On the Road to High-quality Early Learning : Changing Children's Lives

This timely book will help policymakers and practitioners convert their visions of high-quality early education into on-the-ground reality by providing a much-needed, richly detailed look at how states can design, fund, and manage exemplary programs. The authors describe and analyze how four states―Michigan, West Virginia, Washington, and North Carolina―have built early education systems that positively affect student outcomes. Sharing a commitment to advancing key elements of a quality preschool education, each of the states developed programs with different enrollment requirements, services, and oversight. All of them, however, rely on common overarching strategies, such as: establishing standards and supporting improvement, investing in knowledgeable educators, coordinating and aligning early education programs with elementary school, seeking sufficient funding sources and mechanisms, and building broad-based support. This book offers powerful lessons for anyone who is committed to delivering engaging, age-appropriate preschool programs for all.

Book Features:

• Provides a comprehensive examination of how states can build high-quality early education systems, and what that looks like at the local level.
• Addresses both the design and implementation of early education programs that can foster gains in school readiness and other long-term benefits.
• Identifies the themes that can guide program development and expansion at all levels and across diverse contexts.
• Demonstrates how well-crafted local policy and skilled management sustain good classroom practice.
• Shows how to effectively manage early education programs and create linkages among the broad array of state agencies supporting children and families.
• Emphasizes the central role that teachers play in changing children’s lives and helps teachers understand why they are expected to follow certain practices.

Marjorie E. Wechsler is principal research manager at the Learning Policy Institute (founded by Linda Darling-Hammond) and co-leads the organization’s Early Childhood Learning team. David L. Kirp is a professor of the Graduate School at the University of California, Berkeley, a senior scholar at the Learning Policy Institute, and a contributing writer at The New York Times. Titilayo Tinubu Ali, Madelyn Gardner, Anna Maier, Hanna Melnick, and Patrick M. Shields are all with the Learning Policy Institute.