Improving and Sustaining High Quality Preschool in an Era of Rapid Expansion and High Stakes Accountability

• In Event: 2-212 - Building and Sustaining Preschool Quality Improvement: Evidence from Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington

Integrative Statement

With broad-based support and rapid expansion of early education across the nation, state policymakers have invested over $8 billion in programs for our youngest learners during the 2015-2016 fiscal year alone (Barnett et al., 2017). While there is considerable research on critical elements of high quality preschool at a classroom level and its associated benefits for young children, little information and resources are available to policymakers to translate their visions of high quality early learning into reality. A recently released report on key insights from the states emphasized how best to leverage resources and develop policies and practices to improve and expand high quality early learning opportunities. One commonly shared finding across these states was prioritizing quality and continuous improvement (Weschsler et al., 2016). Until the past few years, virtually no studies existed in documenting potential linkages and interaction among fiscal supports, governance, political leadership, ECE workforce development, and equity in understanding statewide quality improvement of prekindergarten. This symposium sets out to deepen the field’s collective understanding of how these strands intersect and uniquely influence statewide efforts for quality improvement.

This cross-sectoral effort is one of the first multi-year, cross-state studies examining state-driven continuous improvement of preschool quality. Findings driven from the states of Oregon, Washington, and Tennessee are aimed to inform state-level preschool policies, strategic priorities for data driven improvement, and cohesive alignment across fiscal and political supports that advance equitable quality. Key findings generated by the three states will uncover useful insights on active ingredients, contextual barriers, and systemic supports that drive continuous improvement of preschool programs in other states.

Our study begin with a comprehensive literature review to refine our understanding of the landscape of publicly-funded prekindergarten programs. In developing a conceptual framework, we reviewed over 258 abstracts, each delving into critical contextual strands that are linked to systemic improvement of quality: finance, governance, workforce development, curriculum and assessment, and equity. We then operationalized each of these strands in designing interviewing protocols and data collection measures further refined based on feedback from our collaborators across policy, advocacy, and service sectors.

Findings from this symposium draw on data collected from multiple state site visits, a total of 96 interviews, 15 participant observations, and over 50 documents (e.g. legislation, policy reports, publicly-available data) across Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington. Interview participants were engaged in quality improvement at multiple levels of the Pre-K system (e.g., state administrators, grasstops and grassroots leaders, regional Pre-K directors, professional development specialists and coaches, teachers, and families).

Across the partnership states, we identified overarching themes which include: [1] state prioritization of workforce development and retention as most critical to sustaining quality; [2] in combatting recruitment and retention challenges, compensation parity was identified to ensuring workforce stability; [3] operationalization of equity as an integral part of quality improvement; [4] ongoing tension between access and quality; and [5] intertwining nature of political leadership and funding stability in ensuring preschool quality. Additional data collection and analyses are underway and new cross-cutting insights will be presented at the conference.

Authors

• Soojin Oh Park, University of Washington College of Education
  Presenting Author

• Gail E Joseph, University of Washington
  Non-Presenting Author

• Molly Branson-Thayer, University of Washington
  Non-Presenting Author

• Thomas Halverson, University of Washington College of Education
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nancy Hertzog, University of Washington College of Education
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nail Hassairi, University of Washington
  Non-Presenting Author

• Theresa Lee, University of Washington College of Education
  Non-Presenting Author