universal pre-k initiative forum presentation

September 28, 2016Goodwill Industries of Northwest NC

The Road Map

I. Advocacy StrategiesII. Quality StandardsIII. FundingIV. The Way Forward

MAKING THE CASE …

• Universal Pre-K Benefits the Entire Community– For Business, Education, Faith, Community, and

Other Opinion Leaders (Grass Tops), as well as – Parents, Grandparents, Extended Families, and

the General Public (Grass Roots)

… by Fashioning Messages

I. Advocacy Strategies

When it comes to ensuring children begin kindergarten with the knowledge and skills they need, do you think NC should be doing more, less, or is doing enough?

Source: First Five Years Fund, July 26-30 survey of 500 registered voters

I. Advocacy Strategies

Advocacy Campaign – Grass roots community engagement• A campaign to reach all households of all walks of life.• Face-to-face, person-to-person base-building, as well as • Text, email, Facebook, Twitter, and other forms of social media• Reaching families and voters from all walks of life.

• Examples include – Neighborhood networks and organizations– Local school groups– Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) – Adult education programs– Houses of worship and other faith groupings– Professional and civic organizations

Messaging for Specific Audiences• Universal Pre-K will benefit children throughout their

school years and into adulthood.

• High Quality Programs are Effective –The earliest months and years represent a critical window of opportunity to develop a child’s full potential – socially, cognitively, and academically.

• Pre-K Nurtures a Child’s Mind at the Most Critical Time – In the earliest years of life, well before entering kindergarten children develop faculties and skills when they are most cognitively adaptive and rapidly developing new neural pathways.

1. Universal Pre-K will benefit children throughout their school years and into adulthood (cont.)• Benefits That Last a Lifetime –

– improved post-secondary educational attainment, – increased

• income, • home ownership, • health status, and • less contact with the criminal justice system

• Simply Take Health, as an Example– – NC’s historic Abecedarian Project– Four Decades of Great Outcomes

• healthier than adults who did not receive early childhood education. • Indicators include

– lower rates of high blood pressure, – obesity, – hypertension, – diabetes, – heart disease, and – stroke.

Messaging for Specific Audiences

2. Universal Pre-K provides far-reaching economic and social benefits to the community. • Reduces: Remediation, enabling schools to focus on student progress

rather than redress.

• Reduces: Dropout rates, special education costs, medical costs, and use of law enforcement, courts, and incarceration;

• Increases: Lifetime earnings and health outcomes;

• Produces: A more prepared

– citizenry, – workforce, and – military


3. Quality Pre-K prepares children to succeed in school. • Increases: Social and emotional maturity.

• Increases: Math and literacy.

• Reduces: Behavior problems and special education participation.

• Reduces: Number of children held back in school.

• Supports: All children reading and computing at grade-level by grade 3, one of three principal goals of our school district.


4. Quality Pre-K helps close the achievement gap.

• Closes: Achievement gaps among students of different demographic and socio-economic backgrounds.

• Especially beneficial for minority and lower-income households.

• Accelerates: Social-emotional development, cognitive skills, language development, and exposure to new words.

• The NC Pre-K Program shown to reduce the achievement gap by 31% in math and 37% in reading.


5. Universal Pre-K supports working families.

• Reduces: Portion of $8400 /child /year burden.

• Enhances: Parenting skills by bringing families in contact with resources that can support parents earlier in their child’s development.

• Pre-K facilities often function as hubs for community health and the early identification of developmental and health issues.


6. Universal Pre-K improves public safety.

• Disrupts: School-to-prison pipeline.

• Adults who do not have a high school diploma are three times more likely to be incarcerated than adults who have graduated.

• Attracts: Judges, sheriffs, police chiefs, district attorneys, court counselors, juvenile defenders, and other public safety and justice personnel to the Champions Table.


7. Universal Pre-K provides a significant return on investment

• Nobel Laureate James Heckman calculates long term savings of $7 for every $1 spent on early childhood education. – Examples of how savings accrue:

• Decreased need for special education services

• Reduced costs for remediation

• Higher levels of educational attainment, increased earnings, and less need for public assistance

• Decreased contact with criminal justice system

• Improved health outcomes

• Potentially greater return in NC because of high quality of the NC Pre-K program (Thank you, Timothy Bartik, Duke University!)


8. Universal Pre-K builds upon our existing system

• Our NC Pre-K Program integrates multiple funding streams – federal Title I & Head Start, and state NC Pre-K – under one, state-sanctioned, evidence-informed, high quality service model.

• “The Jewel of North Carolina’s Education System,” NC Pre-K is consistently ranked nationally as one of the top five Pre-K programs in the country, based on meeting all the critical indicators of a high quality program.– High quality curriculum, high facility and material standards, low student-

teacher ratios, and highly-trained educators with sound foundational requirements, certifications, and continuing professional development.

– Better verbal skills, more developed social-emotional skills, longer attention spans, and other factors leading to success in school.

– Reduced remediation and of special education services.


9. Building upon our existing Pre-K system positions our community to compete for new state and federal Pre-K funds • Anticipates: increased state and federal funding for early childhood, particularly Pre-K. • In the past year alone, Congress has:

– Reauthorized Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting program (MIECHV);

– Included support for early childhood education in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which also authorizes Preschool Development Grants for states; and

– Appropriated nearly $1 billion in new money for Head Start and Early Head Start. • State legislature has restored more than $20 million in recurring, early education

investment since 2014.• Positions Forsyth County for additional public investments as funds become available

at the state and federal.


So, Let’s Get to Work …Rallying and deploying our grass roots and grass tops champions, and the messages they will carry!

• What are the several, interconnecting paths forward to produce, disseminate, and respond to our messages and potential counter-messages?

• How to best recruit and retain champions from all walks of life?• Events• Data• Websites• Videos• Apps• Print & Visual Media (free & purchased)• More…

Ready, Set … Table Talk …

• What’s working for you in this argument or case statement?

• What can strengthen the argument or the plan?

• What kinds of resources can you or your organization contribute in helping to make our case?

II. Quality

Maintaining and Improving High Standards While Expanding Pre-K Availability • “Children’s experiences before they enter school

matter – research shows that children who experience high-quality care and education, and who enter school well prepared, are more successful in school and later in their lives.” (NC Foundations Task Force. 2013. p.1)

NC Programs and Initiatives

• North Carolina has numerous programs and initiatives that promote children’s learning and development.

• Although focusing on somewhat different areas of development, all are designed to improve the quality of programs and services in North Carolina and, in turn, benefit young children and their families.

Ensuring High-Quality

• Work group identified common components that have been determined to characterize high-quality programs, environments, and experiences for young children

• To ensure high-quality experiences for young children, there are several areas in which Forsyth County needs to continue to place emphasis.

Common Ideals

• Attract and retain teachers by helping them to gain the specialized knowledge required and earn degrees in early childhood education, resulting in improved compensation.

Common Ideals

• Use high-quality, research-based and developmentally appropriate standards, curriculum and assessments in all settings;

Common Ideals

• Ensure that programs engage families and support children’s comprehensive needs;

Common Ideals

• Build on the use of existing state systems to deliver preschool programs in high-quality child care, Head Start, and school settings.

Component: Curriculum

• The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) describes a curriculum for young children as an “organized framework” that delineates the following: – The content that children are to learn; – The process through which children achieve the identified

curricular goals; – What teachers do to help children achieve these goals;

and – The context in which teaching and learning occur.”

(NAEYC, 2009).


• Curriculum in preschool settings can be defined as “everything that students learn.”

• It can be implicit or explicit, planned for or spontaneous [and]

• Play is truly the most important part of a curriculum for young children (Study.com, 2016)


Indicators of appropriate curriculum for young children• Children are active and engaged; • Goals are clear and shared by all; • Curriculum is evidence-based; • Valued content is learned through investigation and focused,

intentional teaching; • Curriculum builds on prior learning and experiences; • Curriculum is comprehensive; • Professional standards validate the curriculum’s subject-matter

content; and • The curriculum is likely to benefit children (NAEYC, 2009)

Component: Screening & Assessment

• Effective, ethical, appropriate, and reliable screenings and assessments are a fundamental part of a high-quality preschool experience.

• Must be used for the purpose in which they are intended.

Component: Family Engagement

Meaningful family engagement in children’s early learning supports school readiness and later academic success.

• Increase and support family engagement, partnerships, and two-way communication;

• Use an evidence-based Family Engagement Curriculum;

• Assign a Family Advocate/Educator to all Pre-K classrooms.

Additional Recommendations

• Work toward a more consistent and fair compensation system

• Support Managers’ Leadership Skills

• Provide common training for all child development staff through a comprehensive training plan

• Partner with local universities and colleges

Most Critical?

All of it!• If we are going to provide the best possible

experience for young children and their families in Forsyth County, then we must include all of the components of high-quality.

• They all work together to support children’s growth, development and learning.

Table Discussion

1. Which component(s) of high-quality experiences for young children will be most difficult for this community to provide? Why?

2. Which component(s) of high-quality experiences for young children will be the easiest for this community to provide? Why?

3. How can Pre-K programs be designed and staffed to

promote parents’ involvement in their children’s education?

Estimating Number of Students Served

Year Live Births2014 4,5482013 4,5222012 4,6242011 4,5812010 4,693

Year 4-Year-Olds2015 4,6852016 4,6952017 4,6752018 4,6542019 4,6162020 4,4482025 4,509

Year Kindergarten2015-2016 4,2972014-2015 4,6212013-2014 4,6022012-2013 4,5142011-2012 4,3042010-2011 4,3982009-2010 3,998

Based on these data we project an age cohort of approximately 4500 children eligible for entry into a universal Pre-K system.

III. Funding

Pre-K Student Eligibility

Year Enrollment1 65% enroll2 80% enroll3 90% enroll

Based on this data we project an age cohort of approximately 4,500 children eligible for entry into a universal Pre-K system.

90% is 4,050

III. Funding

Primary Factors 4 Year OldsClass Size 18 Pupils/classStaffing 1 teacher & 1 teacher assistant/ classLength of School Year 10 monthsHours of Operation 6.5 hours/day or 8 hour/day

Other factors include: DCDEE facility and costs standards for serving 4-year old children

$8,400/student

III. Funding

Pre-K Cost Factors

III. FundingCurrent Funding Scenario for Pre-K Programs

4 Year Olds Enrollment

4,500 90% Rate 4,050Publically Funded Currently Enrolled 1,184Universal Pre-K To be enrolled 2,866

Pre-K Cost Calculation

COST2,866 $8,400/student $24,074,400

III. Funding

Pre-K Return on Investment

Estimated $48,000 in benefits accrued to the public per child from Pre-K participation, with

an estimated return of $7 for every dollar invested

III. Funding

Pre-K Funding Options

Local Option Sales Tax

Increase or earmark local property tax revenue

Social Impact bond financing

Tax Credits

Parent Fees and Sliding Scale

III. Funding

Pre-K Current Funding Complexity

State Funds Federal Funds

How do we simplify? Ideas ….

III. Funding

Pre-K Mixed System

Private Childcare

Give parents options? Good or not?

III. Funding

Impact on Current Childcare System

For Example—

Four-year-old classes help fund high cost of caring for infants How does Universal Pre-K impact childcare programs?

III. Funding

What about the Pre-K model that serves all 4- year-old children with sliding scale fee?

Is this a preferred model?

III. Funding

IV. The Way Forward

• Meeting standards for high quality programs

• Developing a uniform, comprehensive system

• Maintaining a mixed system of public & private providers

• Building System Capacity

• Gaining Community-wide Support

• Establishing Uniform Compensation Practices

• Involving Families

• Accomplishing Transitions

• Attaining Diverse Enrollment

A Path to Universal Pre-K

Hold on To Your Hat and Cell Phone … For the Next Slide!

Universal Pre-K in Forsyth County by 2020

The Way Forward…

…will require a community-wide planning process that includes all the parties committed to the creation of a quality universal Pre-K system.

THANK YOUUniversal Pre-K Initiative Steering Committee

Nikki Byers, Executive Director, Imprints Cares

Joe Crocker, Director, Poor and Needy Division, Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust

Matt Ellinwood, Director of the Education and Law Project, North Carolina Justice Center

Bob Feikema (convener), President & CEO, Family Services

Sharee Fowler, Director of the Department of Not-for-Profit Management and Arts Management, Salem College

Khari Garvin, Director, Great Expectations, MDC (for KBR)

Katura Jackson, Executive Director, Work Family Resource Center

Tanya McDougal, Director of Strategic Initiatives, Forsyth County Department of Social Services

Eva Phillips, Ready Schools Coordinator, Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools

Larry Vellani, Chief Executive Director, Smart Start of Forsyth County

Jenny Whitley, Director, Teaching & Learning, Smart Start of Forsyth County

universal pre-k initiative forum presentation

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