Credit: Lea Suzuki/San Francisco Chronicle/Polaris
Jenny Ogden (l to r), paraprofessional, works with kindergartener Savannah as she works on an art project during Liz Duffield s preschool kindergarten combination classroom at Lu Sutton Elementary School in December 2020 in Novato.
Credit: Lea Suzuki/San Francisco Chronicle/Polaris
Jenny Ogden (l to r), paraprofessional, works with kindergartener Savannah as she works on an art project during Liz Duffield s preschool kindergarten combination classroom at Lu Sutton Elementary School in December 2020 in Novato.
April 22, 2021
The pandemic has intensified a multi-year trend of dwindling student enrollment statewide, causing a steep drop this year. More than a third of the decline stemmed from 61,000 missing kindergarteners.
File
Adams Elementary School teacher Kris McClain works with pre-k students in her classroom in 2019. Adams, with a full-day program, is one of 19 schools where Fort Wayne Community Schools offers preschool this year, primarily supported by federal Title I funds. FWCS will offer programs for preschoolers in 24 attendance areas next year, at 20 locations. Previous Next
Thursday, April 22, 2021 1:00 am
Editorial
State s lack of support for early education shameful
While Indiana lawmakers made great progress this week in fixing a long-term shortfall in K-12 school funding, they did little to address the state s dismal performance supporting early education.
The newly released “State of Preschool” report again lists Indiana among just six states without a statewide preschool program. The small On My Way Pre-K pilot program, which requires parents to work or attend school to qualify for support, does not meet the National Institute for Early Educat
Eric E. Castro / Flickr
Connecticut fell short of some key goals for public pre-K standards in the year leading into the pandemic, according to a yearly national report.
The state met half the quality benchmarks set by the National Institute for Early Education Research including small class sizes and teachers with specialized training.
The institute looked at numbers from the 2019-2020 school year which covers the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The institute said the pandemic made the state’s existing problem worse.
Connecticut spent less per child in 2020 than any year since 2002 despite being in the top 10 for per-student spending nationally. Connecticut is also in the top 10 for access to pre-K for 3-year-olds.
MDE
April 22, 2021
LANSING - For the fourth straight year, Michigan has met all 10 quality standards for pre-kindergarten set forth by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), the Michigan Department of Education announced today. Early childhood education is critical to lifelong development, and I am proud of all the educators and administrators whose efforts have allowed us to meet all 10 quality standards set forth by national experts, said Governor Gretchen Whitmer. We should continue finding ways to make lasting, transformative investments in early education as we build back better from the pandemic and seek to spend the billions in funds sent to Michigan under the American Rescue Plan.
Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise
Oklahoma is among the worst states for babies due to systemic inequities that keep them from having their basic needs met, according to a national report released Thursday.
In collaboration with Child Trends, the nonprofit early childhood advocacy group Zero to Three compiled its third annual report the State of Babies Yearbook 2021 to track how babies are doing in the United States and whether they have the support needed for well-being and stability.
Oklahoma is home to 149,364 babies, representing 3.8% of the state’s population. Nearly half live in households with incomes less than twice the federal poverty line, placing them at an economic disadvantage.