The new "Condition of Education" report released today by the National Center for Education Statistics offers fresh evidence as to why some American kids need more and better preschooling but the "universal" approach is wrong. Fifty-five percent of three- and four-year-olds are already in preschool (2007), up from 47 percent in 1994 (See Indicator 1). Moreover, 33% of four-year-olds are proficient at "letter recognition" and 65% at "numbers and shapes" (See Indicator 3). Thirty-nine percent of four-year-olds are read to daily by a family member--and 50% are sung to (See Indicator 2). Not everybody, it seems clear, needs more than they're already getting. But some do. Among kids in poverty, African-Americans and those whose parents have less than a high-school education,??just one in five is read to at home on a daily basis. And proficient "letter recognition" among four-year-olds ranges from 52 percent for those with a parent who has some graduate education down to 16 percent among those with less-than-high-school-educated parents. This reinforces my contention that intensive but highly targeted pre-school services,??starting very young, is what America needs more of; not more middle-class entitlements for those who are already doing okay.
