State of Education: Pre-K
Educators, legislators, and public agency experts were among the participants at the "Winning Beginning NY" forum.
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"The coalition is made up of about sixty organizations from across the state all interested in informing policy makers about how to improve support and service for young people and their families," said Karen Schimke with the Schuyler Center for Advocacy.
One way of doing this, presenting report to the New York State Board of Regents along with a few ideas.
"Well we certainly were pushing for universal pre-kindergarten, we're certainly talking about full day pre-kindergarten for four year olds, we also talked about standardizing assessments and curriculum across the state," said Schimke.
As for pre-kindergarten in schools across the state, it's not 100 percent.
"Some districts have had problems implementing because of issues with transportation or the school funding formula, so one of the things that can happen at the state level is districts can do more to make sure that there's not money left on the table," said Marci Young with Pre-K Now.
While pre-kindergarten programs have been designed to help young student prepare for future education, officials say it can also do something something else help school districts save money, in fact one report showed over $800-million a year across New York State.
"Because it reduces the need to hold children back, it reduces the need to have special education and it does something in the field what's called learning productivity, that is the children all learn better together and the teacher doesn't have to stop the class and start over," said Schimke.
Another point from Winning Beginning NY looking at early childhood education as not simply preschool, but as part of the whole educational process.
"One of the great things about New York is that the board of regents has established a P-16 approach to education, thinking about the continuous line from preschool all the way through college," said Kristi Kauerz with Harvard Pre-K.
And as for the current status of early education, funding has increased has increased from $67 million to nearly $400 million and approximately 40 percent of four-year olds are in enrolled in pre-K across the state. Meanwhile, the Winning Beginning NY coalition will continue to work on their lesson plan from preschool through diploma.