing knowledge, one should facilitate child's socialization and transmit universal values.
Early Education in California The outcome of the assessment has a direct influence on the development of programs, their financing, and overall continuation.
Children with Disabilities: Educational Programs Children with disabilities need a special approach to learning that requires equipped classes, teachers who will take into account the physical characteristics of the disabled.
The Concept Map of Childhood Education This paper aims to construct a concept map that provides an overview of the most important theories and approaches in the field of early childhood education.
Ideal Educational Experience: The Role of Primary School Teachers’ Attitudes Primary school is an important stage in the life of every child. In primary school, children begin to learn more consciously to communicate with each other.
Examination of Major Effects of Poverty on Children's Education Quality education is a necessary part of a growing individual’s life, allowing them to obtain access to unique possibilities and secure a successful path.
The Early Childhood Education Early Childhood Education is an internationally recognized research and professional institute for children's development.
Leadership in the Context of Early Childhood Education The teacher played a leadership role in motivating and coordinating a team of colleagues, acquiring information about the community, and researching children's educational needs.
Assessments in Early Childhood Education This essay provides insight into various assessments and methods required to focus on the whole child. The classroom assessments should be organized.
Potential Setting Modifications for Children Education The first setting modification that can be applied is the introduction of visual aids for some tasks. The second would be to introduce equipment aids, most importantly a walker.
Enhancing Vocabulary in Childhood: Article Summary This summary is based on the literature review article “Closing the Vocabulary Gap? A Review of Research on Early Childhood Vocabulary Practices” by Christ and Wang.
Childhood Education: The Montessori Approach and the Reggio Emilia Theory This research paper examines the problem of childhood education, using the Montessori approach and the Reggio Emilia theory.
Special Education for Children with Mental Disorders Problems of learning and school adaptation of children and adolescents with mental disorders are most urgent in modern social psychiatry.
The Osmo Genius Starter Kit: Turkish Early Childhood Education Curriculum The Osmo Genius starter kit is a learning system that integrates physical play with the digital world. This tool is manufactured for elementary school-aged children.
Family Participation in a Child’s Education This paper claims that family participation has positive influences on children’s learning, including boosting academic achievement and better attendance rates.
Personal Code of Ethics for Early Childhood Educator A code of ethics is important for people not only as individuals but as professionals as well. It represents moral, religious, and cultural upbringing.
Planning and Teaching in a Preschool Setting The teacher's job is to plan learning activities that begin with the development of learning objectives and continue through implementation and evaluation in a preschool setting.
Aspects of Childhood Learning The paper states that playful learning activities can help children and teachers exceed standards since they are properly engaged in activities.
Reggio Emilia’s Approaches to Children’s Education The task of educating infants and toddlers is a complex initiative that requires adopting appropriate frameworks for better results.
Diversity in Early Childhood Education The increasing diversity in early childhood education settings requires teachers to become competent in inclusive teaching practice, and challenge biases to promote social justice.
Creating a Personal Philosophy of Early Childhood Education The role of a preschool teacher is to provide intellectual and moral development and encouragement of children’s ideas to reveal potential talents and abilities.
Early Child Education: Developing Effective Learning Methods The paper describes how to develop strong relationships with young learners. It shows how teachers should develop relationships through shared experiences.
The Pedagogical Technique of Montessori This essay is a theoretical synthesis of the critical ideas of Maria Montessori's pedagogical practice and the identification of her philosophy.
Stem Education by Mathematics Teachers in Saudi Primary Schools The paper aims to outline the rationale for assessing STEM in Saudi primary education with a specific focus on mathematics teachers.
Preschool Education in China and Japan Preschool education in China serves several purposes, from child care to educational preparation. Meanwhile, the Japanese preschool system is more directed toward socialization.
Diversity in Early Childhood School Setting In today's multicultural society, classrooms all over the globe are becoming diverse. This means that schools now admit increased numbers of children from diverse cultures.
Early Childhood Educators' Influence on Society This paper is a reflection on Early Childhood educators regarding their societal role, standing, and their influence in society.
Childhood Education and Learning Theory One of the primary purposes that teachers should pursue is to provide the best possible education to one’s students.
Educating the Whole Child Approach Description Educating the Whole Child is a relatively new approach to education that centers on the education environment and its influence on children's overall development.
History of Inclusion in Early Childhood Education Creating schools with special needs was the first step to their inclusion into society, followed by integration: allowing them to visit a regular school.
Childhood Practices and Allowances The purpose of childhood practice is to provide a foundation for kids' cognitive and social growth that will continue throughout their lives.
Dialogue and Its Importance in Children’s Education The most important matter in children’s education is dialogue. Furthermore, communication should be done in a respectful manner.
Early Children’s Development and Learning: Philosophy Statement This paper contains a brief description of the philosophy statement regarding early children’s development and learning.
The College of Early Childhood Educators The importance of the early childhood educator's involvement in the well-being, learning, and development of children cannot be overstated.
Childhood Education Programs and Improvements to Them This paper reviews two articles that examine the data about childhood education programs and suggest improvements to schools.
Development of the Pedagogical Leadership An important aspect of pedagogical leadership is the factor of teacher interaction with the main participants of the educational process.
Stress in Early Childhood Education Early childhood education is crucial to the child's mental development, and the movie "No Small Matter" reveals curious insights into the topic.
Developing Emergent Literacy in Children Emergent literacy is the basis for the further development of abilities; therefore, it should be given proper attention.
Characteristics of Effective Early Childhood Teachers “Twelve Characteristics of Effective Early Childhood Teachers” explains the phenomenological attributes of each quality, ranging from passion to a sense of humor.
Discussing Child Learning Strategies The article analyzes two videos reviewed are the "Visually Impaired" and "Understanding Hearing Impairments" clips.
Praise and Encouragement in Early Childhood Education The article discusses approaching the children in school-based activities in class, which includes giving credit where it deserves by improving a child's potential.
Early Childhood Education in India Today's preschool education system in India is designed so that parents can rest assured of their children who have been trained in such groups.
Quality Physical Education and Obesity in US Children For the public and often the students themselves, physical education in schools is rarely taken seriously, viewed as largely a ‘filler’ subject to meet government requirements.
Comparison of the Two Early Childhood Educational Institutions in Hong Kong This paper examines the educational and administrative management aspects of two kindergartens in Hong Kong: HKYWCA Athena and The Salvation Army Shui Chuen O Kindergarten.
Importance of Early Childhood Study Early childhood is a great determiner of a person's future character and behavior, as children learn a lot because they can easily understand each other through games.
Research in the Field of Childhood Literacy This paper contains an annotated bibliography of the two articles devoted to the topics of childhood literacy and education.
Children's Skills Development and Education Decent behavior, operational interaction with others, and articulating individual needs are essential constituents of children's skills.
Teaching Strategies for Middle Childhood Development Stages Tutors have the most significant part to play in the middle childhood development stage. They should choose and practice relevant strategies.
Best Practices in Early Childhood Education This paper discusses best practices in the field of early childhood education, which are based on developmentally appropriate practice (DAP).
“The Kindergarten Program”: Visible Learning in Early Childhood Education Visible learning is particularly significant since children learn from experience and should be exposed to real-life situations.
How Fun and Playing Helps Kids Learn The topic of childhood development via playing will be examined in depth in this study, which will cover various aspects of the topic.
Early Childhood Education Programs Comparison Relying on the two videos on Early Childhood Education Programs, this paper compares various programs that are critical for the proper development of children.
Early Childhood Education: Pedagogical Skills Understanding each child as a unique individual with their own psychological characteristics and structure of thinking seems to be a necessary competence of any children's teacher.
Stages of Learning to Spell in Children Learning conventional spelling goes beyond the dry memorization of thousands of words, it is best attained by pragmatic activities.
Family-Centered Programs in Early Childhood Classroom Family-centered programs for early childhood education have become popular across the United States due to their inherent benefits.
Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care Framework Community-level indigenous governments have participated in framework development, resulting in the identification of service gaps these communities find important.
Montessori Education System, Its History, Pros and Cons For decades, the Montessori method has revolutionized education within various institutions in more than one hundred countries worldwide.
Educational Practices for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder This paper aims to analyze Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and find ways to change educational practices to meet the needs of students with ADHD.
K-12 Education Change in Educating Young People During the COVID-19 Pandemic This paper is an annotated bibliography of the articles devoted to the K-12 education change in light of the experience of educating young people during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Learning in Special Education Needs School This paper will explore four important areas of development in SEN and the importance of inclusion, diversity, and accessibility in SEN schools.
Role of Adults and Educators in the Education Process Adults and educators play a central role in the education process. They direct the process of inquiry and the desire to learn everything around children.
The Montessori Method and Its Benefits The Montessori Method of education is an influential teaching method to ensure that students are equipped with the best practical skills in the learning process.
Integrating Children Into Society: The Role of Education As a social institution, the school is responsible for integrating children into society. Higher education is also very important for a person to shape their role in society.
The Rationale for Completion of a Bachelor’s Degree in Education Studies "Educational Studies" is a course designed to earn a non-license teaching degree while majoring and minoring in education.
Interview: Physical and Cognitive Development in Middle-Late Childhood The teacher was willing to provide additional insights about physical, socioemotional, and cognitive development during middle to late childhood.
Formal Education and Child Benchmarks This paper looks to dissect a child's cognitive, behavioral, and relational benchmarks at 18 years and relate them to the story of Success academy.
Language Rationale: Montessori Education Curriculum An analysis of the language rationale in the Montessori education curriculum shows that learning occurs through spoken language, writing, and reading.
Parental Engagement into Children’s Education Parental engagement in children’s studies has a positive impact on the children’s academic achievements and contributes to higher results in school.
An Inquiry Into Form and Its Importance in Early Childhood Education The creative process uses various tools to help students better understand the world around them and how they perceive it.
Early Childhood Education Aspects Early childhood is considered the most crucial time of child development because it is a period of fast physical and mental development.
The Outdoor Learning Benefits and Effectiveness The work aims to show that outdoor learning, when used correctly, has great potential towards improving the children's educational experience as a whole.
Outdoor Learning Influence on Young Children Outdoor learning and the incorporation of more open approaches to early education are highly beneficial to the development of young children.
Early Childhood Education: Teaching Methods Early childhood educators rely on different teaching methods and solutions to delivering learning instructions, some of which might not produce the best results.
Student Behaviour in Early Childhood Settings In the development of children, problems often occur in the form of deviations from generally accepted social age expectations.
No Homework Policy in Primary Schools of Abu Dhabi In the UAE, debates regarding the ban on homework are emerging after a ministry decision to scrap homework at several public schools in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Twenty-First Century Childhood Education Personal Philosophy
Early Childhood Education: Impact on Cognitive and Social Development
Past Origins and Philosophical Concepts of Childhood Education
Newzealand Childhood Education Services
Childhood Education and Parental Involvement Enhancement
Autonomy Within the Childhood Education Field
Analysing the Popular Problems in Child Education
Factors That Influence Childhood Education Programs
How Food Insecurity Affects Children’s Education Food insecurity can also be harmful to academic performance. As a result, a poorly-educated individual has low income and continue suffering from world hunger.
High-Quality Program for Childhood Education
Proper Childhood Education and Racism
Childhood Education for Children From Low Income
Health, Safety, and Nutrition in Childhood Education
Sex Roles and Gender Bias in Childhood Education
Childhood Education and Multicultural Literature
Early Childhood Education: Improving Listening Skills
Childhood Education: Vision, Mission, and Philosophy
Early Childhood Education, Literacy Development
Childhood Education: Impact on Cognitive and Social Development
Technology Benefits in Early Childhood Education Despite the doubts about the use of technology in early education, it should be integrated into the curriculum to provide young students with more opportunities to learn easily.
Teacher: Childhood Education and Family Involvement
Childhood Education and Development Act of 1989
Classroom Management for Childhood Education
Nursing and Childhood Education
Childhood Education and Special Education
Social Work and Childhood Education
Childhood Education, Economic Development, and the Business Community
Integrating Art Into Childhood Education
Social Equity and Childhood Education
Workplace, Childcare and Childhood Education
Childhood Education, Delinquency, and Life
Learning Through Structured Play During Childhood Education
Playful Learning and Pedagogies Within Childhood Education
Childhood Education and Social Inequalities
Brain Development and Childhood Education
China Child Development: Childhood Education in Yunnan
Good Communication Skills Are Essential for Childhood Education
Early Childhood Education: Development of Manipulative Skills
Childhood Education and Developmental Delays
Leadership and Administration in Child Education
Comprehensive Proposal for Development of a Childhood Education
What Are the Benefits Of Childhood Education?
How Does Childhood Education Set the Stage for the Future of Academic Education?
What Are the Basic Concepts of Child Education?
What Are the Current Issues and Trends in Child Education Assessment?
How the Prevailing National Political Situation Is Affecting Childhood Education?
What Are the Children’s Education and Curriculum Standards?
How Has Children’s Education Changed in the Past and the Present?
What Is the Relationship Between the Economy and Children’s Education?
What Are the Popular Technologies in Children’s Education?
What Is the Most Popular Childhood Education Curriculum?
Does the Turkish Childhood Education Program Is Cultural?
What Is the Philosophy of Child Education?
How To Improve Boys’ Achievement in Children’s Education?
What Is the Importance of Music and Movement in Children’s Education?
Education for Sustainability Within Childhood Education in Aotearoa New Zealand?
What Is the Difference Between Multicultural Education and Children’s Education?
Famous Child Education Theorists and What Are Their Theories?
Fending off Fadeout: How Do We Sustain the Gains of Childhood Education?
Why Is Childhood Education Important?
What Are the Indicators of Education and Child Care?
How Does the Demographic Fluctuation Affect Children’s Education in Iran?
Who Bears the Cost of Childhood Education and How Does It Affect Enrolment?
What Are the Education Programs for Children and Youth?

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Early Childhood Research Summit helps connect research, practice, policy

Chrishana Lloyd, research scholar at Child Trends, delivers her keynote address April 23 at the 2024 CYFS Early Childhood Research Summit. (Kyleigh Skaggs, CYFS)

08 May 2024 By Chuck Green, CYFS

Creating connections among early childhood research, practice and policy — and how each can enhance the lives of young children and their families — provided the central theme of the 202 4 CYFS Early Childhood Research Summit .  

Almost 200 attendees, including researchers from across the University of Nebraska system, practitioners, administrators, community partners and policymakers, gathered April 2 3 at Nebraska Innovation Campus for the daylong, s eventh biennial summit, which highlighted the latest research to advance early childhood education and development , and implications for practice and policy .  

“ Collaboration and partnership are essential to our ability to make positive impacts in the lives of young children and their families — and in the communities in which they live , ” said Sue Sheridan , CYFS director , as she welcomed summit participants. “ M y hope is that each of you — whether you are a researcher, practitioner, administrator, community partner or policymaker — leaves today having forged new connections and strengthen ing existing ones .”

Keynote speaker  Chrishana Lloyd , research scholar at Child Trends , discussed the relationship between research, policy and practice in early care and education , highlighting innovative approaches and strategies to advance field.  

Lloyd outlined a research project on which she was involved that focused on a historical exploration of early care and education compensation, policy and solutions , particularly among Native American and Black women. The study explored the level to which the groups were minoritized and marginalized , and how the resulting systemic racism continues to have significant effects on the child care workforce .

Lloyd also discussed the work of her National Early Care and Education Workforce Center, and its future goals. One feature, the Grow Your Own campaign, draws from within communities to support a diverse, qualified and well-compensated early care and education workforce.

Grow Your Own helps launch signature services such as campaign webinars, technical assistance , facilitating connections among local innovators to build research capacity .

“ What works tends to happen locally, ” she said.

Lloyd emphasized the i mportance of flexibility in early childhood research , practice and policy.

“ Turnover is a natural thing; nobody stays in one job forever, ” she said. “ We learn and grow and progress. When you do this work, you have to be ope n to growth and change. ”

Throughout the day ’ s breakout sessions and panel discussions, research topics spanned children ’ s school readiness, parent engagement, special education, health and nutrition, STEM , social-emotional development, and workforce development .  

Jason Prokop, director of First Five Nebraska , and Walter Gilliam , executive director of the Buffett Early Childhood Institute , also shared their thoughts with the attending educators, researchers and policymakers.

Gilliam stressed the importance of Nebraska’s policy, practice and research communities acting together to ensure positive impacts for children and their families.

“All three elements work together to positively impact lives, ” he said. “ We have to make sure we communicate and collaborate to ensure that the work we ’ re doing is translating into meaningful change for children and their families. ”

Jason Ball, president of the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce, spoke during lunch, assuring attendees that the Chamber views early childhood research and development as an integral part of Lincoln ’ s economic growth and future workforce development.

“ We are involved in the public policy that is essential to shaping the future, collectively as a state, that will serve our families and children better, ” he said.

Nick Pace , interim dean of the College of Education and Human Sciences , shared closing thoughts, noting how early childhood research drives future success. He thanked researchers for their work and collaboration in aligning research, practice and policy.

“ Working together is crucial to generating the best outcomes — and to ensuring that high-quality early childhood research continues to flourish and thrive in Nebraska ,” Pace said. “I know everyone here will benefit from the research information shared today , and will develop a deeper understanding of our strengths, progress and dedication to early childhood research at the University of Nebraska. ”  

The event concluded with a poster session that featured more than 20 graduate students showcasing their early childhood research and answering questions about their work.  

The summit was presented by CYFS in partnership with the Nebraska Academy for Early Childhood Research (NAECR). Sponsors included the College of Education and Human Sciences ; the Buffett Early Childhood Institute ; and First Five Nebraska .  

View summit videos, research presentations and posters

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Laura bornfreund, feb. 26, 2024.

With the exception of reading, there has long been limited attention to strengthening kindergarten and the early grades of elementary school and K-2 teachers' vital role in laying the foundation for children’s future learning and development. The tide, however, may be shifting. Under U.S. Secretary of Education Cardona, the Department of Education has an initiative to help states think about how to make kindergarten a more “sturdy bridge” between pre-K and the early grades. In recent years, state legislatures have introduced or passed laws to require kindergarten, fund kindergarten as a full day, and promote play-based learning in kindergarten and the early grades. Other states are piloting efforts to ensure children’s kindergarten experiences align with how they learn best. To learn more about efforts to transform kindergarten, visit New America’s Transforming Kindergarten page . You can also check out some of our ideas for strengthening K-2 here .

Last year, in 2023, I had the opportunity to work with School Readiness Consulting on a landscape project of what assessment and curricula look like in kindergarten through second grade. For this blog post, I asked SRC team members Soumya Bhat, Mimi Howard, Kate McKenney, Eugenia McRae, and Nicole Sharpe, and authors of the brief “ Making the Early Years Matter ,” what they learned about the K-2 years.

In the brief, "Making the Early Grades Matter: Seven Ways to Improve Kindergarten Through Grade 2," you write about the importance and opportunity of children’s K-2 years. You say that their importance is not fully realized. How do we know this is the case, and why do you think it’s happening?

While such clear benefits are linked to the K–2 years, particularly the importance of kindergarten, the policies and practices in use for this critical time have yet to catch up to the research. We know that children who start behind will stay behind, underscoring that grade 3 is too late to start focusing on student proficiency. Unfortunately, K-2 continues to be systemically undervalued and under-resourced in many districts. This undervaluing is happening for several reasons – one is that school improvement efforts primarily focus on third grade and above, partly due to accountability pressures and accompanying testing requirements. This focus on standardized assessments later in elementary school has increased academic demands in the K-2 space. That pushdown of academic expectations is not aligned with developmentally appropriate teaching and learning practices, leading to challenges for K–2 teachers charged with providing that continuous and robust educational experience for their students.

Tell us what you learned from your research and interviews about leveraging and improving K-2 policy and practice. What do you think is most important?

We certainly need to make changes that immediately impact the system - like expanding the supply of high-quality materials available for use by the K-2 community. And at the same time, those actions should also be coupled with more ongoing and long-term solutions, such as increasing focus and awareness around the uniqueness and value of K-2 as part of the more extensive education system. There is a strong sense of urgency about the challenges facing K–2, but at the same time, it is challenging to shift K–2 policies and practices in sustainable ways unless there is first a fundamental, core mindset shift—that K–2 should be a priority. This will require changing people’s minds about why the early grades are important and motivating people to invest in how young children learn in K–2. Only after these more significant mindset shifts occur will the education field be able to generate solutions that will lead to long-term systems change.

The Making the Early Grades Matter brief resulted from several interviews with district officials, stakeholders, and educators about instruction, curriculum, and assessment in K-2. Was there a story or comment that sticks out to you?

There is a clear desire and need to shift leaders' thinking toward investing in high-quality K–2 education that is well-aligned to prepare children to succeed in the third grade. One of the interviewees we spoke to said it best, “It’s not just one fix. So, it’s not just professional learning, it's not just curriculum, it’s not just assessment. You have to figure out how that all works together as a system.” As a field, we should know what a comprehensive and aligned K-2 system looks like and what it takes to get there. We need to ensure that K-2 educators have sufficient time, training, and resources to implement these practices with fidelity and with the support of district leadership. When these elements are in place, young students will be able to experience high-quality learning and instruction throughout the K-2 grades.

While federal, state, and local policymakers have a role in transforming what happens in K-2nd grade, philanthropies can be key partners. What can local and national foundations do?

Our scan revealed that philanthropic work focused on early childhood—even when funders include K–2 as part of a prenatal-to-third-grade emphasis—is often geared toward the beginning part of this spectrum with greater support for birth-to-five efforts. Similarly, philanthropic work focused on K -12 may usually trend toward grade 3 and higher grades. So, local and national philanthropy is well positioned to help fill the gaps in K-2, not only through strategic investments that advance the field but also by enlisting new partners in the work and ultimately elevating the value of the early grades.

Is there anything I haven’t asked that you think is important to highlight?

We must also consider who will bear the brunt of failure if we don’t address these systemic K-2 issues. The impacts of inaction will be most significantly felt by Black and Latine children, children experiencing poverty, multilingual learners, and children with learning disabilities. Multiple factors contribute to these students' inadequate early elementary experiences, including a lack of culturally relevant materials, potential bias in assessment design or implementation, mismatched demographic characteristics with teachers, less effective kindergarten transition activities, and overemphasis on didactic academic instruction. Until the systemic issues are further examined and addressed, these barriers will continue to keep many K-2 learners from receiving the support they need and deserve and from being prepared for success in third grade and beyond.

For more information, read School Readiness Consulting’s brief “ Making the Early Grades Matter: Seven Ways to Improve Kindergarten through Grade 2 .”

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

This article is part of the research topic.

Education for the Future: Learning and Teaching for Sustainable Development in Education

Blending Pedagogy: Equipping Student Teachers to Foster Transversal Competencies in Future-oriented Education Provisionally Accepted

1 Department of Education, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Blended teaching and learning, combining online and face-to-face instruction, and shared reflection are gaining in popularity worldwide and present evolving challenges in the field of teacher training and education. There is also a growing need to focus on transversal competencies such as critical thinking and collaboration. This study is positioned at the intersection of blended education and transversal competencies in the context of a blended ECEC teacher-training program (1000+) at the University of Helsinki. Blended education is a novel approach to training teachers, and there is a desire to explore how such an approach supports the acquisition of transversal competencies and whether the associated methods offer something essential for the development of teacher training. The aim is to explore what transversal competencies this teacher-training program supports for future teachers, and how students reflect on their learning experiences. The data consist of documents from teacher-education curricula and essays from the students on the 1000+ program. They were content-analyzed from a scoping perspective. Students' experiences of studying enhanced the achievement of generic goals in teacher education, such as to develop critical and reflective thinking, interaction competence, collaboration skills, and independent and collective expertise. We highlight the importance of teacher development in preparing for education in the future during the teacher training. Emphasizing professional development, we challenge the conventional teaching paradigm by introducing a holistic approach.

Keywords: blended teacher training, Transversal competencies, future of education, Teacher Education, early childhood education

Received: 19 Jan 2024; Accepted: 15 May 2024.

Copyright: © 2024 Niemi, Kangas and Köngäs. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Dr. Laura H. Niemi, Department of Education, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, 00014, Uusimaa, Finland

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