Early Childhood

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End the Birthday Bias

Age allowances in high-stakes tests are a proven boost for fairness
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The Case for Kindergarten Tests

Starting NAEP in 4th grade is much too late

EdStat: 38 States had Statewide Quality Rating and Improvement Systems for Preschools by February 2017

Many systems include differential funding reimbursement for programs with higher quality ratings.

EdStat: State Spending on Preschool More Than Doubled between 2002 and 2016, from $3.3 to $7.4 Billion

However, a range of research also shows that many early childhood programs do not have positive long-term effects.

EdStat: At Best, Increasing Pre-K Enrollment by 10 Percent Would Raise a State’s Standard Adjusted NAEP Score by a Little Less Than 1 Point Five Years Later

According to new analyses, the positive associations between NAEP scores and earlier pre-K enrollment are small and typically not statistically significant.

EdStat: From 2002 to 2017, the Percentage of Four-Year-Olds Enrolled in State Pre-K Rose from 14 Percent to 33 Percent

But is government-funded pre-K the surest way to provide the opportunity for all children to succeed in school and life?

EdStat: The U.S. Federal Government Spends Roughly $26 Billion Annually on Programs and Tax Expenditures to Support the Care and Education of Young Children

But how much are individual households spending to send a child to a center-based program when no one is helping them pay?

EdStat: 48 Percent of Parents Support Testing Preschool Students

Even though controversy has sprung up around the new International Early Learning and Child Well-Being Study, our 2017 EdNext poll found that 48 percent of parents support requiring students in publicly funded preschool programs to take state tests.

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