10 Burning Questions on the Early Learning Challenge

Last month’s announcement of the federal government’s $500 million grant program to support early learning has stirred up excited chatter and speculation throughout the early education community. The program, which is part of the newest iteration of the U.S. Department of Education’s Race to the Top program, will award grants to states on a competitive basis. Federal officials say that by the end of the summer they will publish guidelines on what states must do to win. Until then, questions abound. Here are 10 on our minds.  (Do you have others? Feel free to jump in via the comments section below.)

1. How many states will be awarded grants? Will the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services favor awarding a few large grants over many smaller ones?
2. In the legislation that passed the U.S. House of Representatives in 2009, as well as the legislation introduced this year by Sen. Robert P. Casey, Jr.(D-PA), the grants were to be distributed under two different categories: Quality Pathways grants for states that have already made significant progress and Development grants for states with evidence that they are committed to improvement. Will this Race to the Top -Early Learning Challenge (RttT-ELC) program also establish two tiers of participation?
3. Which states will be best positioned to win grants? Will the legislation favor the nearly two dozen states that have developed a Quality Rating Improvement System (QRIS) to improve the quality of their childcare and pre-k programs?
4. Will the guidelines require that states develop their applications in coordination with their Early Childhood Advisory Councils, which have been established in 46 states, four territories and the District of Columbia that applied for funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act?
5. Given that the money must be awarded by December 31 of this year, what kind of review process are the Departments of Education and HHS envisioning? Will they be asking for presentations in Washington, D.C., as was the case with the original RttT? Will there be time?
6. Will the federal government require states to hit a minimum level of state funding for early learning to be eligible for grants? Will states that have reduced their funding for pre-k programs in the past year be viewed as serious contenders or will those budget decisions derail their chances?
7. The original Early Learning Challenge legislation was built to reward states for creating developmentally appropriate early childhood standards that align with K-3 standards. Now that the K-12 Common Core standards are already in place in 43 states, will states be urged to align their early learning standards with the Common Core?
8. How will the Departments of Education and HHS ensure that the grants to support birth to age 5 early learning programs won’t stymie efforts at the state or local level  to bridge programs between the 0-5 age range and the K-12 grades?
9. How will states and the federal government evaluate the success of their efforts to build early learning systems and improve outcomes for young children? Will states be required to set aside a part of their grant to pay for research and evaluation?
10. Does the establishment of the RttT-ELC make it more or less likely that early learning will be considered a priority in revising the Elementary and Secondary Education Act?

P.S. Don’t miss the special page we’ve created for all of our coverage of the RttT-ELC as well as earlier iterations of the Early Learning Challenge program.