Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Vision
- Eight Policy Recommendations for Accelerating Progress
- 1. Realize a Seamless Early and Elementary Learning Continuum
- 2. Improve Systems to Better Attract, Prepare, Empower, Develop, and Retain High-Quality Educators
- 3. Develop Two-Generation Strategies to Engage Families
- 4. Embrace Children’s Language and Culture as an Asset
- 5. Put More Attention on Kindergarten and the Early Grades
- 6. Promote Efficiency and Coordination to Improve Outcomes for Children
- 7. Emphasize Continuous Improvement as the Goal of Data Collection
- 8. Secure Predictable, Sustainable, and Increased Funding for Children’s Earliest Years
Introduction
Over the last decade, there has been increased attention on early education, but real progress for children and families has remained out of reach. We want America’s children to become lifelong learners who are able to think critically and inventively, manage their emotions and impulses, and make smart decisions by drawing upon a rich knowledge base about how the world works. To make this goal a reality for all children, New America makes eight recommendations, suggests specific actions, and pinpoints which actors—federal, state, and local policymakers, as well as educators and administrators—should help move the work forward.
Our Past Work
In 2014, New America released two reports, reflecting on the period since the Great Recession and the first term of the Obama Administration. The first report, Subprime Learning: Early Education in America since the Great Recession, looked at the state of early education birth through third grade (B–3rd) from 2009–2013. We found that not enough children had access to high-quality learning opportunities. Later that year, New America published a second report, Beyond Subprime Learning: Accelerating Progress in Early Education, and put forward a vision for early education in America and policy ideas for how to achieve it. In this new report, we consider the successes, challenges, and failures of the last decade and build on our previous vision in order to offer new ideas on what policymakers and other actors should prioritize in the 2020s to build a better future for young children and their families.