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Delivering on the promise of preschool: Earlier is better

By Mara Aspinall

This week, April 18-24, is the Week of the Young Child, established by the National Association for the Education of Young Children to provide an opportunity "to recommit ourselves to ensuring that each and every child experiences the type of early environment ... that will promote their early learning."

That mission reflects more than two decades of research demonstrating the compelling benefits of quality preschool for children: Children learn to cooperate, problem-solve and work well with others.
It also helps children develop pre-reading and math skills as well as prepare them for the routines and expectations of school.
Research has shown that society benefits when children participate in these programs through reductions in special education, increased high-school graduation rates and lower incidents with the juvenile justice and welfare systems later in life.

In order to achieve these results, however, we must invest in early educators.
Research shows that the main determinants of program quality are the education, training and compensation of the teacher and that children progress further in language and math skills, social and emotional development and later academic success when their teacher or provider has more years of college and specialized training in child development. Well-educated early childhood educators are more effective in knowing how to guide and encourage individualized learning, how to plan appropriate activities and how to respond to children's needs. Adequate wages and benefits help to ensure early educators stay in classrooms, leading to more stable environments and better outcomes for children.

Unfortunately, low wages, inadequate educational opportunities and poor working conditions have led to annual turnover rates of nearly 30 percent among Massachusetts' early educators, significantly compromising quality for children.
The average salary for a preschool teacher in Massachusetts is $22,640. Massachusetts' early educators also face considerable barriers to educational advancement.

A lack of coordination among local child-care training programs, community colleges and four-year academic institutions has led to a hodge-podge of professional development opportunities that rarely support the development of a coherent skill set for early childhood professionals.

In most cases, there is little chance of a corresponding increase in salary when early education professionals manage to attain higher educational credentials or degrees. While several limited early-childhood workforce initiatives are under way in Massachusetts, there is currently no state-level workforce development system in place.

Fortunately, there is a proposal currently pending in Massachusetts to deliver on the promise of preschool.

I am a strong supporter of An Act Establishing Early Education for All (H.1838/S.239), a bill sponsored by a bipartisan coalition of 110 legislators and developed by the Early Education for All Campaign - a group of leaders from business, labor, health care, religion, education and child care working in partnership with grass-roots leaders, state policy-makers and parents.
This bill calls for every young child to have access to voluntary, high-quality preschool and full-day public school kindergarten within 10 years by building on the existing mixed delivery system and by creating a state-level work force system that includes the infrastructure necessary to support the training and education of our early educators.

The Week of the Young Child serves as a call to action, and underscores the need for the commonwealth to embark on a long-term path to ensure every young child arrives on the first day of kindergarten prepared to succeed.
It also reminds us that to achieve this goal, the state must begin to plan now for a new investment in the education of young children and those who teach them.
Mara Aspinall, president of Genzyme Genetics in Cambridge, is co-chairman of the Early Education for All Campaign.

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