Photo: Alessandra Hartkopf for Strategies for Children

Michigan and New York City have recently undertaken the exciting but daunting work of expanding their pre-K programs. These two early education expansion efforts are among the largest and most ambitious in the country.

How are they doing? To find out, the National Women’s Law Center hosted a conference call to discuss what’s underway in both places. The call covered a wide range of topics that provide important insight for other cities and states seeking to expand high-quality early education and care.

Moderated by Helen Blank, NWLC’s director of child care and early learning, the discussion featured the following speakers:

– Susan Broman, Deputy Superintendent for the Office of Great Start, Michigan Department of Education

– Betty Holcomb, Director of Public Policy, Center for Children’s Initiatives, New York City

– Nancy Kolben, Executive Director, Center for Children’s Initiatives, New York City, and

– Richard Lower, Supervisor for Preschool and Early Elementary Programs, Michigan Department of Education

A transcript of the call and a recording are available online.

Michigan: Expanding Pre-K Through Partnerships

Michigan’s Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP) is “for four-year-old children who may be at risk of school failure,” Susan Broman explained during the conference call. Since it began in 1985, GSRP has served more than 600,000 children. Ninety percent of children enrolled must be at or below 250% of the federal poverty level. Over the past two years, Michigan has increased pre-K funding by $130 million. Officials expect to expand from 24,500 children per year to serving almost 48,000.

Previously, community-based programs received only 8 percent of total statewide funding. But as GSRP expanded, the Legislature said 30 percent of the slots should be allocated to community-based organizations, making it essential for Michigan to rely on partnerships.

Head Start is a “key partner,” according to Richard Lower. And Michigan works with its “intermediate school districts” (entities that work with schools and Michigan’s Department of Education), as well as with current GSRP pre-K providers and the larger child care industry to understand the demand for services and the state’s capacity to meet this demand.

These partnerships have meant “potential new community-based organizations” can talk to and learn from existing community-based organizations that are experienced GSRP providers.

An increasing focus on program quality has accompanied the expansion. All programs participating in GSRP must have at least a three-star rating on Michigan’s tiered QRIS. GSRP programs must also meet “early childhood standards of quality for prekindergarten” that have been adopted by the State Board of Education.

Michigan has also merged teacher-training requirements. Teachers can earn “a bachelor’s degree in early childhood development with a focus on preschool teaching,” or they can complete “an elementary teaching certificate with an early childhood endorsement.”

Professional development and support for teachers comes from early childhood specialists: “individuals employed as mentor coaches to the teaching teams, the lead teacher and the assistant teacher; and every intermediate school district, every local school district, every community-based partner, has an early childhood specialist assigned to the classroom teaching team.”

New York: A Big City Expansion

New York’s Mayor Bill de Blasio put preschool in the news by calling for a universal program for all 4-year-olds funded by tax increases. What New York City got was a political compromise: state funding to launch the mayor’s plans.

Now the city has to rapidly strengthen and expand pre-K to bring high-quality programs to tens of thousands of children.

“The goal is within two years — by school year 2015-2016 — the city will have a universal program enrolling about 73,000 children in full day pre-K,” according to Nancy Kolben. “The goal for 2014-2015 is 50,000 children in full-day pre-K, an increase of 30,000 full day 4-year-olds enrolled. So, we have quite an expansion effort underway.”

As Kolben explains, New York’s plan includes, expanded coaching and mentoring for teachers; training for teachers who work with English language learners; the inclusion of children with special needs; and full, extended-day services provided in community settings.

Kolben adds: “The core elements build on a lot of what existed before, but there were some really substantial increases in looking at the plan. We have developed pre-K standards in New York State based on developmentally appropriate practice and aligned with early learning guidelines in the Common Core. And those became the core underpinning for this program. The program is full school day/school year.”

Another vital part of the expansion, Kolben explained, has been securing “comparable salaries for teachers in community-based settings. This is a huge, huge breakthrough — an important step in terms of the compensation challenges that we’ve had in the field.”

New York is also working with partners.

A large part of the expansion “will be with our community partners that include not only the traditional sort of child care and Head Start programs but we also have settlement houses citywide that have been providing pre-K,” Betty Holcomb said. “And in this expansion, we’ve got libraries and museums that have identified space to do direct service, and are also participating in the outreach to communities to bring in programs and to let families know about the expansion.”

For more on New York’s preschool vision, read Mayor de Blasio’s remarks from last week’s Preschool Nation Summit.

Following Up on the Conference Call

Additional questions and answers from the conference call are available here, along with the email addresses of the four presenters.

To find out more, read or listen to the conference call, and contact the presenters. Educators in Michigan and New York are learning lessons that can benefit pre-K expansion efforts across the country.