Children’s Alliance Hiring Early Learning Policy Staff

I just got the following mail from Jon Gould, the Deputy Director at the Children’s Alliance about positions there.

Children’s Alliance is hiring an Early Learning Policy Director and a Pre-K Policy Associate. Our early learning policy advocacy focuses on expanding access to high-quality, affordable, culturally responsive early learning and care for Washington’s youngest kids, as a key strategy to close the opportunity gap facing children in low-income families and children of color.

  • The Early Learning Policy Director leads the organization’s public policy advocacy related to early learning. The position reports to the Deputy Director.
  • The Pre-K Policy Associate will focus on growing and improving the state’s Early Childhood Education and Assistance program. This is a new position.

Both positions are full time at 37.5 hours a week.

Check out our jobs page for more information on both positions and how to apply. 

Improving Quality of Early Learning

OLYMPIA – The state House of Representatives approved HB 2377 today by a vote of 64-33, which will substantially improve the quality of early learning for kids in Washington State.

Legislative news from Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Medina (48th Legislative District)

OLYMPIA – The state House of Representatives approved HB 2377 today by a vote of 64-33, which will substantially improve the quality of early learning for kids in Washington State.

“If we want to improve school readiness outcomes for students, our best investment is in high-quality early learning,” said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Ross Hunter of Medina.

“We now know how to assess the quality of pre-school programs and assess these outcomes. We just have to be serious about doing it. The evidence is really clear – quality early learning is the best investment we can make to close the achievement gap here in Washington.”

HB 2377, the Early Start Act of 2014, will use a balanced approach – a mix of incentives and requirements – to increase child care quality by getting more facilities to provide high-quality child care.

Washington State has done an excellent job creating and expanding our early learning network. We have nearly 7,500 child care facilities that serve about 174,000 children.

The focus now must be on improving the quality of care those children receive each day. Only high-quality child care provides a positive return on investment. It leads to positive outcomes like greater academic achievement, increased graduation rates, lower incarceration rates, less poverty, and less reliance on government assistance.

“McCleary talks about improving education outcomes for children,” said Rep. Ruth Kagi, chair of the House Early Learning and Human Services Committee. “This bill will do more to close the opportunity gap than anything we have done in a long time.”

HB 2377 has now moved to the Senate for consideration.

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For interviews or more information:

Early Start Act summary

Early Start Act news release

Rep. Ross Hunter, 360-786-7936
Staff: Andy McVicar, 360-786-7215

Print-quality photo:http://www.leg.wa.gov/house/representatives/publishingimages/hunter.jpg

Photo credit: Washington State Legislative Support Services

For broadcast-quality audio or to arrange TV or radio interviews:

Dan Frizzell, 360-786-7208

Early Learning

Thomas The Tank Engine
Thomas The Tank Engine

I visited a family child care provider in Bellevue last week. I’ve been working with Representative Ruth Kagi on trying to figure out how to improve both the reach and quality of our early learning system for at risk kids, and seeing how stuff works in person is pretty valuable.

This wasn’t a facility for at-risk kids. In fact, it costs over a thousand dollars a month for preschool kids, more for infants and toddlers. (They require a higher staff ratio.) This isn’t an out of whack price – it’s what it costs to provide preschool here. We were looking at Washington’s new quality ranking system in action. The provider Bijay Singh has been working on getting rated, which is a long process. She’s been in the business for 30 years and it looked like a great place. I’d show pictures, but I always feel awkward taking pictures of other people’s kids and there are legal issues with legal releases. I have included the picture of Thomas the Tank Engine above, instantly recognizable to anyone who has had kids in the past 20+ years. (More people read posts with pictures – who knew?) I sat on the floor with a three-year-old and played with the boy and his trains for at least 10 minutes.

Continue reading “Early Learning”

Brown Center: “Obama’s Preschool Proposal is Not Based on Sound Research”

Obama addressing a crowd with While I’m not sure I agree with the scary headline of this post from the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution, I totally agree that we should be thinking carefully about how we implement a major upgrade of our early education program for at-risk kids. (Good headlines drive more readership, hence I quote it in my title…)

You can read their conclusions here, but the following paragraph is a good summary:

When well designed and implemented third-party randomized trials of good preschool programs generate estimates of effects that are orders of magnitude smaller than those being generated using the age-cutoff regression discontinuity design, it raises questions that should motivate a careful examination of the methodology of the age-cutoff research.

You can see that I have exciting reading habits!

Continue reading “Brown Center: “Obama’s Preschool Proposal is Not Based on Sound Research””