Five policy strategies for fostering integration in early childhood education settings¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 2 claims (2 for) · 2 studies (2 review), q2 · 0 of 2 report an effect size · 2 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The report identifies five strategies policymakers can use to foster socioeconomic, racial, ethnic, and linguistic integration in ECE: "Establishing universal ECE programs," braiding public funding, allowing tuition-paying families to enroll in public programs, attracting families across neighborhood or district boundaries, and creating two-way dual language immersion programs. Each strategy works by counteracting the income-based sorting produced by means-tested eligibility rules, and the report illustrates each with case examples from Washington DC, New York, San Francisco, Hartford, and San Antonio.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Braided programs typically must meet the highest set of standards in each funding program, which can be costly

Constraints¶

• The report states that simply making programs universal will not ensure diversity or equitable access to quality without careful attention

Target Learners¶

• children from birth to age 5, particularly preschool-age children

Target Learning Goals¶

• learning in socioeconomically, racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse classrooms

Claims¶

• Universal PreK school-based classrooms are about as diverse as first-grade classrooms, while means-tested and community-based classrooms are more segregated [+W]
• The ECE system is socioeconomically segregated because means-tested programs sort children by family income [+W]

Related Strategies¶

• Research and policy attention should now examine PreK program quality and equitable access across racial, ethnic, and linguistic groups, and how families choose among PreK options

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Plasencia, S., & Melnick, H. (2024). Strategies to foster integration in early childhood education. Learning Policy Institute. https://doi.org/10.54300/639.507