Priorities and choices. Many things in life involve assessing priorities and making choices. On a personal level, most choices involve one person or small groups of people. The scope of options and the effect of choices are limited. On a governmental scale, the scope of options widens and the effect of a choice can be huge. This is one of the differences between you and your state governor. Most of a governor’s choices are political in nature. Many are economic. Sadly, too few are educational. This article will examine what we know about success in school and career, one of the early indicators of academic success, and what leadership is doing to maximize every child’s success on that early indicator.

A recent headline read “Early Grades Crucial in Path to Reading Proficiency.” The authors of the Quality Counts 2015 article in Education Week created a very persuasive article regarding the importance of every child achieving a 3rd grade reading proficiency prior to fourth grade. This is an informative piece that every parent and early child educator should read. Interestingly, the National Governor’s Association is very informed regarding the educational advantages that children accrue if their reading proficiency is at grade level prior to fourth grade. They also are informed regarding the educational programs that are most likely to assist every child in their state’s schools to achieve this watermark.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/01/08/early-grades-crucial-in-path-to-reading.html

I can hear Yoda of Star Wars fame describing this situation. “If know you, do you not why?” Every choice is a matter of priorities. While 3rd grade reading proficiency should be a governor’s priority, politics and economics consistently appear to be higher priorities.

These are two bits of information that governors know regarding third grade reading proficiency. And, this information is very important if education is a governor’s priority. Governors love to tout graduation rates and ACT scores and improved academic achievement. But, if the governor is not talking about ALL children reading at grade level when they enter fourth grade, education for all children is not the governor’s priority.

The first bit is the importance of a third grade reading proficiency. “Children who are not reading proficiently by 3rd grade are widely seen as being in academic crisis. Educators are increasingly looking for actions they can take in the younger grades—even as early as preschool—to head off failure later in a child’s school career.

The stakes are clear: Studies have shown that absent effective intervention, children who read significantly below grade level by 3rd grade continue to struggle in school and eventually face a much higher likelihood of dropping out altogether.

By the time students are ready to move on to 4th grade, they are expected to have the reading skills they need to absorb information independently. A commonly used shorthand is that children will be “reading to learn,” instead of “learning to read,” though reading researchers note that children are reading for information early on in their school careers.”

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/01/08/early-grades-crucial-in-path-to-reading.html?cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS1

The second bit is the crucial role that governors can play in assisting young children to become proficient readers. “The time is now to redesign this country’s approach to language and literacy instruction, and governors who choose to can lead the charge. The purpose of this guide is to examine the gap between research and policy and to describe the five policy actions that governors and other state policymakers can take to ensure that all children are reading on grade level by the end of third grade.

Governors can increase the number of children proficient in reading by third grade in their states by ensuring that their states’ efforts in early childhood and elementary education take account of three major and widely embraced results of educational research.

Starting at kindergarten is too late. Language and literacy development begins at birth, and gaps in achievement appear well before kindergarten entry. Effective early care and education programs for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers can help close the gap.

Reading proficiency requires three sets of interrelated skills and knowledge that are taught and cultivated over time. Many state policies and practices emphasize mechanics of reading (for example, matching letters to sounds and sounding out whole words) at the expense of other skills. However, proficiency requires more, notably development of oral language skills, an expanding vocabulary, the ability to comprehend what is read, and a rich understanding of real-world concepts and subject matter.

Parents, primary caregivers, and teachers have the most influence on children’s language and literacy development. An effective strategy to increase reading proficiency requires evidence-based policies that support those adults who are in the best position to support children’s learning and development.”

http://www.nga.org/files/live/sites/NGA/files/pdf/2013/1310NGAEarlyLiteracyReportWeb.pdf

The five policy actions identified by the National Governors Association are these.

 1. Adopt comprehensive language and literacy standards and curricula for early care and education programs and kindergarten through third grade (K-3).

2. Expand access to high-quality child care, pre-kindergarten and full-day kindergarten.

3. Engage and support parents as partners in early language and literacy development.

4. Equip professional providing care and education with the skills and knowledge to support early language and literacy development.

5. Develop mechanisms to promote continuous improvement and accountability.

The recommendations are taken from “A Governor’s Guide to Early Literacy: Getting Students Reading By Third Grade.” This is a publication of the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, “the only research and development firm that directly serves the nation’s governors and their key policy staff.

Knowing what should be done and doing what should be done often are worlds apart. Instruction and support in reading, language development, and literacy skills are essential for academic success in school and later life. By the time a child completes third grade, typically at age eight or nine, each child should have benefitted from several years of reading instruction in school and several years of language and literacy development at home. The quantity and quality of reading instruction and language and literacy development are significant variables of interest in considering whether all children will become proficient readers by fourth grade.

School Instruction

At a minimum, one would think that every child receives at least four years of reading and language instruction in school by the completion of third grade. That would be Kindergarten, first grade, second grade and third grade. In fact, some children receive five years of school-based reading instruction and others receive three. Reading proficiency by third grade may be a matter of where a child lives rather the child’s capacity to learn to read.

In 2015 we consider Kindergarten to be a usual and standardized beginning for every child’s elementary education. Not so. Kindergarten instruction remains the option of a state and a local school district as to whether Kindergarten is available to children and if attendance in Kindergarten is compulsory. Forty-three (43) states require school districts to offer kindergarten programs for local enrollment. Seven (7) states still do not require their schools to even offer kindergarten programming.

http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/78/60/7860.pdf

However, being in a state that requires schools to offer kindergarten does not mean that all children enroll in kindergarten and receive a first of four years of reading instruction. Thirty-five (35) states are wafflers; they require schools to offer kindergarten but enrollment is not compulsory. Only fifteen states require children to attend Kindergarten. Even if required, only two states require children to attend a full-day program; thirteen (13) states require children to attend half-day or alternating day programs.

http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/78/60/7860.pdf

Some states get close to compulsory Kindergarten attendance, but maintain parental discretions. Beginning with the 2011-12 school year, Wisconsin required a child to complete five-year old Kindergarten as a pre-requisite to being admitted to first grade. The statute does not indicate the provider, the learner outcomes, or whether the program is half-day or full-day. In Wisconsin, almost any five-year old education will suffice as a requirement of admission to first grade.

http://ec.dpi.wi.gov/ec_ec-entr-admiss

Parents control Kindergarten enrollment for the majority of five-year old children. If a family lives in one of the 35 states where Kindergarten enrollment is not compulsory, parental choice comes into play. Many parents do not believe their child is ready for school. Some parents want to delay school entry so that their child will have the advantage of one more year’s development. Some parents have aspirations for their child’s athletic potential and delay school entry for a “red shirt” year. Other parents suffer from separation anxiety and keep their children at home. And, some parents believe that school is not a physically or emotionally safe place for their child and elect home schooling to being their child’s education.

The upshot is that in any national cadre of children who are age-ready for Kindergarten, many do not attend. First grade is the first common educational experience for all children.

Four-year old Kindergarten

Four-year old Kindergarten is relatively new to public education where K-12 is the traditional grade span. Historically, pre-school was day care and most day care operations were provided by churches or by co-operatives of parents. However, whether it is pre-school or four-year old Kindergarten, children who participate in reading and language development have an advantage over children who do not.

“The Brookings Institution research found that, ‘Children who attend some form of preschool program at age four are nine percentage points more likely to be school-ready than other children.’ This outcome is largely due to ‘early math and reading skills and, to a lesser extent, positive learning-related behaviors acquired in preschool.’ This study simulated the effects on school readiness of three interventions, ‘preschool, smoking cessation programs for pregnant women and nurse-home visiting programs for new mothers — and found that preschool programs ‘offer the most promise for increasing children’s school readiness.’”

http://eyeonearlyeducation.com/2013/07/09/new-research-confirms-third-grade-readings-importance/

According to the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), for the 2012-2013 school year, pre-K enrollment was 28 percent at age 4 as the total across all states decreased by nearly 9,000 children. Let’s say that differently. Sixty-two percent of four-year olds are not enrolled in pre-K schooling. This, when we know that pre-Kindergarten instruction in reading and language development can be essential for children if they are to achieve reading proficiency by fourth grade.

http://www.data-first.org/data/what-percent-of-our-children-are-enrolled-in-prekindergarten/

Many states leave four-year old Kindergarten and other pre-K programming to the discretion of local school districts. A local district’s first look at pre-K programming may be with Head Start, a federally-funded program begun in 1965 to meet the needs of families with economic and parent-support needs. Head Start serves more than a million children each year and remains a major player in urban/suburban communities with a density of population, but has difficulty serving rural families that are remote from its service centers..

In 2013-14, 106 of 386 school districts in Wisconsin offer 4-year old Kindergarten. Wisconsin encourages community-based pre-school calling it a “school-community interface.” The Department of Public Instruction provides Four-Year-Old Kindergarten Grants with funding of up to $3,000 for each pupil in the first year and $1,500 in the second year. In 2013 three districts were approved for 2014 funding. Funding for four-year old Kindergarten in Wisconsin, as in most states, is a part of the state’s annual budgeting process and if education is not a priority funding dies with budget reductions. The three districts approved for funding in 2014 will receive $200 per pupil.

http://ec.dpi.wi.gov/ec_ec4yr-old-kind-grants

The dilemma regarding four-year old Kindergarten and the goal of each child achieving a third-grade reading proficiency by the start of fourth grade is that school law and traditions make first grade the real first year of school for most children. As a non-mandated program, 4-K funding is a very low legislative priority. If a state requires schools to offer four-year old Kindergarten, the state would be compelled to provide a new level of funding to school districts. That new level increases greatly if a state included 4-K as compulsory school attendance. In states controlled by conservative, cost-cutting legislators, the growth of 4K programs is at a standstill.

Politics and Educational Goals

Reporters Perez-Pena and Rich have captured the relationship between knowing what to do and doing what should be done in their New York Times article, “Preschool Push Moving Ahead in Many States. “With a growing body of research pointing to the importance of early child development and its effect on later academic and social progress, enrollment in state-funded preschool has more than doubled since 2002, to about 30 percent of all 4-year-olds nationwide.

For generations, it was largely Democrats who called for government-funded preschool — and then only in fits and starts — and that remains the case in Congress, where proposals have yet to gain traction among Republicans. But outside Washington, it has become a bipartisan cause, uniting business groups and labor unions, with Republican governors like Rick Snyder of Michigan and Robert Bentley of Alabama pushing some of the biggest increases in preschool spending.

‘It’s a human need and an economic need,’ said Mr. Snyder, who raised preschool spending by $65 million last year and will propose a similar increase this year, doubling the size of the state program in two years. He called the spending an investment whose dividends ‘will show up for decades to come.’

Analysts also see politics behind the shift at the state level, with preschool appealing particularly to women and minorities, groups whose votes are needed by Republicans.

Few government programs have broader appeal than preschool. A telephone poll conducted in July for the First Five Years Fund, a nonprofit group that advocates early education programs, found that 60 percent of registered Republicans and 84 percent of Democrats supported a proposal to expand public preschool by raising the federal tobacco tax.

Not that any of these factors will necessarily change things in Congress, where Republicans have steadfastly opposed the proposal by Mr. Obama, who has called for a $75 billion federal investment in preschool over 10 years, paid for with an increased tobacco tax.

Preschool advocates say that Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee is one of the Republicans most receptive to their arguments, but he rejected the president’s plan as a top-down mandate from Washington. ‘Early childhood education is important and we should try to make it available to the largest number of children possible,’ he said in an email. ‘But most of that should be done by local communities and state governments.’

Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, has introduced a prekindergarten bill that would cost $34 billion over five years. In a nod to conservative resistance to a tobacco tax, Mr. Harkin has said he is open to any funding mechanism, but he has found no Republican co-sponsors.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/04/us/push-for-preschool-becomes-a-bipartisan-cause-outside-washington.html?_r=0

At the national level, if President Obama supports federal investment to make pre-school a universal educational program for all children in the United States, the Republican Congress will be opposed. Federal investment is dead in the water because it is a partisan issue. If the federal government offers states incentives to grow pre-school programs in their states, it will be attacked by state Republicans as a “top down” program or an attempt to “nationalize public education.” The majority of statehouses are controlled by Republicans and they will treat these incentives as they treated incentives to expand Medicaid – with a partisan refusal.

At the state level, most annual budgets are either deficits or barely balanced. In Republican statehouses, education is traditionally supported by Democrats and reductions in educational spending is traditionally supported by Republicans. It is very unlikely that these statehouses will voluntarily increase state spending to increase pre-school programs, especially as pre-school is perceived in their eyes as an unnecessary and costly addition to the burden of K-12 spending.

So what are we to do?

The research tells us that children who have access to four-year old Kindergarten and five-year old Kindergarten are more likely to achieve third grade reading proficiency prior to fourth grade than children who do not have access to one or both. Leadership by the governor and state legislators is essential if every child is to become a proficient reader. Use the power of your vote to influence their political and economic decisions. Use the power of your vote to assure that they make decisions based upon educational priorities.

1. Look at your local school data. To what extent are current fourth graders at grade level in their reading proficiency? If your data provides categories of proficiency, such as “Advanced”, “Proficient”, “Basic”, or “Minimal Performance”, as the School Reports Cards in Wisconsin do, consider only the number of children who have achieved Advanced plus Proficient. Only these two categories approximate grade level reading skills.

Every child whose reading proficiency is not in the Advanced or Proficient category in the display of fourth grade reading is academically at risk from this point forward in their K-12 schooling.

2. Begin with your state legislators.

If your state does not have rigorous reading standards that are congruent through all grade levels, assure that your legislators support and consistently vote in support of rigorous academic state standards. Supporting rigorous local school district standards is not the same thing. This stance waffles on standards consistency. Local school boards may bow to local pressures for less than rigorous standards and leave your local children with reading standards that will not achieve grade level reading proficiency by fourth grade.

If your legislators do not support rigorous statewide reading standards, consider their lack of educational priorities the next time you vote for a state legislator.

3. Apply the same protocol to the presence of a state requirement that all school districts offer full-day, school year Kindergarten. Every family should have the option of Kindergarten instruction for their children.

If your legislators do not support a state requirement for full-day, school year Kindergarten, consider their lack of educational priorities the next time you vote for a state legislator.

4. Apply the same protocol to the presence of a state requirement that all school districts offer four-year old Kindergarten.

If your legislators do not support a state requirement for four-year old Kindergarten, consider their lack of educational priorities the next time your vote for a state legislator.

5. Apply the same protocol to your state governor.

If the governor does not support rigorous statewide reading standards or if the governor does not support requiring local school districts to offer full-day, school year Kindergarten and requiring local school districts to offer four-year old Kindergarten, consider the governor’s lack of educational priorities the next time you vote for a governor.

Helping every child to achieve a third grade reading proficiency by fourth grade is a matter of priorities and choices. Education priorities can be shaped by assuring that governors and legislators understand and vote in support of every child. Local educational advocates also have priorities and make choices – voting for governors and legislators who also advocate for education.