Teaching and Learning

Local education agencies looking to improve long-term student outcomes, accelerate educational progress, and close achievement gaps cannot afford to ignore the early years, as these gaps appear early and increase over time. Such gaps in social-emotional and academic readiness for kindergarten lead to gaps in literacy and math proficiency by third grade, which in turn lead to gaps in high school graduation rates and college and career-readiness. High quality early childhood services can effectively address these gaps (Jacobson, 2014). There are multiple benefits of high quality Pre-K to a variety of stakeholders. It benefits children, families, schools, and Indiana as a whole. Once considered a strategy to support working parents with child care needs, most states now view access to high-quality preschool programs as both a critical long-term economic investment in the future workforce and a precursor to school success.
This course will assist K-12 administrators in considering various aspects of high quality preschool expansion, from beginning the discussion in their school or district, to funding and managing a high quality preschool program.