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So now there is the push for universal pre-school because kids don't know their numbers, abc's, words and shapes that are needed the first day of kindergarten.
What's sad is that this is deja vu. This was the same story for the universal turned mandatory kindergarten.
I went to school before kindergarten became mandatory. It was just starting out and was only 1/2 day either morning or afternoon. It was first grade where you learned your numbers, alphabet and how to read.
Now we need to start them at 4. I guess this is because this is not being learned at home anymore.
Head Start didn't work ? Will it end ?
Give it a few years and see if it works. If not then what..mandatory daycare before they are even potty trained ?
Obama pushes universal preschool proposal | The Ticket - Yahoo! News
The president told his Georgia audience Thursday that children who are not exposed to quality early education aren't prepared for kindergarten. They don't know "their numbers," "shapes," they'll know "fewer vocabulary words" and don't have a "capacity for focus." "They're going to be behind that first day," he said.
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...Obama's preschool plan would create a new federal-state cost-sharing partnership to guarantee high-quality preschool to all low- and moderate-income 4-year-old children, including families that earn up to 200 percent of the poverty level. The program would be extended to middle-class families who may pay on a sliding scale, and would incentivize full-day kindergarten.
Give it a few years and see if it works. If not then what..mandatory daycare before they are even potty trained ?
Head Start won't end. Head Start is generally for low-income children whose home life does not prepare them for kindergarten. Whether or not Head Start has been successful, in terms of money spent and goals achieved, since its inception in 1965 is debatable.
We chose to send our children to pre-school beginning at 3, but that was voluntary. Whether pre-school for 4-year olds and younger becaomes mandatory at some point, is anyone's guess.
We're looking at this being done on a State level here. It's generally thought that the imposition of mandatory pre-school will give parents a break on child care costs.
The average cost per child for 18 months of preschool in 2011 is $9,000, but Reynolds' cost-benefit analysis suggests that leads to at least $90,000 in benefits per child in terms of increased earnings, tax revenue, less criminal behavior, reduced mental health costs and other measures, he said.
"No other social program for children and youth has been shown to have that level of return on investment," he said.
It's pretty much the norm in my area. The kids go two days a week at age 3, and three days a week at age 4. By the time they start kindergarten they've got the hang of taking turns, know their numbers and letters and can sit quietly for a short period of time.
Head Start won't end. Head Start is generally for low-income children whose home life does not prepare them for kindergarten. Whether or not Head Start has been successful, in terms of money spent and goals achieved, since its inception in 1965 is debatable.
We chose to send our children to pre-school beginning at 3, but that was voluntary. Whether pre-school for 4-year olds and younger becaomes mandatory at some point, is anyone's guess.
Well not debatable anymore. There's enough years and data.
Head Start didn't work. But that's not stopping us spending $8 billion a year on it.
HHS Study: Yep, Head Start doesn’t work « Hot Air
In 2010, HHS released the findings of the Head Start Impact Study, which tracked the progress of three- and four-year-olds entering Head Start through kindergarten and first grade. Overall, Head Start had little to no positive effects for children who were granted access.
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Impacts on Cognitive Development. For cognitive development, the third-grade study assessed 11 outcomes for the original three- and four-year-old cohorts. Access to Head Start for each group had no statistically measurable effects on all measures of cognitive ability, including numerous measures of reading, language, and math ability.
Through hundreds of studies over four decades, we have confirmed beyond doubt that Head Start participants enter kindergarten at an advantage and are better prepared for life and education than their peers. Head Start children have better health and wellness as teens and adults; higher high school and college graduation rates; and their parents are more engaged in their child’s education. Head Start children begin life with most risks and challenges. Children from poor families, homeless families, and those with special needs make up our Head Start classrooms.
A recent analysis of the Head Start Impact Study data by Oregon State University (OSU) researchers concluded that the durable benefits of Head Start are particularly evident in the highest risk children: children in foster care.
Making up for the missing foundation of a stable home, Head Start reaches these children who may not live in one place more than a month. Moving frequently, often between relatives, makes it difficult for children to establish secure relationships with adults and puts children at additional risk for behavioral and developmental problems.
Note also, that these children at risk need *more* than simply a preschool program.
There are two very important areas of measurement of young children that have bearing on long-term achievement and success. One is cognitive abilities, skills like knowing colors, numbers and letters—things that are fairly easily measured. The other is social-emotional – or “executive function” – skills. Social-emotional skills include persistence, attention, motivation and the ability to work in groups. Maybe they sound squishy, but in fact they’re critically important. Notably, when they’re learned in the first five years, they don’t fade out. Those are precisely the skills that allow children to be successful later not only as 3rd graders, and 11th graders, but in jobs. And those are precisely the skills – along with colors, letters and numbers – that Head Start has been successful at teaching.
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