Early childhood education has become the public-policy bobblehead of our time. An expanding raft of scientific and economic research underscores the need to significantly expand quality early learning in the first five years of life, particularly for at-risk children. Many key policy-makers know this. They nod. And nod.

That's often all they do.

They acknowledge quality early learning can be the most cost-effective public investment available to curb later extensive interventions for special education, teen pregnancies, juvenile crime, and high school dropouts.

But all this goodwill still lacks a way.

After a decade on a federal starvation diet, early education seemed to be delivered a feast by President Barack Obama's election. Finally, here was a policy-maker who would give more than a nod in support of early childhood education. Candidate Obama had pledged a "comprehensive platform" for early childhood and whipped up hopes and dreams for a new day, and, presumably, new investment. Early policy victories were also promising -- a nearly $4.1 billion infusion of funding for Head Start, Early Head Start, and child care as part of the economic-recovery package. The administration also proposed a major new investment of $8 billion to create an Early Learning Challenge Fund, a new competitive grant program designed to help states build stronger early-learning systems. But, as every politician turned policy-maker learns, having good ideas and implementing them are two wildly different matters. At the last minute, the Early Learning Challenge Fund was jettisoned from the budget-resolution package that carried health-care and student-loan reform -- a devastating defeat for the early -- childhood community. Even the $1.5 billion investment in home visiting included in the health-care bill couldn't compensate for that disappointment.

Despite recent progress, the early-childhood policy to-do list is very long. The $4.1 billion infusion of Head Start and other child-care funding in the 2009 economic stimulus package, significant as it was, merely returned programs to the purchasing power they had at the end of the Clinton administration, before nearly a decade of flat funding (plus the forces of inflation) slowly but surely chipped away at their ability to serve children.

Rhetorically, this administration has reframed how the nation must regard early education: Early childhood education can no longer be seen as just an entitlement or work support for parents in need but as a critical component of education reform, a necessary long-term investment in the nation's future economic success. "Education and, in many ways, success in life begins with high-quality early-learning experiences," said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan after the House passed the Early Learning Challenge Fund. "We know that increasing the number of high -- quality early-learning opportunities, especially for low-income families, improves child outcomes. Research shows children who receive such services are less likely to be referred to special education and more likely to graduate and be successful adults."

The insidious achievement gap becomes evident far earlier than most realize. Language development among children of professional parents begins to take off as early as 18 months, and at the same time begins to flatline among children of low-income parents. By the time an average child whose parents are on welfare reaches age 4, she has heard 32 million fewer words than a child of professional parents, according to a seminal study published in 1995 by University of Kansas researchers. Without intervention, that language gulf only expands over time. Few children who enter kindergarten far behind more advantaged peers are able to catch up.

The administration's emphasis on early childhood education as a component in a larger education-reform strategy was, and remains, the right agenda, accompanied by pitch-perfect talking points. But making that rhetoric a reality will require much greater investment in smart policy at the federal level.

Smart policy acknowledges that at-risk infants, toddlers, and preschoolers need comprehensive services in the early years, delivered by well-trained professionals who understand how to help develop a child's sense of curiosity, motivation, impulse control, and group participation. And they need these supports from birth, ranging from home visits for pregnant and new moms to health screenings, quality child care, and preschool and Head Start services.

Young children don't need kill-and-drill sergeants on letters, numbers, and colors to prepare for kindergarten. Appropriate academic learning should occur alongside social-emotional learning, according to research. Nobel laureate in economics James Heckman found that "non-cognitive skills" -- self -- regulation skills such as the ability to focus and sustain attention, persevere through frustration, and organize -- play a far more important role than once believed in long-term educational outcomes, ranging from high school graduation to adult employment rates.

Take it from another class of experts: Kindergarten teachers. When surveyed about which skills are most important for entering kindergartners to experience success, teachers gave as their top answers abilities like self-care and motor skills, followed closely by self-regulation. Academics, though not unimportant, show up much further down the list.

This isn't just self-interested hope for a class full of well-behaved students who march in two perfect Madeline-esque lines. Skills like attentive listening, following directions, and exhibiting self-control really do translate to success in school and in life. Research confirms this: In a measure of self-regulation called the Head-to-Toes Task, preschool- and kindergarten-age children are instructed to touch their toes when asked to touch their head, and to touch their head when asked to touch their toes. This simple task combines three core elements of self-regulation: attention, working memory, and impulse control. A study at Oregon State University found that young children who performed well on this task in the fall had markedly higher test scores in math and reading the next spring. The effect was particularly strong in math, where they performed 3.4 months ahead of their peers.

***

If we accept that "soft skills" are in fact important, what role can public policy possibly play in helping a child refrain from hitting the classmate who yanks away a favorite toy or avoid a temper tantrum when it's time to transition from blocks to circle time? The answer is in policies that support high-quality relationships -- be they through parenting, caregiving, or preschool. Skills like self-regulation and positive peer interactions emerge only when very young children have a stable base of relationships on which to build confidence to handle new situations and an understanding of their surrounding world. If you want a class of kindergartners with calm, consistent behavior, give them calm, consistent caregivers for the five years before they show up at school. That requires special skills and training and a level of professionalism that today isn't adequately supported by public resources.

Quality caregiving is particularly critical for children who grow up amid chaotic family lives, depressed parents, frequent disruption, or extreme stress. We know these same children from stressed households often end up in child care that is equally stressful or chaotic. And that, scientific research tells us, carries physiological consequences on how neural connections in the brain develop in those early years, which in turn affects a child's ability to learn and succeed long-term.

The most important relationship is between the child and his parents. The Obama administration and Congress' recent investment in home visiting acknowledges this reality. Parenting a newborn can be profoundly difficult. Many new parents need help in order to get off to the right start. Home-visiting programs, where a nurse, doula, or other trained professional provides information, resources, and support starting in pregnancy and extending into the baby's first year, are one way to provide the kind of support that new parents used to get from their own parents but that can be hard to come by in today's complicated, fragile, absent, or just geographically dispersed families...."

Cornelia Grumman is executive director of the First Five Years Fund. She was previously a reporter and editorial board member for the Chicago Tribune, winning a Pulitzer Prize for her editorials in 2003.

The rest of the article can be found here. http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles;jsessionid=aJJFIRJWpxa8abyH_K?article=literacy_begins_at_birth

I didn't include it because it starts talking about head start.

Early childhood education has become the public-policy bobblehead of our time. An expanding raft of scientific and economic research underscores the need to significantly expand quality early learning in the first five years of life, particularly for at-risk children. Many key policy-makers know this. They nod. And nod.

That's often all they do.

They acknowledge quality early learning can be the most cost-effective public investment available to curb later extensive interventions for special education, teen pregnancies, juvenile crime, and high school dropouts.

But all this goodwill still lacks a way.

After a decade on a federal starvation diet, early education seemed to be delivered a feast by President Barack Obama's election. Finally, here was a policy-maker who would give more than a nod in support of early childhood education. Candidate Obama had pledged a "comprehensive platform" for early childhood and whipped up hopes and dreams for a new day, and, presumably, new investment. Early policy victories were also promising -- a nearly $4.1 billion infusion of funding for Head Start, Early Head Start, and child care as part of the economic-recovery package. The administration also proposed a major new investment of $8 billion to create an Early Learning Challenge Fund, a new competitive grant program designed to help states build stronger early-learning systems. But, as every politician turned policy-maker learns, having good ideas and implementing them are two wildly different matters. At the last minute, the Early Learning Challenge Fund was jettisoned from the budget-resolution package that carried health-care and student-loan reform -- a devastating defeat for the early -- childhood community. Even the $1.5 billion investment in home visiting included in the health-care bill couldn't compensate for that disappointment.

Despite recent progress, the early-childhood policy to-do list is very long. The $4.1 billion infusion of Head Start and other child-care funding in the 2009 economic stimulus package, significant as it was, merely returned programs to the purchasing power they had at the end of the Clinton administration, before nearly a decade of flat funding (plus the forces of inflation) slowly but surely chipped away at their ability to serve children.

Rhetorically, this administration has reframed how the nation must regard early education: Early childhood education can no longer be seen as just an entitlement or work support for parents in need but as a critical component of education reform, a necessary long-term investment in the nation's future economic success. "Education and, in many ways, success in life begins with high-quality early-learning experiences," said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan after the House passed the Early Learning Challenge Fund. "We know that increasing the number of high -- quality early-learning opportunities, especially for low-income families, improves child outcomes. Research shows children who receive such services are less likely to be referred to special education and more likely to graduate and be successful adults."

The insidious achievement gap becomes evident far earlier than most realize. Language development among children of professional parents begins to take off as early as 18 months, and at the same time begins to flatline among children of low-income parents. By the time an average child whose parents are on welfare reaches age 4, she has heard 32 million fewer words than a child of professional parents, according to a seminal study published in 1995 by University of Kansas researchers. Without intervention, that language gulf only expands over time. Few children who enter kindergarten far behind more advantaged peers are able to catch up.

The administration's emphasis on early childhood education as a component in a larger education-reform strategy was, and remains, the right agenda, accompanied by pitch-perfect talking points. But making that rhetoric a reality will require much greater investment in smart policy at the federal level.

Smart policy acknowledges that at-risk infants, toddlers, and preschoolers need comprehensive services in the early years, delivered by well-trained professionals who understand how to help develop a child's sense of curiosity, motivation, impulse control, and group participation. And they need these supports from birth, ranging from home visits for pregnant and new moms to health screenings, quality child care, and preschool and Head Start services.

Young children don't need kill-and-drill sergeants on letters, numbers, and colors to prepare for kindergarten. Appropriate academic learning should occur alongside social-emotional learning, according to research. Nobel laureate in economics James Heckman found that "non-cognitive skills" -- self -- regulation skills such as the ability to focus and sustain attention, persevere through frustration, and organize -- play a far more important role than once believed in long-term educational outcomes, ranging from high school graduation to adult employment rates.

Take it from another class of experts: Kindergarten teachers. When surveyed about which skills are most important for entering kindergartners to experience success, teachers gave as their top answers abilities like self-care and motor skills, followed closely by self-regulation. Academics, though not unimportant, show up much further down the list.

This isn't just self-interested hope for a class full of well-behaved students who march in two perfect Madeline-esque lines. Skills like attentive listening, following directions, and exhibiting self-control really do translate to success in school and in life. Research confirms this: In a measure of self-regulation called the Head-to-Toes Task, preschool- and kindergarten-age children are instructed to touch their toes when asked to touch their head, and to touch their head when asked to touch their toes. This simple task combines three core elements of self-regulation: attention, working memory, and impulse control. A study at Oregon State University found that young children who performed well on this task in the fall had markedly higher test scores in math and reading the next spring. The effect was particularly strong in math, where they performed 3.4 months ahead of their peers.

***

If we accept that "soft skills" are in fact important, what role can public policy possibly play in helping a child refrain from hitting the classmate who yanks away a favorite toy or avoid a temper tantrum when it's time to transition from blocks to circle time? The answer is in policies that support high-quality relationships -- be they through parenting, caregiving, or preschool. Skills like self-regulation and positive peer interactions emerge only when very young children have a stable base of relationships on which to build confidence to handle new situations and an understanding of their surrounding world. If you want a class of kindergartners with calm, consistent behavior, give them calm, consistent caregivers for the five years before they show up at school. That requires special skills and training and a level of professionalism that today isn't adequately supported by public resources.

Quality caregiving is particularly critical for children who grow up amid chaotic family lives, depressed parents, frequent disruption, or extreme stress. We know these same children from stressed households often end up in child care that is equally stressful or chaotic. And that, scientific research tells us, carries physiological consequences on how neural connections in the brain develop in those early years, which in turn affects a child's ability to learn and succeed long-term.

The most important relationship is between the child and his parents. The Obama administration and Congress' recent investment in home visiting acknowledges this reality. Parenting a newborn can be profoundly difficult. Many new parents need help in order to get off to the right start. Home-visiting programs, where a nurse, doula, or other trained professional provides information, resources, and support starting in pregnancy and extending into the baby's first year, are one way to provide the kind of support that new parents used to get from their own parents but that can be hard to come by in today's complicated, fragile, absent, or just geographically dispersed families...."

Cornelia Grumman is executive director of the First Five Years Fund. She was previously a reporter and editorial board member for the Chicago Tribune, winning a Pulitzer Prize for her editorials in 2003.

The rest of the article can be found here. http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles;jsessionid=aJJFIRJWpxa8abyH_K?article=literacy_begins_at_birth

I didn't include it because it starts talking about head start.