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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 344 663 PS 020 260 TITLE Ready To Learn: A Mandate for the Nation. INSTITUTION Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Princeton, NJ. PUB DATE 90 NOTE 173p. AVAILABLE FROM Princeton University Press, 3175 Princeton Pike, Lawrenceville, NJ 08648 ($8.00; discount on quantity orders). PUB TYPE Reports - Descriptive (141) EDRS PRICE MF01 Plus Postage. PC Not Available from EDRS. DESCRIPTORS *Child Health; Childrens Television; Day Care; *Early Childhood Education; *Educational Improvement; Employer Employee Relationship; Family Environment; Intergenerational Programs; Kindergarten; Language Acquisition; Learning Readiness; National Surveys; Neighborhoods; *Parent Child Relationship; Parent Education; Parents as Teachers; Preschool Education; Preschool Teachers; *School Readiness; Television Viewing; Young Children IDENTIFIERS *America 2000; *National Education Goals 1990; Parent Empowerment ABSTRACT The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has proposed a 10-year campaign to enable the country to meet the national education goal of having every child start school ready to learn. The campaign has a 7-step agenda. First, every child must have a healthy birth, and be well-nourished and well-protected in the early years of life. The second step involves parent education and empowerment. Parents must provide their children with a secure environment that encourages language development. Third, high quality preschool programs that provide good care and address all dimensions of school readiness must be available. Fourth, workplace policies must be flexible in meeting families' needs, supplying child care services, and giving parents time with their young children. The fifth step involves the development of educational and enriching television programming. The sixth step calls for neighborhoods to provide children with safe places for play and learning. Finally, intergenerational programs that give children a sense of security and continuity must be implemented. Recommendations related to each of the seven steps are offered. Appendixes include the results of a 1991 survey of kindergarten teachers and technical notes concerning the survey. (BC) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** U.S. DEPARTMENT OFEDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCESINFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) O This document hasbeen reproduced as received from the personor organization originating it )(Minorchanges have been made reproduction duality to improve Points of view or opinionsstated in this docu- ment do not neceuarilyrepresent official OERI position or policy READY TO LEARN A Mandate for the Nation -PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL IN OTHER THAN PAPER COPY HAS BEEN GRANTED 81' TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC).- The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching 2 PVT NOV MAU iii r CONTENTS READINESS FOR ALL 3 AN AGENDA FOR ACTION 13 A Healthy Start 15 Empowered Parents 35 Quality Preschool 53 A Responsive Workplace 73 Television as Teacher 93 Neighborhoods for Learning 109 Connections Across the Generations 127 A COMMITTED NATION 143 SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS 155 APPENDIX A: National Survey of Kindergarten Teachers, 1991 167 APPENDIX B:Technical Notes 181 AMERICA'S FIRST GOAL America's First Goal READINESS FOR ALL America is losing sight of its children. In decisions made every day we are placing them at the very bottom of the agenda with grave consequences for the future of the nation. It is simply intolerable that millions of children in this country are physically and emotionally disadvantaged in ways that restrict their capacity to learn, especially when we know what a terrible price will be paid for such neglect, not just educationally, but in human terms, as well. For nearly a decade, education has been a top priority of the nation.Graduation requirements have been raised. Teaching standards have been tightened and student assessment has become a major new priority for our schools.A host of bold innovations"teacher empowerment," "school-based management," "parental choice," "new schools for a new century"have beep proposed in quick succession. And most consequentially, perhaps, governors and corporate leaders have became vigorous advocates of school reform. The quality of education and the nation's future are inscparably related.It's through a network of public and private schools that this nation has chosen 4.o pursue enlightened ends for all its citizens.People who cannot communicate are powerless. People who know nothing of their past are culturally impoverished. People who cannot see beyond the confines of their own lives are ill-equipped to face the future. And without quality education, America cannot remain economically competitive in world markets. Academic excellence, unquestionably, must remain high on the national agenda. But while focusing on schools, children have somehow been forgotten. In our reach for excellence, we have ignored the fact that to improve the schools, a solid foundation must be laid. We have failed to recognize that the family may be a more imperiled institution than the school, and that many of education's failures may relate to problems that precede schooling, and even birth itself.We have not sufficiently acknowledged that if children do not have a good beginning, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to compensate fully for that failure later on. 3 5 This is something many have observed. During the sec week of school, at a hurried twenty-minute lunch break, a veteran kindergarten teacher gave us these impressions: ''The year is off to a good start," she said, "but I worry about what's going on outside the school, in neighborhoods and homes. I've noticed in the last few years that children's lives are not running smoothly. A lot of them seem anxious.I have some who come to school hungry. I know that sometirnes they're abused, don't get the strong support they need at home, and fraukly, I really fear for the future of these childrenand their families."1 It is children thennot just the schoolswho should be the focus of our concern. Policymakers must look beyond the schoolhouse door and consider what is happening to childhood itself. We must recognize that if childre.n are to perform successfully in school, what they need is not just more assessment. but more compassion and support. What we must offer them is not just a restructured school, but assurances that they belong. And yet this comes at a time when America seems to have lost a sense of shared purpose, when what it means to "belong" is, itself, in question.Family life is under stress.In neighborhoods and towns, the spirit of community has been replaced by divisions that imperil the quality of life and tear the very fabric of our nation. Meanwhile, our most pressing problems go unresolved. Commentator Daniel Yankelovich, in discussing America's separateness and dislocations, refers to the "giant plates" of the culture that have been shifting, creating disorientation in basic vahies and beliefs, arid diminishing our commitment to the common good.2 With so much in question, one point is clear:If America hopes to secure its future, children must come first. Children are, after all, our most precious resource, and if we as a nation cannot commit ourselves to help the coming generation, if we cannot work together compassionately to ensure that every child is well prepared for learning, and for life, then what will pull us all together? The good news is that our national priorities may be shifting. In his second State of the Union message, President George Bush announced six ambitious goals for all the nation's schools that ranged from reducing the number of school dropouts to achieving literacy for all adults.Every one of the new goals is consequential. Each should be vigorously pursued. 4 But it is the first goal that stands out above all the rest.By the year 2000, the President declaredall children in America will start school "ready to learn"a bold, hugely optimistic proposition.Still, dreams can be fulfilled only when they have been defined. And if we as a nation can, indeed, ensure that every child is well prepared for school, it seems reasonable to expect that all of the other goals will, in large measure, be fulfilled. What isso encouraging about thefirsteducation goalthe part we find so refreshingis that the school reform movement, which for years has been searching for the right ending, suddenly has been given a challenging new beginning. We are being asked to focus on intervention, not remediation.It is, after all, in the early years when a child's curiosity is most keen.This is the time when the natural enthusiasm for learning is at its freshest. And creating a world in which every child, from birth, is well nourished, well protected, and intellectually challenged is, in the end, what excellence in education is all about. While the nation is getting all children ready for school, schools surely have an obligation to get ready for the childrento accept, with hope and enthusiasm, every child who comes to the schoolhouse door, to believe in his or her potential, and with skill and optimism help each one become a creative, energetic learner. Any effort to hold children back, or place thern in boxes, or label them winners or losers must be vigorously rejected.

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