The Value of PA’s ECE system Tom Corbett, Governor | Ronald J. Tomalis, Acting Secretary of...

The Value of PA’s ECE system

Tom Corbett, Governor | Ronald J. Tomalis, Acting Secretary of Education | Gary D. Alexander, Acting Secretary of Public Welfare www.education.state.pa.us | www.dpw.state.pa.us

11

The value of Pennsylvania’s early education system

Select slides from the OCDEL budget powerpoint, March 2011

The value of Pennsylvania’s ECE system


Overview

• Pennsylvania’s economic & education outlook• What early education can do to improve

Pennsylvania's outlook• The value of Pennsylvania’s early education

system• Vision for 2011-2012• Governor’s budget proposal



Current outlook: slow recovery, higher public costs

• PA, US facing “jobless” recovery – economy will not be back on track until 2015

• Estimate $4.2 state budget deficit

• Increasing costs for prisons, public assistance, healthcare



Future outlook: new, better jobs that require more education

• Well-paid, low skilled jobs a thing of the past

• 63% percent of jobs in the next decade will require some post-secondary education



Current and future workforce not prepared to fill 21st century jobs

• 60% of new jobs in the 21st century will require skills that only 20% of the current American workforce has.

• Over 20% high school dropout rate in Pennsylvania

• U.S. students rank 17th out of 33 developed nations in science proficiency and 25th in math.

• By 2018, US will have a 3 million college graduates gap to meet labor demands

• If US doesn’t meet workforce needs, jobs may go elsewhere



What early education can do to improve Pennsylvania’s outlook

1. Helps control costs for specialeducation, public assistance,prisons and health care

2. Facilitates job growth

3. Effectively prepares studentsfor new workforce demands



1. Savings on special education

• Serving 20% of Pennsylvania’s four-year olds in quality pre-kindergarten would save $68 million in special education costs. In PA, the average cost for

special education per student is nearly $20,000 a year, 110% more than typical education.



Early education helps control spending for public assistance, prison, special education and health care

• As adults, children from quality early education programs are less likely to commit crimes or require public assistance; and are more likely to retain good jobs and have higher earnings.



Savings on corrections

• Fight Crime Invest in Kids projects that high quality early learning could cut a quarter or more of the costs of corrections in Pennsylvania. Cutting a quarter of the $1.8 billion a year spent on corrections in Pennsylvania would eventually save $450 million a year. Source: Source: Fight Crime Invest in Kids Pennsylvania, “Invest in Early Education Now, Spend Less on Prison Later,” 2009

PA spends on average $35,000 a year per person in prison



Improved health outcomes, lower health care costs

• Harvard University: children exposed to continued toxic stress are more likely to have chronic diseases as adults, such as diabetes and heart disease, and cancer; early education helps prevent toxic stress for young children.

• Columbia University: individuals who had received the intensive early education starting in infancy had significantly better health and better health behaviors as young adults.



2. Early education facilitates job growth today

• Economic stimulus: Every dollar spent on early education generates $1.06 dollars in local economy through local hiring and purchasing goods and services

• Job producer: For every10 jobs created in early education sector, 3 more jobs created outside early educationSource: America’s Edge. “Strengthening Pennsylvania’s Business through Investments in Early Care and Education,” 2011



Early education keeps parents working, cuts absenteeism

• In Pennsylvania, approximately 60% of children under age six need some form of child care as their parents work.

• Parents with access to quality, reliable early education are more likely to be employed, be productive, and have fewer absences.

Employee absences due to child care breakdowns cost U.S. business approximately $3 billion in 1998. Source: Child Care Action Campaign. Child Care: The Bottom Line. 1998.



Early education increases earning potential

• Parents who can stay in the workforce because of early education can experience a long-term earnings increase up to 30% even after their children leave early education.



Because children who receive quality early education are more likely to graduate high school and college, they can more than double their earnings potential.

Note: Data are 2009 annual averages for persons age 25 and over. Earnings are for full-time wage and salary workers.Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey.



3. Early education prepares our future workforce to attract, fill, create jobs

• The window of opportunity is small. Many of the skills that employer value that many of the skills employers value — such as being team oriented, literate and numerate — are essentially shaped by age five.



Early education gives all children a level playing field for future achievement

Pew Center on the States: High-quality pre-kindergarten programs, especially for at-risk children, have been shown to •significantly improve children’s early literacy, language and math skills;•decrease special education placements by 50%; and•reduce grade repetition by 33%

Differences in vocabulary growth between children in low and high socio-economic households begin to appear as early as 18 months



By third grade, it may be too late

Reading proficiently by the end of third grade is a crucial marker in a child’s educational development. Failure to read proficiently is linked to higher rates of school dropout, which suppresses individual earning potential as well as the nation’s competitiveness and general productivity.Source: Annie E Casey Foundation, Early Warning! Why Reading by the End of Third Grade Matters, 2010



Long-term return on investment in early education

• Nobel Laureate James Heckman: The rate of return for quality early childhood education is 10% per year.

This graph demonstrates that rates of return on human capital investment decrease with age, with the highest return on investments at preschool age

(shaded in portion of the graph). (Heckman, 2008)



The benefits of quality early education add up…

• A targeted pre-kindergarten program costing $298 million in 2008 would:– pay for itself in 9 years; and– generate total benefits of $9.9 billion by 2050

Source: “Investments in Pennsylvania’s early childhood programs pay off now and later,” Pew Center on the States, Partnership for America’s Economic Success, March 2011



It’s a question about priorities. Early childhood education is a high return/low risk investment.

Michael J. Mandel, Ph.D., Former Chief Economist at BusinessWeek, at the 2010 Early Learning Investment Commission’s Economic Summit



The value of Pennsylvania’s early education system

1. Setting the standard for early education in Pennsylvania

2. Providing families with more quality early learning choices

3. Maximizing impact of public resources

4. Demonstrating results for Pennsylvania’s children and families



OCDEL’s Mission

The Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) promotes opportunities for all Pennsylvania children and families by building systems and providing supports that help ensure access to high quality child and family services.

The office is a joint initiative between the Departments of Education and Public Welfare.



OCDEL Programs

• Child Care Certification• Child Care Works• Children’s Trust Fund• Early Intervention,

birth- five• Full-Day Kindergarten• Head Start Supplemental

Assistance Program

• Keystone Babies• Keystone STARS/

PA Early Learning Keys to Quality

• Parent-Child Home Program

• Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts

• Nurse-Family Partnership• Public-private partnerships



1. Excellence by design: Setting the standard for early education in PA

• Pennsylvania’s early education programs are designed to reflect evidence-based best practices for teacher and program quality.

• Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts meets or exceeds nearly every quality benchmark identified by the National Institute for Early Education Research.

• PA is one of 23 states to include all core components for a quality rating and improvement system for early childhood programs through Keystone STARS.



Design: PA Learning Standards for Early Childhood

• Standards for Infant-Toddler, Pre-Kindergarten, Kindergarten, First and Second Grade

• Outline the approaches to learning, (emerging) literacy and numeracy, science and social studies, creative expression, social, and physical skills that a child develops throughout the year and provides guidance for activities to support this development in the classroom and at home

• All OCDEL programs use the standards to guide instructional practice

• Align with 3rd-12th grade standards

Pennsylvania is one of the first states to establish learning standards for early childhood from birth through second grade and commission an independent study to ensure alignment of all standards.



Design: Professional career track for early childhood teachers

• Early Childhood Education Career Lattice

• Three professional credentials• Pennsylvania’s Quality

Assurance System for professional development

• Financial and other supports for early childhood teachers and directors to earn credentials, college degrees

More early childhood teachers are earning credentials and degrees than ever before



Design: Child observation, assessment and documentation of progress• Programs assess children’s

development upon entry and progress throughout the year

• Use information to guide learning activities and share with families

• Can help identify children with special needs early and provide services when they are most beneficial

Early Learning Network

• Data system that gives Pennsylvania the ability to review children’s progress over time and evaluate effectiveness of OCDEL programs to improve child outcomes.

• Progress for children participating in Early Intervention, PA Pre-K Counts, Head Start Supplemental, and Keystone STAR 3 and 4 programs currently included.



Design: Monitoring classroom quality

• Independent assessments of classrooms using nationally-recognized Environment Rating Scales (ERS)

• ERS a standard tool to assess the quality of instruction in Keystone STARS, Head Start Supplemental Assistance Program and Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts programs

There is a six-year trend of increasing quality in classrooms in

OCDEL programs

Note: Figure presents all available ECERS-R scores, including Keystone STARS, PA Pre-K Counts, and Head Start facilities. Assessments are made at the classroom level. Each data point is a single assessment of a classroom



Design: Linkages with school districts

• Early Learning Standards aligned with 3rd-12th grade academic standards

• Early childhood professional development being aligned with Teacher Certification

• Pennsylvania’s Inspired Leadership program for school leaders now includes early education topics



Design: More linkages with school districts

• Pennsylvania’s Standard Aligned System (SAS) resources include early education

• Title I Transition to Kindergarten grants

• Local networks bring together local schools and early learning programs to help children make smooth transition to kindergarten

The percentage of school districts offering pre-kindergarten has

quadrupled since 2003



2. Providing families with more quality early learning choices

• Programs available at home, in child care, Head Start, preschools, or schools

• Keystone STARS reversed a 10-year trend of declining quality in child care

• Quality programs (Keystone STARS, Head Start, Early Intervention) available in every county

• The number of quality publicly-funded pre-kindergarten opportunities has doubled since 2002

Nearly 40% of parents surveyed identified the quality of their child’s early learning program as their greatest concernSource: “The Economy’s Impact on Parents’ Choices and Perceptions About Child Care,” NACCRRA, Sept 2010



Parents choosing quality early education more than ever before

• Parents of more than half of children receiving Child Care Works subsidy enroll their children in Keystone STARS programs.

• Parents rate very high satisfaction with OCDEL programs on Family Survey.

Approximately 7,000 children were on waiting lists for Head Start, PA Pre-K Counts, Nurse-Family Partnership at beginning of 2010-2011 school year.



3. Maximizing resources: OCDEL

• Pennsylvania is one of the first states to create a cohesive Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) that brings together the resources and expertise for early education, across the Departments of Education and Public Welfare.

Because of OCDEL:• PA doesn’t have to duplicate

staff, systems or processes• Quality and accountability of

PA’s early learning programs better aligned

• Families can more easily access the services they need

• School districts can more easily partner with and provide early education programs



Maximizing resources: Reach and Risk Assessment

• Report identifies cities and counties where children are most at risk of school failure

• OCDEL uses report to determine best areas for new/expanded early education services

• Risk levels help determine eligibility for programs like PA Pre-K Counts and Keystone Babies



Maximizing resources: Comprehensive accountability• Pennsylvania monitors

programs’ adherence to performance standards and fiscal requirements through data review and site visits.

• Pennsylvania’s Enterprise to Link Information for Children Across Networks (PELICAN) data system helps prevent children being enrolled in two programs for the same time period.

• Families applying for programs that have eligibility guidelines must show documentation that they meet guidelines which may include

– Documentation of income– Documentation of work or

education



4. Results: Parents of at-risk children choosing regulated care

• More families receiving Child Care Works child care assistance are choosing regulated care than ever before since the unification of child care services for TANF, former TANF and low income families under the Child Care Information Services (CCIS) agencies in 2006-2007.



Results: Children entering school ready to learn

• 2009-2010 child outcomes for preschoolers in Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts, Keystone STARS 3 and 4 centers, and Head Start SupplementalAssistance Program show children are progressing throughout the year and coming to school ready to learn.

• Each program is meeting the needs of its populations, with 65% - 78% of children showing age-appropriate language, numeracy and social skills by the end of the 2009-2010 program year.



Results: Quality early education programs reducing needs for special education• Evaluation by the OMG Center

for Collaborative Learning: School districts serving the largest number of PA Pre-K Counts children had a fewer percentage of children entering kindergarten in 2008-2009 with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) to address special needs than districts enrolling no PA Pre-K Counts children.

5.8%

8.1%

0.0%1.0%2.0%3.0%4.0%5.0%6.0%7.0%8.0%9.0%

10.0%

Districts serving the largest no. of children in PA Pre-K

Counts

Districts with no PA Pre-K Counts

Percentage of kindergartners with IEPs



Results: Children continuing progress, achievement in school

• Harrisburg: Third-grade children who had participated in the high-quality Harrisburg Preschool Program (HPP) scored significantly higher on Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) tests than did a matched group of students who did not participate in HPP. (51 vs. 29 percent advanced/proficient in math, 45 vs. 23 percent advanced/proficient in reading).

• Pottstown: By the end of the 2009-2010 kindergarten year in the Pottstown School District, 94% of children who participated in PA Pre-K Counts were at grade level in early literacy, while 85% of the total kindergarten population was at grade level.

The Value of PA’s ECE system Tom Corbett, Governor | Ronald J. Tomalis, Acting Secretary of...

Documents

Transcript of The Value of PA’s ECE system Tom Corbett, Governor | Ronald J. Tomalis, Acting Secretary of...