The American Federation of Teachers
December 2002
Early childhood education is the new frontier of education reform. This is as it should be. As noted in our earlier review of The Keys to Literacy, (see http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=13#314) reading scores in the 10th grade can be predicted with surprising accuracy from knowledge of the alphabet in kindergarten. Early years learning matters enormously. As a result, there has been much debate recently in statehouses across the country, and in Washington, about how to help parents and professionals better prepare the nation's youngest children for success in schools. In At the Starting Line, the AFT enters the debate by arguing for the extension of policies it has long-favored in K-12 education to pre-school education--improved teacher pay, more teacher training, more certification, and a more intensive curriculum. One cannot dispute the goal of helping all children develop the crucial pre-literacy skills needed for success in school. One has to question the logic, though, of extending a system that has not worked for many of the nation's older children pretty much "as is" downward to younger and younger children. Nowhere in this report is there a call for getting parents involved in their children's learning; in the view of this report, the experts will solve the problem if they are simply given enough money and training. The report urges "another $25 billion to $35 billion to extend free preschool programs of acceptable quality to all 3- and/or 4-year olds." Could these resources be better used to help parents spend time with their children reading books or developing their children's vocabulary through conversation? These questions go unasked, but should you want to see the report for yourself go to http://www.aft.org/edissues/downloads/EarlyChildhoodreport.pdf.
