Bruce Atchison Strong Start Kentucky Prichard Committee for - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

STRENGTHENING THE P’3 CONTINUUM: STATE POLICIES TO SUPPORT THE EARLY LEARNING CONTINUUM, AND RESULTS IN EARLY LITERACY AND MATH Bruce Atchison Strong Start Kentucky Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence Thursday January 10, 2019

Who we are The essential , indispensable member of any team addressing education policy.

What we do We believe in the power of learning from experience and we know informed policymakers create better education policy .

How we do it

P-20 Continuum: The Bookends Early Childhood K-12 Post-Secondary

Why Put an Emphasis on K-3? ▪ Disconnect between 0-5 and K-3 components of the 0-8 continuum. ▪ Risk of losing gains made in a high-quality pre-K if the K-3 experience that follows does not continue developmentally appropriate practices. ▪ Of the 2.5 million students who dropped out of high school last year, 1.6 million were set on that trajectory when they were 8 years old. ▪ 20% of the American labor force is functionally illiterate or innumerate! Over 27 states have passed legislation geared towards improving 3 rd grade ▪ reading (interventions, extended learning time, retention, etc.). ▪ A qualified workforce, principal and EC leadership armed with the skills needed to provide age appropriate learning opportunities is key.

National K-3 Project To address quality in Kindergarten through third grade by identifying areas to consider for improvement, and highlighting policies that create a seamless and high-quality P-3 system that better serves students, increasing third grade literacy and math proficiency. Partners – National Conference of State Legislators, New America, National P-3 Center, National Institute of Early Learning Research, Center for Early Learning Outcomes.

▪ Funding: Strategic, Blended, Equitable ▪ Full – Day - Kindergarten and Mandatory Age Requirements ▪ Workforce Development : Teachers and Leaders ▪ Systems Alignment ▪ Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Assessment ▪ Accountability Metric (not student based)

Pre-K in P-3 • Benefits outweigh costs for children from middle-income as well as those from low-income families. However , children from low-income backgrounds benefit more. • Reductions in Opportunity Gap. • Improves language, pre-literacy and math skills, self- regulation, executive function and health outcomes. • Especially beneficial for Dual Language Learners (DLLs). • Quality early education has high economic returns and raising quality requires high standards, continuous improvement and adequate funding.

Pre-K ▪ Research literature shows that without a high-quality early childhood education, an at-risk child is: • 25% more likely to drop out of high school. • 40 % more likely to become a teen parent. • 50% more likely to be placed in special education. • 60% more likely never to attend college. • 70% more likely to be arrested for a violent crime.

Pre-K Nationally

Pre-K National Funding

Transitions to Kindergarten • Education Commission of the States K-3 State Policy Database - 18 states plus D.C. provide guidance for the pre-K to kindergarten transition process. Often includes written transition plans, family engagement, teacher/provider meetings, and assessment data linkages. ▪ (go to www.ecs.org, type in K-3 data base to pull down specific state statutes) • Illinois: HB 2663 provides that early childhood programs shall prohibit the expulsion of children. Directs state agencies to recommend training, technical supports, transitions , and professional development resources to improve the ability of teachers, administrators, program directors, and other staff to promote social-emotional development and behavioral health. Potential Policies to Improve Transitions: ➢ Create Governance Mechanisms ; Establish governance mechanisms and strategies that formalize and institutionalize efforts to link and align across early learning, early grades, and across departments i.e. SEA, Department of Human Services (child care), Health, etc. (Connecticut, Ohio, Pennsylvania specific to transitions) ➢ Improve Early Elementary Education ; Improve the quality of early elementary education (K-3) so that it clearly supports the success of young children and better aligns and links with 0-5, including the transition of P-K ➢ Build Data-Gathering and Sharing Systems ; Build, sustain, and link data systems that support ongoing improvements to access, quality and equity across the early learning and early elementary years. ➢ Upgrade Teacher Training in ECE ; Improve the quality and effectiveness of teachers, assistant teachers and practitioners in both early learning and early elementary school settings. ➢ Improve Administrative Leadership ; Improve the quality and effectiveness of leaders in both early learning and elementary education including principals, assistant principals and superintendents.

Full-Day Kindergarten ▪ 87% of parents favor a full-day kindergarten (FDK) program ▪ Research studies confirm that attendance in FDK results in academic and social benefits for students. ▪ Children in FDK programs gain 12.8 % more than children in half-day programs on reading assessments between the fall and the spring. ▪ Children in FDK gain 10.3% more than children in half day programs on math assessments between the fall and spring ▪ Low-income children show lasting academic and behavioral benefits including increased graduation rates. ▪ Teachers have more time for in depth lessons that give children academic foundations, time to reinforce proper behavior, and time for hands on exploration.

Full-day kindergarten across the states

Principal Leadership ▪ A strong principal can dramatically improve school culture, climate, and student outcomes. ▪ We know how principals do this (vision, people, systems, support, team). ▪ We know that a capable and motivated teacher can learn how to become such a principal ▪ Leadership challenge #1: organizing a school to support P-3 adult and student learning at scale

Principal Leadership Leadership Challenge #2: We don’t know how to do “it” at scale: ▪ We do not know how to organize ourselves to address the problem of scale — across districts or states (NAESP) ▪ The scale of the principal preparation challenge is within our resources to address (approximately 10,000 principals). ▪ Only one state requires training in ECE and child development for elementary school principal certification. ▪ The organizational challenge is systemic, requiring districts the state and local communities to function together.

50 State Comparison: K-3 Quality

50 State Comparison: K-3 Quality

3 rd grade reading proficiency What we know: ▪ Students who are not reading proficiently by the end of third grade are four times more likely not to finish high school ▪ The levels of reading proficiency for third graders are linked to specific long-term outcomes: ► 23 percent of below-basic readers fail to finish high school, compared to 9 percent of basic-scoring readers and 4 percent of proficient readers.

Third Grade Reading Proficiency The 2017 national percentage of third graders reading at or above proficient was 35%

Importance of 3 rd grade math proficiency What we know: ▪ Early numeracy proficiency is a predictor of future math performance ▪ Knowledge of math not only predicts later success in math, but also predicts later reading achievement and oral language abilities

Third Grade Math Proficiency The 2017 national percentage of third graders that were at or above math proficient was 40%

Approaches to Addressing Deficiencies in Reading and Math States have focused their 3 rd grade reading policy and programs in 6 primary areas: ▪ Assessments and assessment data ▪ Interventions ▪ Retention ▪ Standards and curriculum ▪ Teacher training and PD ▪ Funding

Impact of Retention Policies What we know:  Research suggests that grade retention has some positive effects in the short term but it has long term implications.  Short-term benefits include increased reading proficiency  Retained students are more likely to drop out before completing high school  Retention may have a negative impact on a students social and emotional adjustment

Retention Exemptions Retention policies often have good cause exemptions for students who:  Are identified as an English language learner with generally less than three years of English instruction  Are identified as having a disability  Demonstrate proficiency on an alternative standardized reading assessment or through a portfolio of assessments and classwork  Been previously retained before third grade  Participated in an intervention, such as a summer reading program  Received approval for promotion, based on parent, principal and/or teacher recommendations

Retention

Intervention ▪ 3 rd Grade Reading Intervention  Forty-two states, plus the District of Columbia, detail in statute the interventions available to K-3 students. ▪ 3 rd Grade Math Intervention  Few states have policy in place for math specific interventions  Where states have math intervention it is grouped with reading intervention