INTRODUCTION
The
Plan
The School Readiness
report is based on a compelling body of scientific evidence that
children’s first five years of life are crucial to their future success.
The report offers recommendations to build a statewide system of early education
services that families can use to capture their children’s inherent
desires to learn and achieve. This early education system’s
outcomes–improved educational achievement statewide, lower costs for
corrective social expenditures, and a more productive populace over the long
term–will ultimately benefit us
all.
The
Vision
Advances in science and
technology have transformed our nation’s economy, creating tremendous
changes in the labor market. Very few jobs exist for an unskilled labor pool;
even many entry-level jobs call for literacy, a high school education, a
specific skill, and advanced training. Only through education can our children
fulfill their individual and collective potential.
To expand educational opportunity,
we must build on positive expectations for all students and recognize that
addressing cultural diversity is of the utmost
importance.
Because our state is home to many
immigrants, cultural diversity is not merely a demographic footnote – it
is one of the most fundamental characteristics of our youngest children. In
California, 39 percent of children come from homes where a language other than
English is spoken.1 Therefore, we must create pathways to excellence
for all students while communicating respect and support for differences in
their cultural origins.
California’s Master Plan for
Education must call for substantial innovations so that all children can
learn and achieve their goals. We must offer educational opportunities in the
early years when parents are most engaged in their children’s development
and children are most receptive. That means we cannot wait until children reach
age five or six to help them fulfill their promise.2 Early childhood
is the time to forge a strong relationship between the two most important
influences on a child–family and educators---to promote children’s
long-term success.
Today, states
across the nation are investing in efforts to strengthen school readiness. In
California, where nearly half of all school-age children live in families with
low incomes (under $32,653 for a family of four) and more than a quarter under
the age of five live in poverty (under $17,650 for a family of four),3
the need for school readiness is critical. While parents have the
interest and motivation to promote their children’s success, they may lack
the resources and support needed to make it happen. Low-income families may not
have the discretionary income, health care, literacy, or English-language
fluency that make it easier to foster their children’s school readiness.
A Master Plan for Education should guide the development of a flexible
support system, which will enable families to participate effectively in
educating their children.
The
system envisioned in this plan goes well beyond the provision of direct
services. The Master Plan for Education must identify ways to develop
and retain a well qualified early childhood workforce. It should articulate
plans for monitoring children’s well-being and progress toward meeting
specific developmental milestones and for reporting on program performance in
all early education settings that receive public
subsidies.
The
Charge
By including school
readiness in its Master Plan for Education, the Joint Committee to
Develop a Master Plan for Education—Kindergarten through University has
made a powerful assertion: healthy development and learning in children’s
early years are essential for school success. We cannot afford to squander
these early years; they are the time when we have the greatest opportunities to
develop our children’s potential.
The Joint Committee challenged the
School Readiness Working Group to look far and think big in designing a future
for California’s children. Responding to this challenge, we reviewed
long-existing policies and deeply entrenched assumptions about early learning
and development, such as the age when public education begins and how
transitions from one level of education to another are handled. We reconsidered
existing “delivery systems” – such as pediatric care, mental
health services, child welfare, and primary-grade education – with a view
toward incorporating them into a more integrated, effective constellation of
supports and services. We studied policies that will improve equity, enhance
the qualifications of the people who work with children and families, and
strengthen accountability. We also considered the roles of families and
communities. Most importantly, we considered not only what is, but also
what could be.
This
Report
This report maps out a
twenty-year action plan consisting of fourteen recommendations that aim to
improve the school readiness of California’s children, strengthen their
achievement, and bolster their chances for success later in life. The
recommendations form a coherent plan and are meant to be implemented together,
although we recognize that some entail major changes that will need to be
addressed incrementally. We are calling for sweeping change—the
unification of all publicly funded early care and education programs, both
formal and informal, into one system with one set of
standards.
Defining School
Readiness
A decade ago, the
National Education Goals Panel (NEGP) proposed as the nation’s number one
education goal that “all children in America will start school ready to
learn.” Initially, there was considerable debate about what the term
“readiness” meant. Today, a view shared by many early childhood
educators, and endorsed by the National Education Goals Panel, is that a
child’s school readiness has five key dimensions:4
Health and physical development. Children who are born with the benefit of prenatal care, and who have good nutrition, health monitoring, and early intervention, perform better in school.Because these five dimensions all influence school performance, initiatives to strengthen children’s readiness must take all of them into consideration. Elementary schools that want to be ready for the children who enter their kindergartens need to focus on these dimensions as well.
Emotional well-being and social competence. Children who have secure relationships with family members and peers can become self-confident learners.
Approaches toward learning. Children’s attitudes toward learning, their ways of approaching new tasks, and their skills all affect school success.
Communicative skills. Children with rich language experiences have the tools to interact with other people and to represent their thoughts, feelings, and experiences effectively.
Cognition and general knowledge. Children who have the opportunity to explore and learn from their surroundings can construct knowledge of patterns and relationships and discover ways to solve problems.
Finally, the NEGP identified three objectives that reflect important family and community supports that are foundations for children’s school readiness:6
Early childhood care and education. All children should have access to high-quality and developmentally appropriate preschool programs that help prepare them for school.These definitions guided the School Readiness Working Group as we developed a plan aimed at improving results for California’s young children and their families.
Family factors. Every parent will be a child’s first teacher and should devote time each day to helping his or her preschool child learn. To this end, parents should have access to the training and support they need.
Child health. Children should receive the nutrition, physical activity, and health care they need to arrive at school with healthy minds and bodies and to maintain mental alertness. To this end, the number of low birth weight babies should be significantly reduced through enhanced prenatal care.
| Table of Contents | |||
| Summary | Introduction | Improvements | Early Care |
| Family Support | Epilogue | Appendices | Members |