Big ideas for little kids
ON THE campaign trail, Hillary Clinton is talking about preschool and its power to help children thrive. It's welcome attention, but so far politicians' ideas about what preschools could be aren't as detailed as the research on what preschool should be.
The senator from New York has a bold vision of universal preschool for the country's 4-year-olds. She would create a federal-state partnership, giving $15 billion over six years to governors who could design flexible programs as long as they were free for children with low incomes and limited English. If states meet high standards -- by using strong curricula and teachers with bachelor's degrees, for instance -- they could serve younger children, raise teachers' pay, and improve their training.
It's a great idea. But it's not ambitious enough.
Start with the focus on 4-year-olds. Last month, a report on New Jersey's preschool program for children in high-poverty districts suggested that children do better when they have two years of preschool, according to researchers at the National Institute for Early Education Research. So it could make more sense to offer preschool seats to 3-year-olds.
Clinton's call for college-educated teachers dovetails with research about boosting the quality of early-education programs; children have better outcomes if their teachers have four-year degrees. The problem is that Clinton's proposal would make raising teachers' pay only a possibility, contingent on other accomplishments. But attracting and keeping good teachers means paying them higher salaries up front.
States should also meet preschool teachers' professional-development needs. One model can be found in the preschool programs run by the US military. Writing in the journal of Early Childhood Research and Practice, Debra Ackerman of the National Institute describes how the military's program includes an initial orientation, annual training, and on going "modules" that cover many issues, including children's cognitive and social skills, health and safety, and professional management of preschool settings.
This issue deserves national attention in part because the estimated return on government investment is considerable. Setting up universal preschool for even one age group could generate as much as $150 billion in benefits, according to the Committee for Economic Development, a nonprofit policy research organization. These range from less school remediation to less crime to more productive workers.
So while presidential candidates may call for only as much change as they think the voting public can handle, solid research shows that the United States needs a larger, more aggressive plan to make revolutionary progress in preschool.
