RANDs California Preschool Study

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RANDs California Preschool Study
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Preschool California

• Preschool California is a nonprofit advocacy
  organization working to make high-quality
  preschool programs available to all of
  Californias children, starting with those who
  need it most

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RAND Study First Comprehensive, Statewide Report
on Early Care and Education for Californias
Preschool Age-Children

• Confirms early childhood education a critical
  part of K-12 reform
• Shows how California can invest in high-quality
  early learning system to help close achievement
  gap
• Provides guidance on how California can most
  effectively and efficiently spend its early
  childhood education dollars

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RANDs California Preschool Study Series of Four
Reports

• Report 1 Analysis of Achievement Gaps in Meeting
  California K-3 Standards
• Report 2 Policy Analysis of Publicly-Funded
  Preschool and Child Care in California and Case
  Study Counties
• Report 3 Collection and Analysis of New Data on
  ECE Utilization and Quality
• Report 4 Synthesis Study of Preschool Adequacy
  and Efficiency

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California Has Significant Achievement Gap as
Early as Kindergarten Entry

• Low-income children more likely to begin
  kindergarten without basic early reading, social
  skills that prepare them to learn, succeed

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Children Fall Short of State Standards

• Almost 2/3 of third graders not proficient in
  English-language arts
• 42 of third graders not proficient in math

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Start Behind, Stay Behind

• Proportion not proficient even higher for
  low-income, Latino, African American, English
  learner children

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High-Quality Preschool Can Help Bridge
Achievement Gap, Deliver High Return on
Investment

• 7-17 return on investment, according to
  longitudinal studies on high-quality early
  childhood education serving disadvantaged
  children
• Saves government spending on K-12 education,
  public assistance, criminal justice system
• Increased tax revenue as result of higher
  earnings

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Californias Early Childhood System
Underfunded, Unable to Serve Kids Who Need It Most

• About 50 of low-income children in preschool
• 80 of children whose families make 100,000 in
  preschool
• Far fewer in high-quality programs that develop
  language skills, promote higher-order thinking

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Current Early Care and Education System
Complex, Fragmented

• Minimal regulations
• Lack of clear accountability system with
  expectations for quality and outcomes
• No financial incentive to achieve higher quality
• Funding system that makes it difficult for
  providers to use all funds available
• Lack of well-designed, coordinated plan to
  prepare teachers
• Complex system difficult for families to
  navigate, policymakers and public to understand,
  providers to administer

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New RAND Recommendations

• Ensure high-quality programs available for
  children who need it most
• Measure and monitor quality, provide higher
  reimbursements to providers who achieve higher
  quality
• Create well-designed, coordinated plan to prepare
  teachers
• Advance toward more efficient and coordinated
  system

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California Already Taking Steps to Address
Challenges

• Developing quality rating and improvement system
  to evaluate quality and provide financial
  incentives to reach higher quality
• Includes supporting and growing early childhood
  education workforce that serves our children
• Consolidated programs and reduced bureaucracy,
  making most of resources we have now
• Establishing systems to follow and evaluate
  childrens progress from early education to high
  school graduation

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State and Federal Early Learning Landscape

• As California grapples with state budget crisis,
  opportunity to maximize new federal funding
• At least 5 billion stimulus funding for early
  childhood education, of which California could
  receive more than 500 million
• More than 1 billion for early learning in
  President Obamas FY 2010 budget proposal
• RAND shows where California can do more with the
  money it has to better serve children

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Time to Act is Now

• President Obama has called early learning first
  pillar of education reform
• New federal funding presents unprecedented
  opportunity to build on what California already
  doing, act on RAND recommendations

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Learn More About Early Learning and RANDs Study

• http//www.preschoolcalifornia.org/randhttp//www
  .rand.org/labor/projects/ca_preschool/