Category Archives: Early childhood program design issues

We have experience and research on scaling up quality pre-K

Posted on February 12, 2013 by timbartik

President Obama’s proposal for federal support for moving to universal pre-K for 4-year-olds will no doubt be fleshed out in the near future. As always, the devil is in the details. However, I want to respond to one idea that … Continue reading →

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Michigan Governor Snyder’s proposal for expanded preschool

Posted on February 8, 2013 by timbartik

On February 7, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder released his state budget proposal, which included a significant proposed expansion of state-funded preschool. This preschool proposal recommends expanding the state’s preschool funding from $109 million in fiscal year 2013, to $174 million … Continue reading →

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Michigan Radio’s special on pre-K

Posted on January 24, 2013 by timbartik

I was interviewed by reporter Dustin Dwyer for a Michigan Radio special report on preschool that aired today. The “State of Opportunity” portion of Michigan Radio’s website has an edited transcript and audio of the special, and a guide with links … Continue reading →

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Why education is important, and early childhood education salaries

Posted on November 19, 2012 by timbartik

The statistics for this blog reveal that by far the top two “search terms” that lead to this blog are variations on the following: “Why education is important”; “early childhood education salary”. I suspect these search terms mostly come from … Continue reading →

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Educational improvements: hard solutions versus easy solutions

Posted on September 4, 2012 by timbartik

Julie Mack, the education reporter at the Kalamazoo Gazette, recently wrote a column on school choice, largely based on an interview with me. In that column, she accurately described me as concluding that school choice has been disappointing in that … Continue reading →

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What is needed for large-scale evaluation of the effectiveness of pre-K programs?

Posted on June 12, 2012 by timbartik

The Center for American Progress recently released a report on improving the efficiency of publicly-supported early childhood programs.  This report includes many useful recommendations. These recommendations include national standards for pre-K learning, assessment, and data collection. However, I want to … Continue reading →

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Special education cost savings

Posted on May 22, 2012 by timbartik

A recent report released by ReadyNation, prepared with support from the Kauffman Foundation, provides much research information on how special education cost-savings might be used to fund high-quality pre-K. The report, written by Rob Dugger and Bob Litan, argues that … Continue reading →

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Universal pre-K and the Presidential campaign

Posted on May 1, 2012 by timbartik

Prominent bloggers Kevin Drum and Matt Yglesias have both linked to Dana Goldstein’s brief blog post suggesting that universal pre-K be a key issue in the Presidential campaign. Dana Goldstein advocates for high-quality universal pre-K and child care for all … Continue reading →

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Given the many problems with our K-12 educational system, what’s the point of adding early childhood programs?

Posted on January 30, 2012 by timbartik

I’m continuing my series of brief responses to questions I have received at public presentations on early childhood programs. Today’s question: “Given the many problems with our K-12 educational system, what’s the point of adding early childhood programs? Shouldn’t our … Continue reading →

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New long-term estimates of the effects of the Abecedarian program

Posted on January 24, 2012 by timbartik

Recently, Frances Campbell and her colleagues have published a paper that provides new long-term estimates of the effects of the Abecedarian program. These estimates suggest greater long-run benefits of the Abecedarian program than were projected based on previous results at … Continue reading →

Posted in Early childhood program design issues, Early childhood programs, Economic development, Timing of benefits | 3 Comments