Published the week of 5/29/05

Nationally, three times as many students are excluded from pre-school programs as from elementary and secondary schools. In Minnesota, the ratio is even worse--it's four times as many. Those are two of the surprising, even stunning conclusions of new research about pre-school programs.

A lot of time and money has been spent in Minnesota to promote pre-school programs. When well designed and implemented, such programs can have enormous benefits. But parents, as well as foundation and state policy-makers, really should consider questions these studies raise.

The studies come from Yale University Child Study Center, which has a national reputation for supporting, and doing strong research on early childhood programs.

The first study, "Prekindergarteners Left Behind," found that during the 2003-2004 school year, the expulsion rate of publicly funded pre-school programs in 40 sites was, on average, more than 3 times the expulsion rate in K-12 schools. Expulsion does not mean sending a youngster home for a day. It means removal.

Minnesota's situation is both better and worse than the national average. It's better, because only about 3.4 Minnesota early childhood students per thousand in publicly funded preschool programs were excluded. That compares with a national average of 6.67 early childhood students excluded per thousand.

But Minnesota does worse than the national average when comparing expulsions in pre-K and K-12. Minnesota pre-school students were expelled 4.5 times more often than K-12 students, compared to a national average of 3.2 times more often.

Yes, the percentage of students being kicked out is low, both in early childhood and in K-12. But why is it so much higher in pre-school than in K-12? And why is Minnesota's ratio higher than the national average? What support and assistance do pre-school teachers need, so that exclusion rates are not substantially higher than those in elementary and secondary schools? Those questions need considering.

The second study also comes from the Child Study Center at Yale University. Researchers in the "Who's Teaching our Children" study found that most pre-school teachers in the nation-71 percent-are earning salaries that qualify them as low income under federal poverty guidelines. On average, pre-school teachers make less than half of what elementary school teachers earn.

Higher pay does not guarantee outstanding employees. But strong programs must offer teachers more than poverty-level salaries. If pre-schools and other early childhood programs are to fulfill their potential, the people who work in them need to be treated as professionals.

The first study is available at  www.mailman.org/PDF/NationalPreKExpulsionPaper03.02_new.pdf. The second one can be found at  nieer.org/resources/files/NPSteachers.pdf.

High quality early childhood programs can have great benefit. But these studies encourage states to think carefully about details. Good intentions are not enough