1. Starting Early: Creating a Comprehensive
P-3 Approach to Achieve Quality and Continuity
JACQUELINE JONES, PhD
President and CEO
Foundation for Child Development
June 20, 2017

2. Topics
Early Care and Education: a complex non- system What We know An Existing Challenge
Multiple Funding streams;
Greater awareness; more programs;
What are the essential elements that specific groups of children need for healthy learning and development

3. Early Care and Education:
A Complex non-System

4. High-Quality Coordinated Early Learning Systems
Early Learning Standards
Comprehensive Assessment Systems
Program Standards
Data
Health Promotion
Family and Community Engagement
Workforce/
Professional Learning 4

5. Early Childhood Funding Streams
Head Start/
Early
Head Start
State-funded Programs
Child Care Development Block Grant
(CCDBG)
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
(IDEA)
Private Providers
Elementary and Secondary Education Act
(ESEA)

6. Birth Through 8 Continuum
PreK-3rd: Building strong connections between learning experiences across these critical years. PreK-3rd approaches require that educational standards, curricula, assessment, instruction, and professional development are strongly aligned across high-quality PreK, Kindergarten, First, Second and Third Grades.
There is no single nationally agreed upon set of standards that define the essential competencies for the range of early childhood professionals.
Birth 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

7. Absence of Rational Wage Structure +
Low Value Accorded to Educational Attainment
Average Annual Salaries for U.S. Teachers with Bachelor’s Degrees or Higher, 2012
Source: Worthy Work, STILL Unlivable Wages (2014), CSCCE, 2016

8. In the context of child development:
Alignment across standards, curriculum, assessments, and cultures
Structures for Professional Learning across the continuum

9. The PreK-3 movement … wants to revolutionize early education through an ambitious list of connected initiatives, including universal access to free public preschool, mandatory full-day kindergarten, and curriculum that is seamlessly connected from preschool to third grade. Increasing parent involvement is also a major focus.
Garland, S. (2011) PreK-# movement trying to overhaul
early education, but faces obstacles. The Hechinger Report

10. National P-3 Center at the University of Washington
Leadership and Professional Education
Implementation and Practice
Research and Evaluation
National Association of Elementary School Principals
Leading Pre-K-3 Learning Communities Competencies for Effective Principal Practice (2014)

11. What We Know

12. Transforming the Workforce for Children
Birth Through Age 8: A Unifying Foundation
Suggested citation: IOM (Institute of Medicine) and NRC (National Research Council) Transforming the workforce for children birth through age 8: A unifying foundation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

13. The Science of Child Development: 4 Categories of Insight
The rapidity of brain development
The interplay of genes and environment
The impact of stress on development
Individual differences in sensitivity to environments
4 broad areas of insight from research in developmental biology and neuroscience:
The developmental window (rapidity of brain development during early child­hood). The brain develops in rapid and fundamental ways, and connections among neurons are rein­forced. Because of this, early childhood is a window of both great risk of vulnerability to disruption and great potential for the impact of positive developmental influences.
The interplay of genes and environment. Neither environment nor biology alone is destiny.
The impact of stress on development. While enriching experiences in the early years will support healthy brain development, disturbances or deficiencies before birth or in early childhood can interrupt or alter the growing brain, resulting in changes that range from subtle incapacities to generalized developmental disabilities.
Examples of serious stressors faced by many children include abuse or neglect, the death of a parent, food insufficiency, housing instability, a parent living with mental illness, or exposure to conflict or violence in the home or neighborhood.
Individual differences in sensitivity to environments. There are substantial individual differences in how susceptible children are to influences in their environment. Some individuals seem more sensitive to both positive and negative influences; others sur­vive challenging environments and seem to thrive with little detrimental effect.

14. Points of Consensus
… greater improvement at the end of the pre-k year for economically disadvantaged children and dual language learners.
2. Pre-k programs vary in effectiveness.
Well implemented, evidence-based curriculum.
Coaching for teachers, and efforts to promote orderly but active classrooms
Phillips, D., et al. (2017). Puzzling It Out:
The Current State of Scientific Knowledge on Pre-K Effects: A Consensus Statement
1. … greater improvement in at the end of the pre-k year for economically disadvantaged children and dual language learners than for more advantaged and English-proficient children.
2. Pre-k programs vary in effectiveness. Several effectiveness factors may be at work in the most successful programs.
*a well implemented, evidence-based curriculum.
*Coaching for teachers, and efforts to promote orderly but active classrooms

15. Points of Consensus
3. Children’s early learning trajectories depend on the quality of their learning experiences not only before and during their pre-k year, but also following the pre-k year:
elementary school classrooms that provide individualization and differentiation in instructional content and strategies
Phillips, D., et al. (2017). Puzzling It Out:
The Current State of Scientific Knowledge on Pre-K Effects: A Consensus Statement
3. Children’s early learning trajectories depend on the quality of their learning experiences not only before and during their pre-k year, but also following the pre-k year:
elementary school classrooms that provide individualization and differentiation in instructional content and strategies

16. Points of Consensus
4. Children attending pre-k programs are more ready for school at the end of their pre-k year.
Improvements literacy and numeracy are most common;
more modest improvements in the smaller number of studies of social-emotional and self- regulatory development
Phillips, D., et al. (2017). Puzzling It Out:
The Current State of Scientific Knowledge on Pre-K Effects: A Consensus Statement
4. Children attending a diverse array of state and school district pre-k programs are more ready for school at the end of their pre-k year than children who do not attend pre-k.
Improvements literacy and numeracy are most common;
the smaller number of studies of social-emotional and self-regulatory development generally show more modest improvements in those areas.

17. Points of Consensus
5. .. Sparse evidence of the longer-term impacts of scaled-up pre-k programs on academic outcomes and school progress
6. Need for ongoing innovation and evaluation during and after pre-k
Research-practice partnerships are a promising way of achieving this goal.
Phillips, D., et al. (2017). Puzzling It Out:
The Current State of Scientific Knowledge on Pre-K Effects: A Consensus Statement
5. .. Sparse evidence of the longer-term impacts of scaled-up pre-k programs on academic outcomes and school progress  
6. Need for Ongoing innovation and evaluation during and after pre-k to ensure continued improvement in creating and sustaining children’s learning gains. Research-practice partnerships are a promising way of achieving this goal. These kinds of efforts are needed to generate more complete and reliable evidence on effectiveness factors in pre-k and elementary school that generate long-run impacts

18. An Existing Challenge

19. Do we really know?
What works?
For whom?
Under what conditions?

20. Evaluating a Program Fund a program
Randomly assign some subjects to a control group and others to a treatment group
Compare the average performance of the two groups at various points in time
Declare the program a success or a failure

21. Implementation Questions
What are the possible factors and agents responsible for successful implementation of an early care and education intervention?
What describes the context in which implementation occurs?
To achieve maximum positive impacts for specific subgroups of children:
What is the optimal combination of program elements?
What is the optimal dosage?

22. Implementation Questions
What describes the main factors influencing implementation in a given context?
Is an outcome (positive or negative) actually due to the implemented intervention rather than other causes?

23. The New York City Early Childhood Research Network
Goal: to explore ece-workforce related aspects of the implementation of the NYC UPK initiative
Over 40 researchers;
Representatives of city agencies (DOE, ACS, and DOHMH)
8 studies (e.g. role of coaches; use of formative assessments; recruitment and retention policies; distribution of teachers; family engagement strategies…)
Examination of leadership capacity and exploration of the ways in which center and public school instructional leaders support teaching staff and foster high quality instruction in classrooms. (Bank Street College of Education & the National Center for Children in Poverty, Columbia University)
Investigation of the ways in which the teaching staff uses formative child assessment tools to support their pedagogical decision-making in daily practice. (Hunter College of the City University of New York)
Comparison of teacher characteristics, professional development supports, instructional approaches, and program structures across UPK settings, governance structures, and communities. (National Center for Children and Families at Teachers College, Columbia University) BETTER DESCRIPTION OF THE STUDY
Distribution of teachers with varying different levels of teacher qualifications across UPK classrooms and an examination of the ways in which administrators and teachers understand and use classroom quality data to inform professional development and classroom practice. (New York University, Institute of Human Development and Social Change)
Identification of professionals working as coaches within the UPK UPK workforce; examination of how these support professionals use their time; and exploration of how they perceive their roles as influencers of early care and education practice. (Rutgers the State University of New Jersey, National Institute for Early Education Research)
Study of the recruitment, retention, professional development, and mentoring of male educators in the UPK system. (Borough of Manhattan Community College of the City University of New York)
Investigates high-quality instructional and family involvement practices responsive to families from low-income, immigrant, linguistically, and culturally diverse backgrounds. (CUNY Research Foundation, City College of New York & Teachers College, Columbia University)

24. Implementation Research Across the Birth to Grade 3 Continuum Can…
Reveal the critical program and policy components for specific subgroups of children
Determine who benefits and who does not
Improve program quality
Ensure that all children reach their full potential