Reading the NIEER State of Preschool Yearbook

The 2007-08 school year was a good one for pre-kindergarten expansion, but the gains may be shortlived, according to a state-by-state update released today by the National Institute for Early Education Research. NIEER's annual State of Preschool Yearbook is the most comprehensive compilation of data on pre-k enrollment, funding and quality out there. According to the report, enrollment of 3- and 4-year olds in state-funded preschool around the country in 2007-08, including pre-k and state-funded Head Start, increased by more than 108,000 to 1.4 million children. In 33 of the 38 states that have a state-funded pre-k program, enrollment climbed. Total state funding for preschool increased by 23 percent to $4.6 billion.

Overall quality rose too. NIEER measures pre-k quality using a 10-point index that rates states on structural quality indicators such as class size, teacher education, meals, and monitoring. Last year, the average rating rose to 7.1,up from 6.8. Quality among states varied dramatically, however, ranging from a score of 3 in one Ohio program to a perfect 10 in Alabama and North Carolina. The greatest gains over the past few years have come in the areas of early learning standards, teacher in-service, and class size.

While NIEER's report celebrates these gains, the experts who wrote it are already casting a nervous eye toward what next year's numbers might show. The economic downturn has hit state budgets hard, and nine states have already announced cuts to state pre-kindergarten, according to Steven Barnett, NIEER's president. He says the organization is particularly concerned about California, Texas, New York and Florida-four large states that together are home to one-third of the nation's preschoolers and where tottering budgets may undermine pre-k access and quality.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who spoke at a press conference this morning on the report's release, urged states and school districts to find creative ways to use stimulus funds to support preschool access and quality. "I firmly believe high-quality early education is a stimulus program," Duncan said.

The NIEER Yearbook is a great resource, and everybody involved in education policy should have a copy on their shelf. However, it is important to note that there are limits to what its data can tell us.

First, the Yearbook includes only data that states report (or bother to measure). For example, many states, such as Minnesota, provide early childhood funding streams that allow districts or local government to choose how to spend the money. Some of these dollars fund pre-k, but since the funding is not part of a distinct pre-kindergarten program, these children are not included in NIEER's overall enrollment tally.

The same goes for many of the quality indicators. Since NIEER only counts what is in state regulations, a state may get points for having comprehensive early learning standards, but that doesn't tell us whether standards are of high-quality and developmentally appropriate, or if pre-k providers in the state are implementing early learning standards in a meaningful way. Conversely, most pre-k providers in a state may provide meals even state policy does not mandate that they do so. For the most part, these limitations are not NIEER's fault--they need data that is both statewide and comparable, and can't use data states don't collect--but readers should still keep them in mind when using the State of Preschool Yearbook.

These limitations aside, the NIEER Yearbook is a valuable tool for advocates, journalists, and policymakers seeking to get a picture of what's going on with pre-k in different states or to see how states' early education programs stack up against each other. It's also a useful measure of state-level and national progress (or slippage) on pre-k access and quality from year to year. As we celebrate the gains this year's Yearbook demonstrates, let's hope there's something to celebrate next year as well.