Keep an Eye on This One: School Reformers, Charter Schools, and Pre-K

In a recent Education Week commentary, Gordon MacInnes notes that one major challenge to improving children’s access to high-quality early learning opportunities is that school district leaders often don’t recognize the strong relationship between quality preschool and stronger literacy skills in the elementary grades. We agree that education leaders’ failure to recognize the important role pre-k can play in improving student achievement, and the need to build connections between these programs and the elementary schools children attend following pre-k, is a major problem.

That said, over the past year or so, I’ve seen increasing evidence that school reformers–particularly those working in the charter school field–are starting to “get” the importance of high-quality pre-k to realizing broader education reform goals. The latest case in point comes from this graphic, produced by the NewSchools Venture Fund for their annual summit to illustrate the impact that NewSchools-funded education enterprises are having in urban areas across the country. Look at the last line from the bottom: 2,200 children in high-quality pre-kindergarten programs provided by Accelero Learning, D.C. Prep, and KIPP D.C. Sure, it’s a modest number. What matters is that education reformers are getting the point that, if they’re serious about closing achievement gaps for disadvantaged youngsters, high-quality pre-k has to be part of the solution. If they’re smart, the Obama administration could create some really interesting and potentially groundbreaking synergies by bringing together their early childhood and educational innovation and entrepreneurship efforts. Keep an eye on this issue moving forward.