In his recent State of the Union Address, President Obama proposed to "make high-quality preschool available to every child in America." He referred to research that has demonstrated long term positive effects of attending high-quality preschool programs. President Obama's support has excited the early childhood community. Who could be opposed to expanding high-quality preschool opportunities? Yet this begs the question: What does "high-quality" mean in practice?
"High-quality" preschools are often defined by educators and economists alike as ones in which teachers are adequately paid, facilities are adequate, and the ratio of staff to children is low. These are indeed important elements of quality and they are serious problems, as preschool educators are often very poorly paid, poorly educated themselves, and lack decent facilities. The low salaries received by preschool teachers leads to a high turnover rate, which also reduces quality. So ensuring universal access to high-quality preschools when many current preschoolers are already struggling with quality and funding issues will be a heavy lift.
Leaving aside money issues, however, there is an important question about how preschool programs should be structured. There is lots of research showing the benefits of high-quality preschool in comparison to no preschool (as in the famous Perry Preschool and Abecedarianprograms). However, there is far less research showing different benefits of different preschool approaches.
The Preschool Curriculum Effectiveness Research initiative compared a number of promising approaches to each other and to groups using standard preschool teaching methods. The results are summarized in a review on the Best Evidence Encyclopedia. By the end of kindergarten, only a few of the programs showed child outcomes superior to those achieved by other programs. Structured programs that had a very strong focus on language and emergent literacy, giving children many opportunities to use language to work together, solve challenges, and develop positive relationships with each other, had the best outcomes for children.
2. In his recent State of the Union Address, President Obama proposed
to "make high-quality preschool available to every child in America."
He referred to research that has demonstrated long term positive
effects of attending high-quality preschool programs. President
Obama's support has excited the early childhood community. Who
could be opposed to expanding high-quality preschool opportunities?
Yet this begs the question: What does "high-quality" mean in
practice?
3. "High-quality" preschools are often defined by educators and
economists alike as ones in which teachers are adequately
paid, facilities are adequate, and the ratio of staff to children is low.
These are indeed important elements of quality and they are serious
problems, as preschool educators are often very poorly paid, poorly
educated themselves, and lack decent facilities. The low salaries
received by preschool teachers leads to a high turnover rate, which also
reduces quality. So ensuring universal access to high-quality preschools
when many current preschoolers are already struggling with quality
and funding issues will be a heavy lift.
Leaving aside money issues, however, there is an important question
about how preschool programs should be structured. There is lots of
research showing the benefits of high-quality preschool in comparison
to no preschool (as in the famous Perry Preschool and
Abecedarianprograms). However, there is far less research showing
different benefits of different preschool approaches.
4. The Preschool Curriculum Effectiveness Research initiative compared a number
of promising approaches to each other and to groups using standard preschool
teaching methods. The results are summarized in a review on the Best
Evidence
Encyclopedia. By the end of kindergarten, only a few of the programs showed
child outcomes superior to those achieved by other programs. Structured
programs
that had a very strong focus on language and emergent literacy, giving children
many
opportunities to use language to work together, solve challenges, and develop
positive relationships with each other, had the best outcomes for children.
5. Technology has so far played a modest role in early childhood education, but this
may change as multimedia devices (such as interactive whiteboards) become more
commonly used. Technology offers opportunities for teachers to enhance language
development by engaging children with brief content that helps them understand
how the world works. For example, children learning about health can see videos
on how the body works and can be provided with video models of how to stay safe
and healthy. Children can make choices and manipulate pictures and videos
representing objects and processes. Further, classroom technology allows for
linkages with the home, as parents increasingly have computers, DVDs, and other
media available. Children can be shown exciting content in school and then take
home DVDs or link electronically to specific materials that closely align with the
content they learned that day.
These electronic activities can be designed to be done with parents and children
together, and can then inform parents about what children are learning in school.
Also, in high-poverty homes children often have few if any books. Existing DVD or
internet technologies can provide children with access to appropriate
literature, which can be read to them by narrators or by their parents or older
siblings.
