Kasich’s Race to the Top Application Asks for $70 Million for Better Pre-K Programs
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Ohio has submitted its application for a $70 million share of federal funds intended to help states provide more and better pre-school, particularly for “high-needs” children. (Scroll down to read the full application.)
In this case, high-needs means children who are from low-income families, are English language learners, or who have disabilities or developmental delays. The focus is on children from birth through five years.
The thinking behind the federal grant program — the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge — is that providing better and more pre-school and other services to young children before they enter kindergarten will help improve their academic performance over the course of their K-12 years. I.e.,:
“If we raise expectations for every child, and give them the best possible chance at an education, from the day they are born until the last job they take … By the end of the decade, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.” (President Obama, State of Union Address, January 25, 2011)
Ohio has identified three goals it would use the $70 million to reach over the next four years:
- Increase access to high-quality experiences for more than 37,000 high-needs children;
- Increase the number of highly rated programs available to high-needs children by nearly 1,300; and
- Improve results on Ohio’s current kindergarten readiness assessment (literacy) for high-needs children by 5 percent.
The things the state proposes to do to reach those goals include:
- Give parents incentives to select high-quality early education programs;
- Give scholarships to early childhood professionals to help them get college degrees; and
- Partner with the state of Maryland to develop new tests for students entering pre-K and kindergarten programs. (More on this below.)
The Ohio Department of Education serves at the lead agency for the grant, but worked with Gov. Kasich’s office, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and the Ohio Business Roundtable to prepare the application. If Ohio is awarded federal funds, an official within the education division of the governor’s office would oversee how the program. (That official has yet to be named, Ohio Department of Education spokesperson Patrick Gallaway said.)
In addition to Ohio, 34 states and the District of Columbia have asked for Race to the Top early childhood education funding, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
You may recall that In January 2011, Ohio received $400 million through an early round of Race to the Top grant funding. The state and individual school districts are using that money improve graduation rates, improve college enrollment rates and reduce the achievement gap between white and non-white students.
Ohio’s Early Learning Challenge Race to the Top Application:
Update, Oct. 26:
I was curious about Ohio’s decision to partner with Maryland on this project so asked the Ohio Department of Education: Why Maryland? The department’s spokesperson said that it’s partly because it lets the two states split the cost:
The State of Ohio has elected to work with the State of Maryland due to Maryland’s strong history of successful implementation of a Kindergarten Entry Assessment that addresses all school readiness domains and due to its innovative approaches and continued interest in using technology to support teachers’ use of the assessment. Ohio will also leverage its strong experience and 6 year history implementing the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment—Literacy. This cross-state collaboration will provide the opportunity for the two states to develop and use common assessments and processes, as well as to share the cost of what is normally a very expensive process. It will maximize the benefits for both states while ensuring each state does not attempt to “reinvent the wheel.”
