1. 7 th Meeting of the OECD Network on Early Childhood and Care: Financing ECE Services Paris, France June 22, 2010 Jacqueline Jones, PhD Senior Advisor to the Secretary for Early Learning Us Department Of Education Washington, DC 1 Early Learning in the US and the Economic Crisis

2. 2 “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

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

4. Early Learning: A Range of Ages 4  Infants and Toddlers - Birth to 3 years  Pre-Kindergarten (3- and 4-year-olds)  K–3

5. Domains of Learning 5 Physical health and well-being Social-emotional development Approaches to learning Language and literacy Cognitive skills

6. Major Public Funding Streams 6 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 Programs District/Local Programs

7. Interagency Collaboration 7

8. Interagency Early Learning Initiative 8  Study Groups  Encouraging Coordinated State Early Learning Systems

9. Six Study Groups 9  Standards, Curriculum and Assessment  Program Standards  Family Engagement  Health Promotion  Workforce and Professional Development  Data Systems

10. Components of a Coordinated State Early Learning Systems 10  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

11. 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 Development 2010 Child Well-Being Index

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. ARRA (cont,) Teacher Incentive Fund ($200M) Teacher Quality Enhancement ($100M) Statewide Data Systems ($250M)

16. Title 1 Improving the Academic Achievement of the Disadvantaged ARRA: $10B to State Educational Agencies

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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.

20. 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

21. 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)

22. 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)

23. 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.

24. 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

25. 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

26. ESEA REAUTHORIZATION 26

27. 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. 27

28. Four Assurances Raise standards and improve assessments. Recruit, retain & support effective educators, and ensure 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. 28

29. Early Learning ESEA reauthorization:  Alignment of standards and assessments  Coordination of professional development  Integration of high-quality early learning programs into school reform efforts 29

30. High-quality early learning approaches Continued Title I Support of Preschool A Birth-Through-College-to-Career Agenda Promise Neighborhood grants Comprehensive Education Reforms Race to the Top Innovation in Early Learning Investing in Innovation (i3) 30

31. Supports early learning professionals Joint Professional Development Expanded Administrators’ Knowledge of Early Learning Support for Teachers of Young Children. 31

32. 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 32

33. Looking at Assessment The process of collecting, interpreting and evaluating evidence of learning in order to make informed judgments 33

34. 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. 34

35. Purpose To monitor the learning and development of children prior to third grade To monitor program effectiveness and support continuous improvement 35

36. Types of Measures  Screenings  Diagnostic  Formative  Formal  Observational measures  Descriptive data

37. 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?

38. 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?

39. 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. 39

40. 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. 40

41. 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. 41

42. 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. 42

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