AHechingerBrief Business Leaders and the New Education Agenda: Investments in Our Littlest Learners 1 Education is everyone’s Business 4 Pre-k Programs, Private and Public, run the Gamut Average NAEP Score for Student Aged 13 Total U.S. Expenditures on Education 6 U.s. students left Behind in math and science? (1971 – 2008) Mathematics Reading in billions (1971 – 2009) 8 Be skeptical when reporting on Pre-k research $1000 $908.77 10 “return on investment” claims merit scrutiny 290 900 800 11 Finding the Business angle in education stories 280 264 700 600 12 Story ideas for Business Journalists 270 281 255 500 13 Major Players in attempts to influence Policy 260 400 300 16 Notable research on Pre-kindergarten education 200 250 260 $63.47 100 240 0 1971 1975 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1999 2004 20082009 Edited by Richard Lee Colvin and Justin Snider Total spending on education has increased nearly 15-fold since 1971, while student achievement – as measured on the © 2010 Teachers College, Columbia University National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) – has been largely flat.(Sources: National Center for Education Statistics and usgovernmentspending.com) gas turbine system. These two sites are literally leaders at the third annual conference of the Education is half a world apart, but a growing number of Partnership for America’s Economic Success in American business leaders think there’s a direct September 2009. “If we don’t fix early childhood Everybody’s connection. And that link is an important story investment, we will have a failed economy. The for business journalists to pursue. foundation will collapse. I hate to say this, but Business Global competition from India and else- the media has for the most part not made the where, advancing technologies and changing connection between the [economic] crisis and Pre-k issues steP to the front of demographics are convincing more and more the deeper human capital problems. Looking the classroom. employers, business associations and corporate for quick fixes, like restricting bank pay, does By Joel Dresang and Linda Jacobson philanthropies to invest in America’s classrooms nothing to fix the real problems.” Imagine a preschool classroom in Des Moines, and advocate for improvements in performance Sara Watson, the director of the partner- where 4-year-olds are getting ready for story – starting with the littlest learners. The return on ship, which is managed by the Pew Center on the time. Then, cross the globe to an office in that effort, as business leaders see it, is develop- States, said “business reporters have the context Bangalore, capital of India’s burgeoning high- ing the workforce they need and maintaining and sources to best explain how early child- tech industry, where engineers are designing a America’s edge on innovation. hood education shapes a community’s economic Michael Mandel, the Business Week economist fortunes.” (The Pew Center on the States and and blogger, has said that early childhood educa- its campaign Pre-K Now, as well as the National tion is like the foundation of a house. And a strong Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), house cannot be built on a weak foundation. are efforts of the Pew Charitable Trusts, the “Boosting early childhood investment is nonprofit organization that underwrote the cost absolutely key for rebuilding the foundation for of this publication.) future growth,” he told a gathering of business Some of the country’s most successful A Hechinger Brief entrepreneurs have been putting their Bernanke and Nobel laureate James Heckman. doubled their spending on preschool to philanthropic support “There are many projects out there but few $4.6 billion, increasing enrollment from about Preschool Attendance of 3-Year-Olds* behind school reform have the rate of return of early childhood invest- 700,000 students to more than 1.1 million initiatives for more ments, so, in that sense, this should be a favored in 38 states. The Obama administration has Other (e.g., private child No center-based 38% care or locally funded 48% program than 25 years, investment by anybody, Republican, Democratic, emphasized its commitment to early childhood public preschool) dating back at least or any other party line,” said Heckman, specify- education by pushing Congress for increased to the 1983 Nation ing that the greatest returns come from interven- federal funding for pre-k and giving bonus points at Risk report that tions for the most disadvantaged children. Such to states that include preschool initiatives in their warned of a “rising investments “promote schooling, raise the quality applications for grants from the Department of tide of mediocrity” of the workforce, enhance the productivity of Education’s $4.35 billion “Race to the Top” fund. threatening the schools and reduce crime, teenage pregnancy The president’s education budget proposal called Special education State public 2% 8% Head Start 4% nation’s economic and welfare dependency,” Heckman told a forum for a 7.6 percent increase in education spending preschool pre-k health. The Business in December 2004 sponsored by Pew, PNC Fi- and $9.3 billion over 10 years to improve early Roundtable, an association of CEOs from leading nancial Services Group Inc., and the Committee childhood education programs. U.S. companies, has long advocated for both for Economic Development, an organization of Though Obama has also advocated for a education standards and accountability for business leaders and university presidents. “They Presidential Early Learning Council that would results as ways to raise achievement and improve raise earnings and promote social attainment.” push federal, state and local leaders to create the competitiveness of the workforce. State-level Until relatively recently, preschool was high-quality “Zero to Five” programs, his historic business-backed organizations also have been the stepchild of education – largely ignored by remaking of the country’s health-care system involved in pushing for improved public-school policymakers and researchers. That has changed and the related measure overhauling student performance. dramatically in the last decade, thanks to the loans in March 2010 ultimately didn’t include Preschool is the newest addition to this mix. convergence of new findings in neuroscience, money for the president’s proposed Early Learn- A key reason is that the Pew Charitable Trusts child development and economics. Scientists ing Challenge Fund. and other philanthropies have drawn on eco- now know that the early years are critical, with State preschool programs are only part of nomic research to fuel a successful state-by-state the human brain reaching 80 percent of its adult the picture. Today, two-thirds of all 4-year-olds advocacy campaign designed to rally business size by age 3 and 90 percent by age 5. Children and almost half of all 3-year-olds are cared for and political leaders to the who don’t receive adequate intellectual and emo- outside the home before they start kindergarten. Preschool Attendance of 4-Year-Olds* cause of early education. A tional stimulation during this period are likely to Children from low-income families are eligible Other (e.g., private child No center-based powerful tool in that fall further and further behind. for the federal Head Start program, which serves 43% care or locally funded 18% program public preschool) campaign has been At the same time, social scientists have almost 970,000 preschoolers and their families. to emphasize that the documented impressive gains by children who Dennis P. Lockhart, the head of the Federal social and economic are enrolled in high-quality preschools: They Reserve Bank of Atlanta, told an audience in “returns on invest- have larger vocabularies, better social skills and Miami last October that early education would ment” (ROI) are large. higher achievement levels than children who continue to be delivered by a public-private part- How large depends don’t get that extra boost. nership for some time in most cities. Lockhart on the assumptions Early childhood education “rose from co-chairs a commission that’s exploring increas- Special education State public 4% 11% Head Start 24% preschool pre-k that are made and the nowhere to be on the agenda of policymakers ing investments in early education in Atlanta. population served. nationally and internationally,” says Sharon Lynn “The private side of this partnership will include * Source: National (To see how ROI claims are typically calculated, Kagan of Teachers College, Columbia University. for-profit, not-for-profit, faith-based, and secular Institute for Early see the story on page 10.) In making their case, A major reason is that business leaders and providers. Bringing common and rising quality Education Research advocates have been aided by leading econo- advocates have made the case to policymakers. standards to this diverse community of providers mists, including Federal Reserve Bank chair Ben Between 2006 and 2008, states more than and injecting market mechanisms to ensure there 2 Business Leaders and the New Education Agenda: Investments in Our Littlest Learners A Hechinger Brief are incentives to improve quality are central Education Research (NIEER) at Rutgers Uni- Preschool Attendance of 4-Year-Olds by Family Income† challenges.” Those challenges represent potential versity in New Jersey. Curricula are frequently 100 89% stories for journalists. ill-conceived and facilities may be inappropriate 84% 77% In an ideal world, all of these programs for young children. Often, there is little com- 80 62% 63% 62% 64% 58% would have an enormous positive impact on how munication between preschools and elementary 55% well children do in school. Unfortunately, the schools, which means that many preschools are 60 actual impact is less clear. The strongest evidence probably not giving kids what they need to be 40 comes from studies of high-quality programs, successful later.