CROSS CUTTING ISSUES

School Readiness

"Greater investments in early childhood would not only benefit children but also save the government money in the form of lower welfare payments, higher tax revenues, and lower criminal justice system costs." (RAND, entry 4 below)

"A vast body of research has demonstrated that ECD [Early Child Development programs] benefit children, families, and communities. The reduced dropout and repetition rates, improved school achievements, greater adult productivity, and higher levels of social and emotional functioning encouraged by ECD programs make them a highly cost-effective means of strengthening society as a whole by ensuring that its individual members live up to their full potentials." (World Bank)

• Early Childhood Overview with links to resources and to ECS' Early Learning Initiative (Education Commission of the States)
• Early Learning Overview with links (Education Week On the Web)
• Early childhood education: Overview with links to related issues; includes positions of PTA and others (National PTA)
• Investing in Our Children: Costs and benefits analysis suggests greater investment in early childhood would benefit children and save money (overview and links to book; RAND)
• Why Invest in ECD? Brief overview (World Bank)
• Preventing Early School Failure: Providing students with what they need to succeed (Short paper; Educational Leadership)
• Bilingual Education in California Background information, types of programs, discussion and sources for more information (EdSource Online)
• Bilingual/ESL Overview with links, including state information and research (Education Commission of the States)
• Indicators of Inequality in School Readiness: Children start kindergarten with different reading and math levels, often related to gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and age (77 page PDF report; Educational Testing Service)
• Early Connections: Using technology in ways that fit learning development (Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory)
• Making Investments In Young Children: Sums up research on early care and education; with policy recommendations (6 page PDF Issue Brief; National Association of Child Advocacy)
• Community-Based Model: Mandating parent involvement is not enough (National Center for Early Development & Learning)
• Long-term Effects of an Early Childhood Intervention: Among the strongest evidence yet that such programs administered through public schools can promote children's long-term success (Summary only; Journal of the American Medical Association)
• Giving America's Young Children a Better Start: Elements of an innovative system; brief overview of state efforts; policy recommendations (Education Commission of the States Clearinghouse)
• Creating an Early Care and Education System: Links to report and recommendations (National Child Care Information Center)
• Neurons to Neighborhoods: The science of early childhood development (Executive Summary, links to chapters; Institute of Medicine)
• Starting Early, Starting Now: Policymakers' Guide - building a "system" of services; strategies; why early care is a critical public policy issue.
• Ready Schools: Ten attributes of schools that promote readiness for learning (North Central Regional Education Laboratory)
• Family involvement in early childhood programs: Characteristics of a good program (National Institute on Early Childhood Development & Education)
• ReadyWeb: Virtual Library - Articles and links on school readiness (ERIC clearinghouse project)
• ERIC clearinghouse: Early childhood education; links to Internet resources

Related Issues

• Equity
• ESEA
• Finance
• Quality Education

If your organization has material that would be useful for the online dialogue but is not included in the preceding list, please e-mail a URL to <camp-info@network-democracy.org>.