Meeting of the Board of Regents | April 2010

Early Childhood Work Group

POSSIBLE POINTS FOR FULL BOARD SUMMARY

At the Early Childhood Workgroup, Karen Schimke and Nancy Kolben  presented a report entitled, Strengthening the Pre-K Investment: Next Steps to a Winning Beginning for Every Child in New York State. This report highlighted eleven recommendations for strengthening the State’s investment in pre-Kindergarten.

PRIMARY POINTS OF DISCUSSION

The report generated discussion around several of the recommendations and implementation challenges.  These included:

• Creating a new governing structure that would assure a comprehensive and accessible system of services.

• Using uniform standards, curricula and assessment across settings.

• Strengthening the mixed delivery system while respecting its diversity.

• Implementing QUALITYstarsNY as a quality measure for all early childhood programs.

NEEDED NEXT STEPS

Continue to monitor developments at the federal level for early childhood funding such as the Early Learning Challenge Fund and ESEA reauthorization.