10 New Ideas for Early Education in the 111th Congress

The 111^th Congress will have numerous opportunities to enact policies that improve access, quality, efficiency, and alignment in early education, including the economic stimulus package currently being debated in Congress and the scheduled reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), also known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB). A new issue brief from New America’s Early Education Initiative proposes 10 new policy ideas to improve access, quality, and alignment in early education from preschool through the early elementary school years:

1. Ensure that school construction funds are available to support the expansion of high-quality early education programs.

2. Recruit talented individuals to become qualified PreK and early elementary school teachers by providing expedited alternative routes to PreK teaching.

3. Support the ability of charter schools to offer high-quality PreK programs.

4. Strengthen early elementary standards.

5. Allow and encourage chronically failing elementary schools to be reconstituted as PreK to 3rd Early Education Academies.

6. Set aside a portion of school construction funding to support the reconstitution of chronically low-performing elementary schools as PreK to 3rd Early Education Academies.

7. Tap supplemental educational services and public school choice set-aside funds for high-quality PreK programs.

8. Ensure that alignment between PreK and the K-12 public schools is included in the definition of quality for any new federal early education program.

9. Improve accountability for early education programs.

10. Target elementary absenteeism.

Read the full report here.