“For Massachusetts to retain its perceived advantage as the nation’s Education State with its ensuing benefits, policymakers need to change course and make prudent new investments in early education now.”
Jim Squires, National Institute for Early Education Research, Boston Globe, May 18, 2012
Posted in MA state budget, Quotes | Leave a Comment »
On Wednesday, May 16, the Massachusetts Senate Ways and Means (SWM) Committee released its recommendations for $32.275 billion in state appropriations for the fiscal year 2013 budget. The proposal addresses a $1.4 billion budget gap, draws on $290 million from the state’s rainy day fund and includes no new taxes. The Department of Early Education and Care is funded at $486.65 million in the SWM proposal, roughly $1 million less than in the House of Representatives FY13 budget proposal, due in part to cuts in early education and care access. The SWM budget proposes a cut to full-day kindergarten grants, funding the grants at $4 million less than the House FY13 proposal. Universal Pre-Kindergarten grants and the MA State Scholarship program, which funds the Early Childhood Educator Scholarship, are level-funded.
The Senate Ways and Means Committee’s recommended budget: Continue Reading »
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The Massachusetts Board of Early Education and Care has taken another step toward aligning grant programs with the Quality Rating and Improvement System by voting unanimously to align Inclusive Preschool Learning Environment grants with QRIS in fiscal year 2013.
All grantees would be required to have enrolled in QRIS and to be at Level 2 or higher by June 30, 2013. The grant program currently funds inclusive preschool programs for more than 5,512 children in 95 programs, including 3,323 children with disabilities. (See Alignment of Inclusive Preschool Learning Environments with the QRIS)
In other news, the board’s Fiscal Committee reported that the waiting list for child care subsidies, for children from birth to school age, has grown to 36,000.
Also at the May meeting of the EEC board: Continue Reading »
Posted in Dept. of Early Education and Care, Early Learning Challenge, QRIS | Leave a Comment »
Timothy Bartik
The recent report on special education in Massachusetts, which raises questions about the over-identification of children from low-income families, has us thinking about the well-documented reductions in referrals to special education for low-income children who attended high-quality early education programs. For example, longitudinal evidence from the Chicago Child-Parent Centers preschool program has shown program participants were 40% less likely to be placed in special education. Similar effects have been found in the Abecedarian and Perry Preschool interventions, the subjects of the other two major longitudinal studies of high-quality early education.
Economist Timothy Bartik has explored the question of cost savings from this reduction on his Investing in Kids blog. He has estimated the fiscal impact of providing universal pre-kindergarten.
“The additional annual costs per student from special education assignments average nationally over $10,000. These extra annual costs potentially accrue over 13 years (from kindergarten to 12th grade), so the total cost of a special education assignment can be quite high,” Bartik writes.
“The simulation shows that as of 13 years after the program is begun, the special education cost savings reach a permanent level that covers 48% of the pre-K program’s annual costs. These cost savings increase fairly uniformly from program initiation, so that the cost savings are 4% after one year, 8% after two years, etc.”
The cost savings would be greater in a targeted program. “Special education cost savings will be higher if the early childhood program’s percentage effects on special education usage are higher,” Bartik writes in a follow-up post. “For example, these special education percentage effects might be higher for targeted pre-k programs compared to universal pre-k programs. The baseline level of special education assignments may be higher for the more disadvantaged children that would be in a targeted pre-k program. Furthermore, pre-k programs may have somewhat greater effects in general for disadvantaged students compared to more advantaged students….
“What does this all mean for policymakers and researchers?” Bartik asks. “I think this points to the need for much more current research on immediate cost savings from reduced special education usage.”
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Photo: Alessandra Hartkopf for Strategies for Children
A grant program of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE) served as a catalyst for projects focused on early education, early literacy, special education inclusion and other areas, according to a recent report. Most of the 44 participating districts also benefited from the vertical P-3 teams they created to carry out the work. For many, this represented the first time they had collaborated across grades. (See “Improving the Early Years of Education in Massachusetts: The P-3 Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Project.”)
The federally financed P-3 Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Project — which funded projects in 2009, 2010 and 2011 – was designed to help districts align efforts to improve the three critical areas, with a special focus on children with disabilities. Grant amounts ranged from $10,000 to $26,000.
“In Massachusetts, P-3 efforts build on numerous programs focused on improving early literacy as well as programs that target students with disabilities and English Language Learners. Related developments include a working group at the Executive Office of Education on P-3 education, the introduction to the Massachusetts Legislature of An Act Relative to Third Grade Reading [Proficiency], the establishment by the Department of Early Education and Care of a Quality Rating Improvement System, the selection of third grade reading proficiency as a priority goal by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, and the publication of a widely-read report by Harvard literacy expert, Nonie Lesaux, entitled ‘Turning the Page: Refocusing Massachusetts for Reading Success,’” a 2010 report commissioned by Strategies for Children.
The project’s impact exceeded its small size, the report concludes. Continue Reading »
Posted in Pre-K to 3, Reading proficiency, Research | Leave a Comment »
“Increased public investment in early learning is a pro-growth strategy not inconsistent with greater fiscal restraint.”
“Improving Public Financing for Early Learning Programs,” National Institute for Early Education Research, 2011
Posted in Funding, Quotes | Leave a Comment »
Photo: Alessandra Hartkopf for Strategies for Children
The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston publishes a quarterly journal, Communities & Banking, which focuses on issues of concern to low- and moderate-income communities. We are pleased that early childhood is on the magazine’s radar screen. The Winter 2012 edition featured a story on the importance of third grade reading and Springfield’s citywide Read! campaign to improve early literacy in the Western Massachusetts city. Now the Spring 2012 issue features a story – “Infrastructure Investment Begins with Children” – about efforts by the Children’s Investment Fund to improve the physical condition of early education and care facilities in Massachusetts.
Among community-based facilities the fund surveyed for its recent report, 34% had inadequate heating and cooling, 54% lacked indoor active play space, 20% had one or more classrooms without windows, 22% had indoor air with elevated levels of carbon dioxide, 70% had no classroom sinks, 22% lacked workspace for teachers, and 65% lacked technology for teachers.
“Massachusetts, like other states, has invested significant private and public resources in quality improvement for early care and education and out-of-school-time services, particularly for low-income children,” the Fed story notes. “But quality — and the physical infrastructure to support it — is critical to fulfilling the state’s aspirations for these children, and clearly, the resources to fix problems cannot be found in program operating budgets. Continue Reading »
Posted in Facilities, Research | Leave a Comment »
Eye on Early Education focuses on the twin goals of ensuring that Massachusetts children have access to high-quality early education and become proficient readers by the end of third grade.
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