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NASBE Awards Early Childhood Education Grants to Six States

Posted on: Thursday, 8 June 2006, 12:00 CDT

The National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) has awarded grants to six states--Georgia, Indiana, Missouri, Nebraska, Oregon, and Virginia--to help improve their early childhood education programs. The new grants bring to twelve the total number of states that have participated in NASBE's Early Childhood Education Network, a national project to ensure that all children start school ready to learn.

"We are pleased to be able to provide funding to these six state boards of education to support their efforts to enhance the quality and coordination of their pre-Kindergarten through grade 3 systems. The grants will help these state boards coordinate the array of early childhood programs, funding streams, and cross-departmental responsibilities in their respective states into a more cohesive and unified means of serving young children," said Brenda Welburn, NASBE Executive Director.

The three-year funding will be used to develop early childhood education standards and teacher certification standards that have been proven successful in raising student achievement. The grants, which were awarded after a peer review application process, will also be accompanied by technical assistance from early childhood experts.

Serious learning gaps between groups of children (based largely on socio-economic factors) already exist among children of pre-school age. High-quality preschool services can narrow the achievement gap even before students enter kindergarten. Yet states face enormous challenges in establishing the coordinated, coherent preschool system that provides children with strong programs and well-trained teachers.

In response, NASBE created the Early Childhood Education Network project in March 2001 to initially help six states (Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Wyoming) increase their ability to create integrated, high-quality early childhood education policies, programs, and services to children. As a result of the project, these states were able to unify their standards and define school readiness, align teacher preparation content to early childhood programs, and collect data on children's knowledge and skill acquisition subsequent to preschool participation.

The grants and overall project are funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

NASBE, www.nasbe.org, represents America's state and territorial boards of education. Our principal objectives are to strengthen state leadership in education policymaking; advocate equality of access to educational opportunity; promote excellence in the education of all students; and assure responsible lay governance of education.

Source: Business Wire

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