LPI Blog

While more than two-thirds of high school graduates enroll in college, nearly two-thirds of these students arrive on campus unprepared for college-level rigor. Instead of trying to solve this problem together, high schools and colleges typically operate in silos. The situation is entirely different in Long Beach, CA, where collaboration, from pre-k through college, is the watchword. 

A quarter-century ago, Newark and nearby Union City epitomized the failure of American urban school systems. Students, mostly poor minority and immigrant children, performed abysmally. Graduation rates were low. Plagued by corruption and cronyism, both districts had a revolving door of superintendents. Today, Union City, which opted for homegrown gradualism, is regarded as a poster child for good urban education. Newark, despite huge infusions of money and outside talent, has struggled by comparison.

In 2013, Bill de Blasio campaigned for mayor on a promise of universal pre-K. Two years later, New York City enrolls more children in full-day pre-K than the total number of students in San Francisco or Boston. New York City’s experience instituting a high-quality program so quickly provides valuable lessons for pre-K efforts across the country.

The long-term rewards of quality early education continue to collect an impressive basket of evidence. An overwhelming majority of voters continue to call out the importance of quality preschool, even if the issue has not yet gotten much airtime in the 2016 presidential election. But how do parents know whether a preschool is of high quality?

Community schools serve as a neighborhood hub, where both students and their families can receive medical, dental, and psychological services and other supports in partnership with local organizations. Research shows that such schools can have an outsized impact, including cutting the achievement gap and absentee rates.

As California embarks on an ambitious journey to raise standards for student learning and rethink nearly every aspect of its educational system, one of the state’s most pressing challenges is hiring and retaining well-prepared, high-quality teachers who can teach the challenging new skills our society demands. This is especially true as the state faces emerging teacher shortages.

There is broad agreement among researchers across a wide range of disciplines that early education can give children a powerful start on the path that leads to college and career success. Early learning professionals need what any savvy businessperson wants for his or her company—a motivated, skilled, quality workforce. While recent studies have highlighted several obstacles to building a high-quality early childhood workforce, another points to promising models in four states.

By Roberta Furger and David Robertson | School districts and county offices of education estimate they will need to hire about 22,000 new teachers for the 2016–17 school year. These projections, part of a multiyear rebuilding of the state’s teaching force, are a good sign. There’s just one problem: California is not preparing enough new teachers to meet the projected need. Even with re-entrants and an increase in out-of-state recruits, districts are experiencing shortfalls they cannot easily address.