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Prevention Research Center has lead role in Early Childhood Initiative By S. William Hessert Jr.
	The Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development in the College of Health and Human Development was instrumental in the Pennsylvania Governor’s Office’s efforts to enhance the quality of early childhood care and education in Pennsylvania.   In April 2002, the Governor’s Office created the 33-member Early Childhood Care and Education Task Force. Dr. Mark T. Greenberg, director of the Prevention Research Center, played a key role in assisting the task force, which examined existing and potential programs and services for children from birth to age 8 and made recommendations for improving educational opportunities for children.   Greenberg directed the University Children’s Policy Collaborative (UCPC), a partnership that conducted research for the task force. The Prevention Research Center was the primary research contractor for UCPC. Other partners were the University of Pittsburgh’s Office of Child Development and Temple University’s Center for Public Policy. Penn State contributors to UCPC were Dr. Richard Fiene, director of the Capital Area Early Childhood Training Institute, and Dr. E. Michael Foster, associate professor of health policy and administration.   The task force submitted two reports in 2002. The first, “Early Care and Education: The Keystone of Pennsylvania’s Future,” detailed research findings by UCPC and cited four key factors in ensuring that Pennsylvania’s children enter school ready to learn: gubernatorial leadership and vision; key components of school readiness: early care and education, health and family supports; foundation elements that assure progress toward the goal; and public information and engagement.   The second report, “Quality of Early Childhood Education Programs in Pennsylvania,” was the first comprehensive quality study completed in Pennsylvania that provided an evaluation of the services currently provided to children and outlined recommendations for developing baseline quality expectations for all early-childhood programs.   The University Children’s Policy Collaborative’s survey of 372 early care and education providers across Pennsylvania found: 80 percent of care in Pennsylvania has been rated minimal or adequate at best; only 20 percent was rated good; Head Start’s quality was significantly higher than all other forms of early care and education; 46 percent of Head Start programs are of high quality; preschool programs scored significantly higher on quality than did child-care centers and homes; and the quality of child-care centers and family/group child-care homes decreased since the mid-1990s.   According to the researchers, major shifts in the demographics of families in Pennsylvania and across the nation are intensifying the need for child care. The number of working mothers with young children has almost doubled, while the number of children living in single-parent families is climbing steadily.   “The study shows that quality has dropped off significantly in centers and homes that provide child care, which is a major concern, because that is where the majority of the children are,” said Fiene, a lead investigator on the second study. “It is our hope that this quality study will help parents ask the kind of questions necessary to identify a higher quality provider and raise the bar on quality for early care and education providers.”   “Economic analyses clearly indicate that the investment in high-quality early care and education programs for children pay for themselves in positive benefits to all—for children, for schools, for family and society,” Greenberg said. “[However], we need high-quality programs. ... Any attempts to cut corners on quality are likely to lead to poor performance by children and a perpetuation of mediocre and poor programs that do not adequately prepare many of Pennsylvania’s children for school and life success.”   UCPC research indicated areas that must be addressed to improve the quality of Pennsylvania’s early care and education delivery system: Teacher education: Individuals with college degrees provide a much higher level of quality than individuals with a high school diploma; however, in Pennsylvania, only 58 percent of teachers have early education degrees. Planned curriculum: More than 90 percent of child-care centers, Head Start sites, preschools and group homes reported use of a written program guide or curriculum, while about 50 percent of the family homes and legally unregulated providers reported using written sources to plan activities. Accreditation: Pennsylvania has launched its Keystone Stars quality improvement program to recognize child-care providers who exceed state health and safety licensing requirements. This incentive program may help contribute to a rise in the level of quality offered to children by licensed child-care providers.   “As researchers, we can identify the pieces that make up high-quality early care and education settings,” Fiene said. “The challenge comes in relaying that message to parents, providers and policy makers. There is compelling evidence that investment in research-based, quality early childhood programs will lead to substantial returns for all Pennsylvanians.”   For more information on the Early Childhood Initiative or to view the task force reports, visit http://www.state.pa.us (PA keyword: “Early Care and Education”). The report is also available at the Prevention Research Center’s Web site at http://www.prevention.psu.edu.