Below are resources for early childhood professionals and those serving the early childhood community.
New Poll Shows Voters Overwhelming Support Early Education Investments According to a new national poll from the First Five Years Fund, every single early learning proposal tested—including expanding the federal partnership with states and communities through grants to improve access to preschool, tripling the current child care tax credit, and even providing greater funding for programs like Head Start—received overwhelming voter support regardless of partisan affiliation. 79% of voters—including 80% of Trump voters and 79% of Clinton voters—want Congress and the administration to work together to improve the quality of child care and preschool and make it more affordable for parents.
US Trails Other Nations in Early Childhood Education Spending, Enrollment According to new data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, while Norway and Sweden each spent “nearly two percent of their gross domestic product on early-childhood programs and education in 2013,” the US spent only 0.4%, “well below the 0.8% average of all the countries included in” OECD’s analysis. The report “presents an overview of the early-childhood systems in 30 countries, along with trend data and recent reforms.”
Intensive Preschool Programs Can Yield Massive Returns, Especially for Boys This paper estimates the life-cycle benefits of an influential early childhood program targeted to disadvantaged children that is currently being replicated around the world. It has substantial impacts on the lives of participant children and their mothers. Monetizing benefits and costs across multiple domains, researchers found a baseline internal rate of return of 13.7% to families who participated in the program.
KIDS Website is Live The Kindergarten Individual Development Survey (KIDS) is an observational tool designed to help teachers, administrators, families, and policymakers better understand the developmental readiness of children entering kindergarten, and its new site is live! There are a handful of resources that will be available in the next few weeks.
