A variety of resources to help make the case for high-quality pre-k, engage community support, and design good pre-k programs. These include downloadable materials and webinars plus latest pre-k news, reports, and other valuable information sources.

And if you haven’t already, don’t forget to sign up for the Pre-K Primer, our monthly e-newsletter providing practical advice and information about implementing pre-k policies and programs.

Presentations
Webinars
Organizations
Publications

Presentations 

Community engagement and building effective partnerships
(Powerpoint)
Presentation given at the NSBA Annual Conference on April 11, 2010

Embracing early learning: How to establish an effective pre-K program (Part 1)
(Powerpoint)
Presentation given at the AASA National Conference in February 2010

Embracing early learning: How to establish an effective pre-K program (Part 2)
(Powerpoint)
Presentation given at the AASA National Conference in February 2010

Embracing early learning: How to establish an effective pre-K program (Part 3)
(Powerpoint)
Presentation given at the AASA National Conference in February 2010

Embracing early learning: How to establish an effective pre-K program (Part 4)
(Powerpoint)
Presentation given at the AASA National Conference in February 2010

Planning for pre-kindergarten: A toolkit for school boards
(Powerpoint)
Presentation at NSBA's 2009 annual conference on the work completed to-date by a partnership between NSBA’s Center for Public Education and state school board associations with funding from the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Many happy returns: School boards and prekindergarten
(Powerpoint)
Patte Barth presented on the leadership role school boards are playing in pre-k in several states at the Federation Presidents' Retreat in Pittsburgh, August 16, 2008.

Many happy returns: Why school boards should care about pre-K
(Powerpoint)
Patte Barth, director of the Center for Public Education, at the Wisconsin 2008 State Education Convention in Milwaukee, January 23, 2008.

Advancing quality pre-k in all atates
(Powerpoint) (PDF)
Overview of The Pew Charitable Trusts initiative to encourage high-quality early learning opportunities for all 3- and 4-year-olds. Presentation by Sara Watson, Pew Charitable Trusts.

Exploring the school connection
(PDF)
How does pre-K relate to school improvement? What child outcomes should we expect? Presentation by Jana Martella, executive director, National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education.

Pre-k momentum
(PDF)
Progress toward Pre-K Now's vision of all children entering kindergarten prepared to succeed. Presentation by Libby Doggett, executive director, Pre-K Now.

State pre-k programs: What do we know?
(Powerpoint) (PDF)
What are the short- and long-term benefits of pre-K? What does the research say about pre-K quality? Presentation by Eileen O'Brien and Chuck Dervarics, education researchers and writers.

Engaging school board members in pre-k for all
Powerpoint
Presentation by Patte Barth, director, Center for Public Education, NSBA Annual Conference 2007

Exploring the federal role in pre-k
Powerpoint
Presentation by Chrisanne Gayle, NSBA director of federal programs, NSBA Annual Conference 2007

Pre-k in Kansas
Powerpoint
Presentation by Tom Krebs, Kansas Association of School Boards, NSBA Annual Conference 2007

Pre-k in Ohio
Powerpoint
Presentation by Maryse Gonzalez, Ohio School Boards Association, NSBA Annual Conference 2007

Pre-k in Texas
Powerpoint
Presentation by Janice Esau, Texas Association of School Boards, NSBA Annual Conference 2007,

Pre-kindergarten: What research says
Powerpoint
Patte Barth, director of the Center for Public Education, and Sandy Cajigas of NSBA’s National Affiliate program provide an overview of pre-k research, state trends, and the federal role in this presentation to the Washington State School Directors’ Association annual conference in Seattle on November 15, 2007.

Webinars

WEBINAR: Planning for pre-kindergarten: A toolkit for school boards http://nsba.org/MainMenu/Advocacy/FederalLaws/EarlyEducation.aspx
Patte Barth, the Center director, joins consultant Chrisanne Gayl and NSBA’s Kathleen Branch and Katherine Shek to provide this overview of the Pre-K tool kit for members of NSBA’s Pre-K Legislative Committee. April 28, 2009

WEBINAR: Many happy returns: Why pre-k is a good investment
Powerpoint Windows Media Video
Chrisanne Gayl, director of federal programs for NSBA, and Patte Barth, director of the Center for Public Education conducted this webinar on May 6, 2008.

Organizations you should know

Center for Public Education: www.centerforpubliceducation.org
Easy-to-access research, information and resources for engaging communities around pre-K. Sign up for the monthly e-newsletter, Pre-K Primer, to learn what states and communities are doing to expand access to high-quality pre-k: http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/site/c.kjJXJ5MPIwE/b.2486987/k.9607/PreKindergarten.htm.

Contact Patte Barth at pbarth@nsba.org.

NSBA’s pre-k legislative committee: http://www.nsba.org/prekcommittee
A committee of school board members who advocate to expand access and improve the quality of voluntary pre-k programs through federal action.

Contact Kathleen Branch at kbranch@nsba.org.

Kansas Association of School Boards: www.kasb.org
Read what Kansas communities had to say about pre-k: http://www.kasb.org/forums%20data.pdf

Contact Jim Edwards atjedwards@kasb.org

Ohio School Boards Association:www.osba-ohio.org
Download OSBA’s Resource Kit on Understanding the value of high-quality pre-k: http://www.osba-ohio.org/Files/SALTkit14.pdf

Contact Scott Ebright ats_ebright@osba-ohio.org, or Donna Williams atd_williams@osba-ohio.org

Texas Association of School Boards: www.tasb.org
Download TASB’s side-by-side comparison of early childhood programs in Texas: http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/site/c.lvIXIiN0JwE/b.5057335/k.9607/PreKindergarten.htm

Contact Janice Esau atJanice.Esau@tasb.org.

Other organizations

The Pew Charitable Trusts: www.pewtrusts.org
The Pew Trusts are a major force in support of universal pre-kindergarten for three- and four-year-olds. The Pew web site has information about its pre-kindergarten initiative along with media resources, fact sheets and other content related to pre-kindergarten.

Pre-K Now: www.preknow.org
Pre-K Now is a national advocacy organization that promotes high-quality pre-kindergarten education for all three- and four-year-olds. Their work is focused primarily on state policy. Their site has a lot of good resources for state advocates, including reports, fact sheets, public opinion polls, and materials that can be downloaded.

National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER): www.nieer.org
Based at Rutgers University, NIEER provides comprehensive research, information and analysis about pre-kindergarten. In addition to useful publications and communication tools, NIEER publishes a state-by-state yearbook on the state of pre-kindergarten across the country: http://nieer.org/yearbook/. NIEER also offers a useful e-newsletter to anyone who signs up.

Committee for Economic Development (CED): www.ced.org
CED has several publications aimed at the business community that make the case for effective pre-kindergarten programs.

Council for Chief State School Officers: www.ccsso.org/Projects/early_childhood_and_family_education/Projects
CCSSO has several initiatives dedicated to improving early education access and quality. This site is a rich source of presentations, data, organizations, and other resources with a state focus.

The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study: http://nces.ed.gov/ecls/Kindergarten.asp
An ongoing study through the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K) is tracking the school experiences of a representative sample of children from kindergarten through middle school. NCES has also followed a birth cohort from nine months to two years of age. Neither survey picks up three- and four-year-olds, but there’s still interesting information about school readiness.

Foundation for Child Development: http://www.fcd-us.org/work/
The Foundation for Child Development (FCD) is a national, private philanthropy focused on children and families. One of its four main initiatives is pre-kindergarten to grade three: A New Beginning for Publicly Supported Education, which promotes a universally available pre-kindergarten program for three- and four-year- olds aligned to K-12 standards.

National Task Force on Early Childhood Education for Hispanics: www.ecehispanic.org
The National Task Force on Early Childhood Education for Hispanics is a non-profit center based at Arizona State University. A good resource for publications, data, research, and policy analysis about Spanish-speaking children from birth through the primary grades. Materials are available in both English and Spanish.

Publications, articles, and other resources 

Accountability

Taking stock: Assessing and improving early childhood learning and program quality, The report of the National Early Childhood Accountability Task Force, 2007. Recommendations for evaluating publicly funded early education programs. 
http://www.pewtrusts.org/uploadedFiles/wwwpewtrustsorg/Reports/Pre-k_education/task_force_report1.pdf

Collaboration

The Iowa School Boards Foundation (ISBF) developed an online Preschool Program Collaboration Toolkit to help school boards expand high-quality pre-k availability in their districts. Although the material is specifically intended for Iowa school districts, there are some lessons and tools that can help school boards more generally.
http://www.ia-sb.org/EarlyChildhood.aspx

Economic benefits

A cost-benefit analysis of universally-accessible pre-kindergarten education in Texas, The Bush School of Government & Public Service, Texas A&M University.  A thorough analysis of what high-quality pre-k in Texas will cost compared to the benefits it will produce. http://bush.tamu.edu/research/capstones/mpsa/projects/TECEC2006/ACostBenefitAnalysisofHigh-QualityUniversally-AccessiblePre-KindergartenEducationinTexas.pdf

The economic promise of investing in high-quality preschool: Using early education to improve economic growth and the fiscal sustainability of the states and the nation. Committee for Economic Development. http://www.ced.org/docs/report/report_prek_econpromise.pdf

The fiscal impacts of universal pre-k: Case study analysis for three states (Massachusetts, Wisconsin and Ohio). Committee for Economic Development.  http://www.ced.org/docs/report/report_ivk_belfield2005.pdf

Educational benefits

The effects of state pre-kindergarten programs on young children's school readiness in five states. NIEER. This study looks at the effects of state-funded programs in Michigan, New Jersey, Oklahoma, South Carolina and West Virginia. http://nieer.org/docs/?DocID=129

The effects of universal pre-k on cognitive development. Gormley, W.T., Gayer, T., Phillips, D., & Dawson, B.  Another study of Oklahoma’s pre-K program. http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/dev416872.pdf

Funding Pre-K programs

Financing public preschool programs: Current practices and future possibilities. CED. http://www.ced.org/docs/prek_brief_200611.pdf

Missed opportunities? The possibilities and challenges of funding high-quality preschool through Title I of the No Child Left Behind Act. Center for Law and Social Policy. http://www.clasp.org/publications/missed_opp.pdf

English learners and children of immigrants

Pre-K and Latinos: The foundation for America's future. Pre-K Now, July 2006.; This report explores the specific benefits of high-quality, pre-k programs to the country’s fastest growing student population. http://www.preknow.org/documents/Pre-KandLatinos_July2006.pdf.

Executive summary, in Spanish: http://www.preknow.org/documents/exec_Pre-KandLatinos_July2006_sp.pdf.

Reaching all children? Understanding early care and education participation among immigrant families. Center for Law and Social Policy, January 2006. Features valuable state and national demographic data about the families coming to this country and their access to early care. http://www.clasp.org/publications/child_care_immigrant.pdf

Pre-kindergarten Resources for Spanish-speaking parents. www.prekinder.org

State legislation

Early care and education legislation database. A web-based, easily searchable database developed by the National Conference of State Legislatures provides information on 2008 early care and education bills that have been introduced and enacted in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. http://www.ncsl.org/programs/cyf/ECELD.cfm

Teacher quality

Better teachers, better preschools: Student achievement linked to teacher qualifications. W. Steven Barnett, NIEER, December 2004. An overview of the teacher effectiveness research for pre-K. http://nieer.org/resources/policybriefs/2.pdf

Preschool is school, sometimes: Making early childhood education matter. Robert Pianta, National Center for Research on Early Childhood Education, University of Virginia. Education Next, 2007. Pianta discusses the range of classroom experiences provided 4000 young children, and argues for the importance of professional development and training to assure teacher quality. For more, go to: http://www.hoover.org/publications/ednext/4612287.html

Ready schools. The national education goals panel (NEGP), 1998. What makes elementary schools ready for children? Prominent educators recommend 10 keys to a ready school that will be of interest to all elementary schools, preschools, and communities. http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/negp/Reports/readysch.pdf  (Note: for a list of, and links to, archived documents from the NEGP, visit  http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/negp/page9-3.htm.)

We gratefully acknowledge The Pew Charitable Trusts for its support of our work related to pre-kindergarten. The views expressed are those of the Center for Public Education and not necessarily those of The Pew Charitable Trusts.