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The Role of State Leaders in Promoting Quality

PreschoolTom Watkins

Superintendent of Public Instruction

Michigan

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATIONKATHLEEN N. STRAUS-PRESIDENT, HERBERT S. MOYER-VICE-PRESIDENT

CAROLYN L. CURTIN-SECRETARY JOHN C. AUSTIN-TREASURERMARIANNE YARED MCGUIRE-NASBE DELEGATE ELIZABETH W.. BAUER

REGINALD M. TURNER EILEEN LAPPIN WEISER

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Giving our children a great startis both a moral imperative and an economic necessity.

LeadershipGovernor Granholm

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Why Care?Rather than going downstream to pull drowning victims out, let’s go upstream and find out

who’sthrowing them in.

The earliest years count.

Early Investment Pays Off$reduces grade retention$increases reading ability$reduces drop out$reduces welfare costs$reduces prison costs$reduces illiteracy

http://www.highscope.org/productDetail.asp? intproductID=320

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Why care?

You can’t build a strong house from the roof down; you build it from the foundation up.

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Why care?

The vast majority of children’s learning occurs before age 5, but the vast majorityof public funding is spent on theireducation beginning at age 5.

DUH!

Learning for school readiness encompasses physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development.

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Why care?

• Bust the cycle:– Parents can’t read

(need adult education)• 47% of adults in

Detroit are functionally illiterate*

– Kids aren’t ready to succeed at K entry

– 3rd/4th grade=retention or special education

– Kids drop out (SSS)– Kids have kids

– Parents can’t read…School unreadiness costs.*http://www.nifl.gov/reders/reder.htm

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Why care?• Those who start behind, stay behind.

– Lifting for a living is no longer an option. Our children will need to think for a living.

• Retention is a huge expense without long term benefits.

• The school readiness problem is not limited to low-income, minority, or at-risk children.

• High-quality early childhood programs make a difference.

The Trust for Early Education, Presentation at the Council of Chief State School Officers meeting, 11/7/03Seven Things Legislators Should Know About School Readiness http://www.finebynine.org/pdf/ResPacket.pdf

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In kindergarten, MSRP children score higher in all areas of child development.

3.27

3.77

3.55

3.01

3.15

3.18

3.38

3.94

3.74

3.22

3.4

3.4

2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5

Logic and Mathematics

Music and Movement

Creative Representation

Language and Literacy

Social Relations

Initiative

Treatment

No-Program

Child Observation Record - Scale=1-5

http://www.highscope.org/Research/MsrpEvaluation/msrpmain.htm

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MSRP students are significantly more likely to remain on-grade and have satisfactory MEAP scores at 4th grade.

55.10%

44%

14.20%

47.40%

35.50%

22%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Percent PassingMEAP Math

Percent PassingMEAP Reading

Percent Held Backby 4th Grade

Treatment

No-Program

http://www.highscope.org/Research/MsrpEvaluation/msrpmain.htm

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“It’s not my problem…”

• High-quality programs are scarce. States can promote and regulate quality.

• 50% of the children who are unprepared for kindergarten are middle class or higher.

• State-funded and federally-funded programs are primarily for poor children.Quality matters.

The Trust for Early Education, Presentation at the Council of Chief State School Officers meeting, 11/7/03

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Who cares?

• Education is too important to leave to those of us who make our living from it.

• Florida: Palm Beach County 2000: ½ mill tax increase promoted by a conservative business group

• “Unexpected” champions are key to success

Investments pay off.

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Who Cares in Michigan, 2003?The Stars are Aligned:

* Governor Granholm: Children’s Action Network Project Great StartLeadership, advocacy, and the “bully pulpit”

* Legislative Children’s Caucus

* House Democrats: Early Childhood Task Force

* State Board of Education: Early Childhood Task Force

* Michigan Ready to Succeed Partnership:Be their Hero from age Zero

* Michigan Department of Community Health: Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems grant

* Michigan Department of Education: Office of Early Childhood Education and Family Services

* Michigan Family Independence Agency: CAN Priority Schools

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…but we’re broke!

• Pay now or pay later• What do we do while

we’re waiting for more money?

• Answer: We must be creative, innovative, and we dream. We PLAN, and we implement as we CAN. We look at ways to redirect existing funding to early childhood efforts.

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Find all the Pieces of the Puzzle

• All the partners– Michigan Ready To Succeed

Partnership: business, labor, education, faith, health, philanthropy, government; profit and non-profit organizations and associations

• All the programs– Local, regional, statewide– Schools, centers, agencies

• All the communities– Early childhood comprehensive

systems strategic planning—statewide and local

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Put the Pieces Together• Develop high-quality

infrastructure: training, standards, accountability systems “ready to lead”

• Foundations fund R.E.A.D.Y. kits and translations

• Parent info on the web (Family FUNdamentals)

• First Day of School (transition efforts)

• Medical/other offices put parenting info on waiting room videos

• Grocery bags with parenting messages

• Messages on fast food tray liners and cups

•Upgrade child care licensing: ½ hour per day of reading/literacy activities; redo the rules•Book collections for the holidays.•Governor’s PSAs.•Great Parents, Great Start—universal parent education; targeted programs for at-risk families; community collaboration

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Collaboration

• Start at the top– Governor Granholm’s

#1 issue is education, and early childhood education is at the top of that agenda

• Align programs and priorities

• Make the table very big; virtual too

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We will…

• We make the choices now.

• Leadership is about planting trees under which we will never sit.

• It’s our children and the children of the world.

• Michigan will lead so our children will LEAD.

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For more information:

Michigan Department of Education www.michigan.gov/mde Dr. Lindy Buch, Supervisor, Early

Childhood and Parenting Programs, BuchL@michigan.gov