All that while the President focused on expanding education to age 3 across the country.
But, does that mean public education will survive?
July 14, 2013
By Michael Alison Chandler
At the Early Head Start center in Manassas, teachers take care that
each toy and picture book is age-appropriate, the cots at nap time are
placed 36 inches apart, and every activity, including diaper-changing,
is a time for learning.
“Look, your favorite color,” said one teacher pointing to the
illustrated waistband of a toddler’s diaper. She kept the changing-table
conversation going, then helped the little girl wash her hands and
counted the steps down from the sink “1, 2,” completing mini-lessons in
vocabulary, hygiene and numeracy.
These are the kinds of things that investigators looked at when they evaluated the center in the predominantly low-income Georgetown South
neighborhood this year and gave it five stars, making it the only
preschool in Virginia to earn the top mark in a voluntary rating system
that is being rolled out across the state.
The Virginia Star
Quality Initiative is aimed at assessing and improving quality in
early-childhood programs and helping parents make more-informed choices
about where they leave their children for eight hours or more a day.
Dozens of states, including Maryland as well as the District, have
developed similar systems....
