10 New Ideas for Early Education in the NCLB Reauthorization

On the Foundation for Child Development's Early Education Blog, Sara Mead of the New America Foundation offers ten excellent suggestions for improving support for Early Education in the NCLB Reauthorization. Her ideas include:

1. Allow Reading First funds to be used for pre-k language and literacy activities.
2. Tap supplemental educational services and public school choice set-aside funds for high-quality Prekindergarten.
3. Improve accountability for early education programs.
4. Restructure elementary schools identified for reconstitution as PK-3 Early Education Academies.
5. Strengthen the ability of charter schools to deliver high-quality Prekindergarten.
6. Combine NCLB's Title V block grant program with Head Start's newly authorized state early childhood coordination initiative to create a single "2020 Early Education" state grant program.
7. Require pre-k programs operated in public schools or with Title I funds to employ "highly qualified early educators" as lead teachers.
8. Create a "Pathways to Pre-kindergarten Teaching" alternative certification demonstration program.
9. Provide targeted professional development to individual teachers.
10. Expand the representation of English Language Learners in Prekindergarten programs.