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Online Resources:
The U.S. Department of Education's Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge Fund webpage is here.
New York State's
application for federal funding through the Early Learning Challenge Grant Proposal is here.
The New America Foundation have launched an electronic newsclipping service, the Early Ed News Clips. Responding to the growing birth-to-third-grade frame that encompasses pre-kindergarten education, Early Ed News Clips provide the latest in public education news around the country about children from birth to age eight.
Politics K-12 Your education road map, a blog from Education Week.
Early Learning Initiative, a website from the U.S. Department of Education.
Early Ed Watch, a blog from New America's Early Education Initiative, with up-to-date coverage of federal and national early education initiatives. Also includes a page dedicated to ESEA and Early Learning.
Press:
Apples and Oranges: Comparing the House and Senate ESEA Proposals
Early Ed Watch blog (January 24, 2012) By Laura Bornfreund - Both the House and Senate are currently considering proposals to reauthorize No Child Left Behind, the 2001 iteration of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. It is unlikely that either of these will actually become law; the Senate education committee’s comprehensive bill and the House education committee’s package of five bills have little in common and, in the House’s case, no bipartisan support, leaving few opportunities for compromise. -see blog
New York not a winner in federal early learning grant program
Politics on the Hudson (December 16, 2011) By Cara Matthews - New York was not one of nine states named today as winners of Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge grants from the U.S. departments of Education and Health and Human Services. -see story
Aid for Child Care Drops When It Is Needed Most
The New York Times (December 13, 2011) By Sabrina Tavernise - BALTIMORE — With states under pressure to cut their budgets and federal stimulus money gone, low-income working parents are facing a paradox. Just when they have to work longer hours to make ends meet, they are losing access to the thing they need most to stay on the job: a government subsidy that helps pay for child care. -see story
Obama Steps Up Competition for Lower-Income Federal Program
Bloomberg Businessweek (November 9, 2011) By Kate Anderson Brower - (Updates with Obama remarks in second, third paragraphs.) Nov. 8 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said changes he’s ordering to the Head Start pre-school education program to require more rigorous competition for federal dollars will help make the program more effective. -see story
Obama will mandate Head Start competition
USA Today (November 8, 2011) By David Jackson and Richard Wolf - WASHINGTON – Low-performing Head Start programs for preschool children will be required to compete for federal funds under a rule President Obama plans to announce outside Philadelphia today. -see story
We Can't Wait: President Obama Takes Action to Improve Quality and Promote Accountability in Head Start Programs
www.whitehouse.gov (November 8, 2011) Press Release - WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the President will announce important steps to improve the quality of services and accountability at Head Start centers across the country. The Department of Health and Human Services will implement new rules that will – for the first time – require all low-performing Head Start grantees that fail to meet a new set of rigorous benchmarks to re-compete for continued federal funding. -see press release
U.S. DEPARMENT OF EDUCATION PROPOSES DEDICATED OFFICE FOR EARLY LEARNING
Ed.gov (November 4, 2011) Press Release - The U.S. Department of Education announced today a proposal to create an Office of Early Learning, tasked with overseeing the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge Grants and coordinating early learning programs across the Department. -see press release
Duncan on ESEA: You Don't Want A Weak Bill
Education Week (November 2, 2011) By Alyson Klein - So, after pushing Congress for years to renew the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, it doesn't sound like Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is such a fan of the bill that passed out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee last month. -see story
35 States, D.C. and Puerto Rico Submit Applications for the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge
U.S. Department of Education bulletin (October 20, 2011) - The U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services announced today that 35 states, D.C. and Puerto Rico submitted applications for the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge, a $500 million state-level competitive grant program to improve early learning and development. -see bulletin
Teacher Evaluation Scaled Back in Revised ESEA Draft
Education Week (October 18, 2011) By Alyson Klein - Legislation to renew the Elementary and Secondary Education Act has garnered a bipartisan seal of approval, thanks to a last-minute change scaling back the teacher-evaluation mandate in the bill introduced by U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, last week. But civil rights groups still have major concerns about some of the proposal’s accountability provisions. -see story
State to apply for early child learning funds
BuffaloNews.com (October 17, 2011) By Mark Pasciak - New York is competing for $100 million in federal funds to strengthen the education of its youngest children.If the state wins, parents would have access to a comprehensive rating system for daycares and other programs for young children. Teachers in those programs would receive targeted training. And state agencies would coordinate their efforts to better serve young children. -see story
What the Latest Federal Stopgap Spending Bill Means for Early Ed
Early Ed Watch blog (October 11, 2011) By Clare McCann - It’s another game of wait-and-see for early education programs that depend on federal funding. Technically, the federal government was supposed to adopt a new budget at the beginning of this month, but the House and Senate have yet to vote on what 2012’s budget will look like. So to keep the federal government running, the House and Senate passed and the president signed a continuing resolution (CR) through November 18, 2011. This CR holds spending constant at fiscal year 2011 levels, less a 1.503 percent cut across-the-board on discretionary spending programs. -see blog
K-12 groups call for federal policies embracing PreK-12 education
Early Ed Watch blog (October 11, 2011) By Lisa Guernsey- A group of seven large education associations came together last week at the U.S. Capitol to call on Congress to reshape education policies to embrace early education. The group – known as the Pre-K Coalition – wants to see pre-K included more robustly in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act coupled with policies that support a stronger more seamless education for students from pre-kindergarten through third grade. -see blog
Majority of states lining up to ditch No Child Left Behind
Educators say Bush-era law leads to counterproductive 'teaching to the test'
msnbc.com (September 30, 2011) Education Nation - States are lining up to drop out of No Child Left Behind, the education initiative that was promoted as a historic achievement of the Bush administration. Since President Barack Obama announced last month that he would sign an executive order allowing states to request waivers from mandatory participation in the program, at least 27 have signaled that they will ask to opt out, and most others are reviewing their options. -see story
Early Learning Legislation in the 112th Congress
Early Ed Watch blog (September 27, 2011) By Laura Bornfreund - Members of the 112th Congress have introduced a number of bills related to early education that, if passed, could have a big influence on states’ early learning systems. A few of the bills are making a reappearance, meaning they’ve been introduced in previous Congressional sessions, and a few are new. -see blog
Birth-to-Third-Grade Learning Still a Priority In the New i3
Early Ed Watch blog (June 8, 2011) By Laura Bornfreund - Innovators: Rev your engines. A second Investing in Innovation (i3) competition is about to get underway. Congress approved $150 million for a new round of i3 grants, one of the Obama Administration’s signature programs, and last week, the U.S. Department of Education announced guidelines and timelines for the new competition. -see story
Of Two Minds on When and How to Fix ESEA
Early Ed Watch blog (June 8, 2011) By Maggie Severns - Once again, Secretary Arne Duncan is calling for Congress to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), known as No Child Left Behind, by the end the summer. During a visit to St. Paul with Senator Al Franken (D-MN) last week, Duncan called the law an “impediment” to academic success. - see story
Making Sense of the Final Numbers in FY11 Federal Funding
Early Ed Watch blog (May 20, 2011) By Lisa Guernsey - This week, our colleagues at the Federal Education Budget Project released an issue brief that helps to make sense of the funding situation for fiscal year 2011. The fiscal year is more than half over but it wasn't until last month that Congress approved and President Obama signed the appropriations bill that funds the vast majority of federal education programs. The new issue brief explains what took so long and provides data on exactly which programs will receive funding. -see story
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