Please excuse any cross-postings.

Hi Everyone,

The press release below was sent to me via the ALA Leg office.
Are any of your public libraries partners in this NJ initiative? I know some libraries in MD are but I hadn\x92t heard of any in NJ that were unless it's through public schools or Head Start.

Please let me know.

Best,

Sharon Rawlins Youth Services Consultant NJ State Library 185 West State St. P.O. Box 520 Trenton, NJ 08625-0520 sraw...@njstatelib.org 609-278-2640 ext. 116 \x96 phone 609-278-2650 - fax

For Immediate Release

December 11, 2009

Report Identifies New Jersey as Model for 'PreK-3rd' Education Reform - If the State Can Sustain its Support

A new report from the New America Foundation finds that New Jersey has made tremendous strides in improving children's access to quality early learning experiences, enabling some districts to nearly erase the achievement gap. But the report also exposes the fragility of these gains and urges state leaders to act now to sustain and build on early learning reforms to date-or risk undoing New Jersey's progress so far.

The report, Education Reform Starts Early: Lessons from New Jersey's PreK-3rd Reform by Sara Mead, a senior research fellow at New America, does not focus solely on the state's pre-K programs. It provides a blueprint for how to create a high-quality, well-aligned education system that helps children sustain their learning gains up through the third grade and beyond.

As a result of a 1998 state Supreme Court ruling, New Jersey has implemented one of the nation's highest quality state pre-k programs. Research shows that children participating in these programs make significant gains in language, emerging literacy, and other skills. Equally important, as Mead's report explains, New Jersey has taken steps to link that pre-K program to the early elementary grades, enabling children to acquire a solid foundation of reading, math, and social skills by the end of third grade.

The report describes how New Jersey became a national leader in early education and PreK-3rd reform and identifies challenges that could threaten the state's continued success.

Specifically, it recommends that state and national policymakers: \xB7 Integrate pre-K and other early childhood investments into a broader education reform agenda to improve student learning outcomes from preschool through college. \xB7 Invest in building state-level infrastructure for pre-K, not just expanding slots. \xB7 Create systems of data collection, analysis, and accountability to drive ongoing quality improvement in early childhood and PreK-3rd programs.

It also recommends that New Jersey policymakers take the following steps to consolidate early education gains and build a truly aligned system of high-quality PreK-3rd education: \xB7 Maintain commitment to pre-k expansion in non-Abbott districts. \xB7 Extend the Abbott preschool program's approach to improving quality up into kindergarten and the early grades. \xB7 Reaffirm and sustain the state's commitment to early literacy. \xB7 Strengthen New Jersey's teacher credential for the early years (known as the P-3 credential) by improving standards and quality in teacher preparation programs.

The report is a project of New America's Early Education Initiative, which is supported through generous grants from the Foundation for Child Development, the W. Clement and Jessie K. Stone Foundation, and the Strategic Knowledge Fund, co-funded by the Foundation for Child Development and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

For the full report: http://www.newamerica.net/publications/policy/education_reform_starts_early_0

For interview requests, please contact Kate Brown with requests at 202-596-3365 or bro...@newamerica.net.

About the New America Foundation The New America Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute that invests in new thinkers and new ideas to address the next generation of challenges facing the United States.

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