Early Ed Roundup: Week of April 14 – April 18

Modest Boost for Pre-K in Alabama

Alabama’s education budget suffered a $375 million cut this week, but at least there was some money left for pre-k. The budget plan, as approved Wednesday by the House Education Committee includes $10 million to expand the state pre-k program, which serves about 1,000 four-year olds in the state. This amount was less than the $20 million that Gov. Bob Riley (R), who hopes to triple the state’s pre-k enrollment by 2011, originally requested.

Early Ed Achievement Among Black Students Can Easily Fade

We know that pre-k can help close the achievement gap among minority, socio-economically disadvantaged students and their more affluent, often white peers. Yet new research on black-white achievement gaps reveals how quickly pre-school gains can disappear if achievement isn’t supported through the elementary grades and beyond. Using data from the ECLS Kindergarten Cohort study, Stanford University’s Sean Reardon finds that black kindergarteners are more likely to show declining achievement by grade 5 than their white peers. Particularly disturbing, high-performing black kindergarteners loose ground to their white peers at a rate twice a fast as low-achieving black kindergarteners. This suggests that simply ensuring “school readiness” isn’t enough—to really make headway in combatting the black-white achievement gap we need to continue high-quality interventions throughout the early elementary years.

New Resource Center Compiles PK-3 Data

PK-3 advocates have a new resource for comprehensive national data on PK-3 issues, including families, schools, and neighborhoods. The PK-3 Data Resource Center, a joint initiative supported by the Foundation for Childhood Development and the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research, provides access to four longitudinal datasets—The ECLS Kindergarten Cohort (1989-99); the National HeadStart / Early Childhood Transition Demonstration Study (1991-99); the National Longitudinal Study of Youth (1979); and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics—that researchers can use to study early education issues.