The United States Department of Education was appropriated $700 million as part of last month’s budget deal to design a competitive grant program focused, in part, on improving early-childhood education for low-income and disadvantaged youth.

Recent speculation points to lawmakers moving forward with a “Baby Race to the Top” program, in which Delaware is well-positioned to compete.  Delaware has demonstrated its conviction that early-childhood education is critical to ensuring that our students enter school ready to learn – and pays tremendous dividends into the future. 

Three big things that Delaware has going for us are:

·         Improvement in workforce qualifications:The Institute for Excellence at the University of Delaware is a state investment that enhances the qualifications of the workforce, including professional development and grants for programs that are working to improve quality through training staff.

·         Coordination of services to create a seamless system: the Interagency Resource Management Committee brings together the three agencies (Education, Kids’, and Health and Social Services) that administer early childhood services, and these leaders are working together on a data system through Race to the Top and Head Start funds.

·         Public-private partnerships:Vision 2015, the Stars quality rating and improvement system, and the Early Childhood Council are already making a difference.

Recently, Governor Markell proposed appropriating over $20 million to strengthen our current early-childhood efforts – if approved, this would further solidify our competitiveness and pave the way for further progress. 

The Governor announced a new $22M investment in early care and education this morning, which is remarkable, given that the budget allowed for investments in only one new initiative (outside the one-time investments also included in Building Delaware’s Future Now). Kingswood Community Center served as the ideal host because their early childhood center recently earned a Star level 3 rating, the Delaware quality standard—and their students and teachers attended this morning’s announcement.

This truly is  cause for applause—to coin a phrase used by Delaware Kids Count (to be released Monday at the Riverfront)—among the hundreds of stakeholders have advocated for these improvements for years, including Vision 2015, the Early Childhood Council, Policy Matters, Social Venture Partners, the business community, and so many others.

Governor Markell remarked that results, accountability, and rewarding excellence are the priorities for these investments, and this is the case—early child care providers will be rewarded for achieving levels of quality, but they will be provided the appropriate supports, including additional funds, to do so. The primary concern in the field has been the low wages of the workforce, and this investment will allow early childhood professionals to earn more and achieve higher levels of education.

The funds will support increased Purchase of Care (child care subsidies for working families) reimbursements; a $9M investment—a 20 percent increase on the current $45M program—to bring all reimbursement rates up to 65 percent of the market rate, plus 50 cents per child per day. Not only is it a significant increase, but it will provide huge funding increases to individual centers: for example, some centers serving large numbers of POC children will receive an additional $100,000 or more per year.

Another $13M will support the Stars quality rating system, tiered reimbursement based on quality, and grants and awards to programs to help them move up the rating scale.  Stars programs receiving Purchase of Care that have achieved levels 3, 4 and 5 will be reimbursed at 80, 90, and 100 percent of the market rate respectively.  These increases will yield almost double the reimbursement rate some centers are receiving for providing care to low-income children. With these additional funds, centers can pay their professionals fairly and retain the best and brightest.

Now, we still have to sort out some practical issues of implementing such an exciting policy. For example, how can we make sure that a 65 percent reimbursement rate remains something to be celebrated? If market rate is not indexed to inflation and a study is not conducted each year, 65 percent will quickly become insufficient to support quality. How do we ensure the appropriate level of support is provided to programs so that they move up the quality rating scale? And will increased salaries be enough to retain the workforce we know we need?

We look forward to working with and engaging stakeholders to make sure this important proposal is implemented to make the greatest impact possible. For now, we are applauding and looking forward to what’s in store: more quality program options for parents, clarity about the quality of programming, improved outcomes for children, and long-term economic development for the state.

Maryland has demonstrated how a focus on early childhood can yield significant, long-term gains for children. In the last decade, they have:

• Implemented full-day Kindergarten, which Delaware has almost completed;
• Increased the quality of existing early childhood programs, through efforts similar to the Delaware Stars program;
• Increased access to high-quality early childhood programs, which has been recommended by Delaware groups like Vision 2015 and the Early Childhood Council, among others; and
• Aligned programmatic and policy initiatives—and their funds—under a single department within the State Department of Education—rather than the three agencies in Delaware that oversee early childhood efforts and funds.

And for this, Maryland has much to show:

• 81 percent of students demonstrating readiness in academic, physical, and social skills;
• a 32 percentage point increase in Kindergarten readiness; and
• a narrowing gap of poor, special education, English Language Learner, and African-American students by 35-44 percentage points.

These accomplishments lead to better long-term outcomes, as longitudinal ECAP (state preschool) studies have shown; in Maryland, children who enter Kindergarten fully school-ready are far more likely to be proficient in both reading and math by third grade.

Delaware is on our way, and if we continue with the progress we are making, we hope to be able to report these gains, too.

More than 40 percent of Superintendents could move on in the coming months, with four confirmed to retire, two rumored to be retiring, and two contract non-renewals. 

 

Recent retirement announcements include Seaford, Appoquinimink, New Castle County Vo-Tech, and Cape Henlopen Districts.  Contract non-renewals include Christina and Laurel School Districts, where reinstatement may be possible pending the May 10 school board election.  Colonial also has new leadership this year.

 

These exits—or transitions—come at a time when reform is moving faster than usual. Delaware schools face the challenges of new standards, state assessment, and teacher evaluation system, in addition to a six-month Race to the Top planning process for 2011-2014.  More change is certain with new leadership.

 

Superintendents are a critical piece in setting the expectations, vision, staffing, initiatives, and direction of school districts. We look forward to working with them to implement practices that meet our students’ needs. Implementing practices in teacher hiring and evaluation, use of student assessments, embedded professional development, and enrollment in rigorous coursework could have a significant impact on students’ success. We hope the wave of change takes us even further than we’ve come.