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November 20, 2007 Video Message from Governor Riley: Voluntary Pre-K Expansion Coming MONTGOMERY – In a videotaped message released Tuesday on his website, Governor Bob Riley announced he plans to significantly expand voluntary pre-kindergarten for four-year-olds in the education budget he will propose early next year.
Governor Riley said he will spend time "during the coming months" traveling the state to discuss his plan for “high quality, voluntary Pre-K.”
“High quality, voluntary Pre-K will improve our K-12 system and also our children’s opportunities for success. We know, and we know without doubt today, that children who receive pre-kindergarten education are more likely to graduate high school, they’re less likely to end up on welfare and they will earn higher incomes as adults. A strong Pre-K program can literally change the course of hundreds of thousands of lives,” Governor Riley said in the video announcement.
Alabama’s existing Pre-K program is nationally recognized for quality, but access to it is very limited. Last year, Alabama’s Pre-K program served little more than 1,000 of the 60,000 four-year-olds in the state. That number rose to about 2,400 this year due to an increase in Pre-K funding, but that is still only four percent of the state’s four-year-olds.
Alabama and North Carolina lead the nation in Pre-K quality, according to the National Institute for Early Education Research. The institute judges states’ Pre-K programs against 10 benchmarks for quality, and only Alabama and North Carolina meet all 10.
In his video message, Governor Riley notes the success Alabama has had recently in improving student achievement thanks to programs like the Alabama Reading Initiative, the Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative, and ACCESS distance learning.
“We’ve come a long way. We’ve laid the foundation for success, but we can’t stop here. We must continually build a stronger education system for our children. Education is not only the key to the success of our children, it is the key to a successful future for our state. That’s why we now have to embrace pre-kindergarten in Alabama like we never have before,” Governor Riley said. The video message can be viewed online at www.governor.alabama.gov/. ###
Research Confirms Benefits of High Quality Pre-K
High Quality Pre-K Prepares Children for Success in School
The human brain develops more rapidly between birth and age five than during any other subsequent period. From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Child Development. National Research Council: National Academy Press, 2000. Children who participate in high quality early childhood education develop better language skills, score higher in school-readiness tests and have better social skills and fewer behavioral problems once they enter school. The Children of the Cost, Quality, and Outcomes Study Go To School. NICHD, June 1999 and Investing in Our Children: What We Know and Don’t Know About the Costs and Benefits of Early Childhood Interventions. RAND, 1998. Children with high quality early learning experiences are 40% less likely to need special education or be held back a grade. Long-term Effects of Early Childhood Intervention on Education Achievement and Juvenile Arrest. Journal of the American Medical Association, 2001. Children from low-income families who participate in high quality early childhood education programs show the most benefits. They repeat fewer grades and learn at higher levels. The Children of the Cost, Quality, and Outcomes Study Go To School. NICHD, June 1999, and Investing in Our Children: What We Know and Don’t Know About the Costs and Benefits of Early Childhood Interventions. RAND, 1998. A child who enters school reading below grade level has only a one in eight chance of catching up. Learning to Read and Write: A Longitudinal Study of 54 Children from First through Fourth Grades. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1988. Kindergarten teachers in Georgia , the first state with voluntary, universal pre-K for four-year olds, report that children who participated in pre-K were better prepared for kindergarten, especially in the areas of pre-reading, pre-math and social skills. Kindergarten: The Overlooked School Year. The Foundation for Child Development, October, 2001.
Early Education Pays Off Adults who participate in high quality early childhood education programs during their preschool years are more likely to be literate and enrolled in post-secondary education and are less likely to be school dropouts, dependent on welfare or arrested for criminal activity. Long-term Effects of Early Childhood Intervention on Education Achievement and Juvenile Arrest. Journal of the American Medical Association, 2001. | |
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