7th Meeting of the OECD Network on Early Childhood and Care:

Financing ECE Services

Paris, FranceJune 22, 2010

Jacqueline Jones, PhDSenior Advisor to the Secretary for Early Learning

Us Department Of EducationWashington, DC

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Early Learning in the US and the

Economic Crisis

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“It will be the goal of this administration to ensure that every child has access to a complete and competitive education from the day they are born to the day they begin a career ... we know that the most formative learning comes in those first years of life”.

President Obama

February 24, 2009

Early Learning Goal3

The Education Department’s early learning initiative is intended to improve the health, social-emotional, and cognitive outcomes for all children birth through 3rd grade, especially those with high-needs.

Early Learning: A Range of Ages4

Infants and Toddlers - Birth to 3 years Pre-Kindergarten (3- and 4-year-olds) K–3

Domains of Learning5

Physical health and well-being

Social-emotional development

Approaches to learning

Language and literacy

Cognitive skills

Major Public Funding Streams6

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Early Head Start Head Start Child Care

U.S. Department of Education Special Education Title I Preschool

U.S. Department of Defense State-funded Preschool ProgramsDistrict/Local Programs

Interagency Collaboration

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Interagency Early Learning Initiative8

Study Groups

Encouraging Coordinated State Early Learning Systems

Six Study Groups9

Standards, Curriculum and Assessment

Program Standards

Family Engagement

Health Promotion

Workforce and Professional Development

Data Systems

Components of a Coordinated State Early Learning Systems

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Aligned early learning and development standards, curriculum and assessments

Program quality and rating system with a review, monitoring and improvement system

Plan for human capital

Strategies for family engagement

Systems to facilitate health screening and referrals

Coordinated zero to 5 data infrastructure

Children in Poverty

Percentage of children under 18 years living in poverty may peak at 21% (15.6M) in 2010 – highest in 20 years

Foundation for Child Development2010 Child Well-Being Index

Impact on Child Care Facilities

Reduction in the number of children in child care programs

Increased vacancies in child care programs Closure of some childcare programs

NCCRRA Survey

State–funded Preschool

Difficult State budgets in 2010 and 2011

Dramatic increase in State-funded preschool funding may be over

New Mexico, Florida, Illinois, Wisconsin, New York, Arizona, and others … considering, or have implemented, cuts to early learning programs

Head Start

ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009):

$1B Head Start$1.1B Early Head Start

FY 2011: $989 increase in the total funding for Head

Start, to over $8.2 billion

ARRA (cont,)

Teacher Incentive Fund ($200M)

Teacher Quality Enhancement ($100M)

Statewide Data Systems ($250M)

Title 1

Improving the Academic Achievement of the Disadvantaged

ARRA:$10B to State Educational Agencies

Maternal, Infant and Childhood Home Visiting Program Grants

$90M: The Affordable Care Act

Evidence-based home visiting strategies that help families create a nurturing environment for young children and connect to a range of services, including:health, early education, early intervention and more

an early childhood service system in every State that supports high-quality, evidence-based practice. 

coordinated services to improve maternal and child health and promote healthy child development in our communities most in need.

additional funding to Tribal programs

Increase the quality and availability of Child Care

Child Care and Development Block Grant

FY 2011:$1.6B addition to child care funding to extend

child care assistance to approximately 235,000 more children (total = $6.644B).

 Largest increase in child care funding in over

20 years. 

Special Education

Additional $250M in formula grants for a total of $11.76 billion to help States pay the extra costs of providing special education and related services to an estimated 6.7M children with disabilities aged 3 through 21 years 

Maintains $374.1M in additional support to States for providing special education and related services to preschoolers with disabilities ages 3 through 5

Maintains $439.4M investment to help States implement statewide systems of early intervention services for all eligible children from birth through age 2 and their families

Race to the Top

ARRA: $4.3B - Race to the Top (Rounds 1 and 2)

FY 2010:$1.35B (Round 3)

The initial competition, includes an invitational priority for activities that improve outcomes for high-need students who are young children (birth through 3rd grade)

Investing in Innovation (i3) Program

ARRA: $650M

FY2011:$500M to identify, develop, and scale up

promising models and interventions.

The initial competition, funded by the Recovery Act, includes a competitive priority for activities to improve outcomes for high-need students who are young children (birth through 3rd grade)

Promise Neighborhoods

ARRA: $10M

FY 2011:$210M: to provide funding for another cohort of competitive planning grants and new implementation grants to community-based organizations for the development of comprehensive neighborhood programs, with effective schools at the center.

Effective Teaching and Learning: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)

FY 2011: $300M:

Supports State and local efforts aimed at implementing and supporting a comprehensive STEM strategy for the provision of high-quality STEM instruction and support to students from prekindergarten through grade 12 by funding the competitive grant program at

Effective Teaching and Learning: Literacy

FY 2011: $450M:

Supports State and local efforts aimed at implementing and supporting a comprehensive literacy strategy that provides high-quality literacy instruction and support to students from prekindergarten through grade 12

ESEA REAUTHORIZATIO

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Overarching Principles

Raise the bar for all students. Close the gap.

Tight on goals. Loose on means.

Foster innovation and reward success.

Build on the four assurances.

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Four Assurances

Raise standards and improve

assessments.

Recruit, retain & support effective educators,

andensure equitable

distribution.

Build robust data systems

that track student progress

and improve practice.

Turn around low-performing schools, focusing on dropout

factories and their feeder schools.

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Early Learning

ESEA reauthorization:

Alignment of standards and assessments

Coordination of professional development

Integration of high-quality early learning programs into school reform efforts

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High-quality early learning approaches

Continued Title I Support of Preschool

A Birth-Through-College-to-Career AgendaPromise Neighborhood grants

Comprehensive Education Reforms Race to the Top

Innovation in Early Learning Investing in Innovation (i3)

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Supports early learning professionals

Joint Professional Development Expanded Administrators’ Knowledge of

Early Learning

Support for Teachers of Young Children.

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Expands learning opportunities for young children

Seamless Transitions and Improved Coordination

Strengthened Literacy and STEM P-12 Plans

Increased Learning Time for Young Children

Comprehensive Early Learning Assessment Systems

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Looking at Assessment

The process of collecting, interpreting and evaluating evidence of learning in order to make informed judgments

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An Assessment System

A coordinated system of assessments and strategies intended to collect information about the process and context of young children’s learning and development in order to make informed instructional and programmatic decisions.

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Purpose

To monitor the learning and development of children prior to third grade

To monitor program effectiveness and support continuous improvement

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Types of Measures

ScreeningsDiagnosticFormativeFormal Observational measuresDescriptive data

Questions

How is Johnny doing?

Do all children have the basic health, social- emotional, and cognitive competencies needed to be successful in school?

Are children progressing along a trajectory that will lead to school success?

Questions

How is the program doing?

Does the program have sufficient resources (human/financial) to be successful?

Are program standards being met?

Are quality measures leading to improved outcomes for children?

Early Learning Standards: A comprehensive, well-articulated set of standards that define what children should know and be able to do.

Program Quality Standards: A comprehensive set of standards that describe program quality.

Assessments: Multiple approaches to documenting children’s learning and reviewing program quality.

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Opportunity to learn: assessment of the environments in which children are spending time.

Inclusion: ensuring that all children served by the program will be assessed fairly, regardless of their language, culture, or disabilities.

Resources: Assurance of adequate financial resources to ensure the development and implementation of the system components.

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Reporting: Maintenance of an integrated database of assessment instruments and results, accessible to potential users, that provides information about how the instruments

and scores relate to standards, and that can generate reports for the varied audiences

and purposes.

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Professional Development: Ongoing opportunities at all levels to understand the standards and the assessments and to learn to use the data and data reports with integrity for their own purposes.

Monitoring and evaluation: Monitoring of the system itself to ensure continuous improvement.

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