I chose to explore the resource The PEW Charitable
Trusts: Pre K Now at the following website http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/archived-projects/pre-k-now.
The PEW Charitable Trusts is driven to solve today’s most challenging
problems. The Pre K Now project was a ten year campaign the PEW
Charitable Trusts created to advance high-quality pre-kindergarten for all
three and four year olds. They believe essential learning takes place
prior to age five and school districts need to be focused on including
pre-kindergarten in their schools. Children will have better academic success
if they attend a quality pre-kindergarten program. Pre K Now challenged the nation’s policy
makers to move away from schools being kindergarten through twelfth grade and
move towards schools being pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade.
This week I read the report the Pre K Now project created that
challenges the nation to change public education to include pre-kindergarten. It was interesting to find out that this
campaign started in 2001. At that time
the Pew and a network of advocates from forty states partnered with policy
makers and researchers to increase the availability and quality of publicly
funded pre-k programs. This seems like a
long time ago, yet here in Wyoming most of our cities and towns do not have
pre-k in their public schools. The pre-k classes we do have in our district are not enough to service all the children in our
city. The following is a quote from the
report that I highly agree with: “The
vast body of evidence shows that high-quality pre-k is an essential catalyst
for raising school performance. It
multiplies the effects of later reforms by narrowing early achievement gaps and
ensuring that children are fully prepared to learn and thrive academically,
physically, social and emotionally” (http://www.pewtrusts.org/~/media/legacy/uploadedfiles/pcs_assets/2011/PewPreKTransformingPublicEducationpdf.pdf).
Hi Courtney,
ReplyDeleteI am very interested in your post. I know that their has been a big push for the education system to be viewed as expanding before kindergarten and after grade 12, known as P-20. In our school district in Oregon, just last year a couple of preschools became available free to the public through a grant. The space was very limited compared to how large our school district is. We also have HeadStart like most places but you have to income qualify for that program. I completely agree with the importance of preschool and their is much research to show that children who start kindergarten behind stay behind for their entire school career. -Mary
Hi Courtney,
ReplyDeleteThanks for introducing me to the PEW Charitable Trusts. It's wonderful to know that organizations like this are helping fight the battle to convince policy makers what science, research and preschool teachers already know--early education makes a huge difference in the trajectory of a child's life. One the issues we face is providing high-quality, affordable early childhood education to all children. Many families resort to family or neighborhood childcare as an affordable option, but often at the expense of their child's best interest as childcare providers are untrained and uneducated in child development and learning practices. Making high-quality, affordable preschool available to all children as a public service just as K-12 education is a battle worthy of fighting. Thanks for helping us know about another partner seeking to consolidate forces, increase public knowledge, and work to change public policy around this issue in every community.
Courtney, your blog is very interesting. I have never heard of PEW Charitable Trust before you mentioned it now. Is this organization and international resource or does it run inside the United States. I think it is awesome that this organization soley focuses on the pre- k age group. That is the age of where the foundation of their education begins so it is extremely important. Great post and great choice on your resources
ReplyDeleteCourtney,
ReplyDeleteYou made the following statement: "They believe essential learning takes place prior to age five and school districts need to be focused on including pre-kindergarten in their schools." I could not agree more with that idea! I used to teach pre-k and felt that it would have been beneficial to be in a school district setting rather than at an off site far from the district schools. I now teach kindergarten and see children that are completely unprepared. The biggest challenge is that children arrive to school on the first day at completely different levels. Differentiation is important, but that drastic of differences makes it very difficult to teach. I look forward to those changes in the near future!
Siera