Learning from the Early Education ExpertsSeptember 29, 2004 |
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| World-class researchers are studying how preschool benefits young children and First 5 LA is bringing them all together to learn from their experiences Los Angeles, CA – A child's brain develops most dramatically in the first five years of life and as First 5 LA prepares to launch a far-reaching preschool initiative in Los Angeles County, experts from around the country will gather Oct. 7 and 8 in Los Angeles to share critical findings about the important role that quality early learning can play in our children's lives. More than $10 is saved in government costs for crime, welfare and special education for every $1 spent on early education. Research also shows that children who have attended quality early learning programs are less likely to drop out of high school and more likely to attend college. And as First 5 LA moves to launch its $600 million Universal Preschool Initiative, it looks towards the experts, who have evaluated such programs as Head Start and Georgia's Universal Preschool System, for insight. "First 5 LA is excited to have the opportunity to tap into the expertise of the people that have been measuring the importance of preschool and early learning for years," said Evelyn V. Martinez, Executive Director of First 5 LA. First 5 LA's Board of Commissioners on Feb. 12 approved its Universal Preschool Master Plan which aims, within the next 10 years, to offer high-quality preschool to every 4-year-old child in Los Angeles County whose parents choose to participate. Los Angeles Universal Preschool will launch its initial activities in spring 2005 and quickly expand each year. Current estimates indicate that more than 100,000 of the county's three and four-year-olds do not receive early care and education services, and this does not include those receiving low quality or infrequent services. First 5 LA was created by the voters of California in November 1998, and uses tobacco tax revenue to fund education, health, child abuse prevention, child care and other programs intended to promote early childhood development for expectant parents and children through age 5. PARTICIPATING RESEARCH AND EVALUATION EXPERTS LOS ANGELES UNIVERSAL PRESCHOOL RESEARCH AND EVALUATION SYMPOSIUM W. Steven Barnett, Ph.D., Rutgers University Dr. Barnett is a Professor of Education Economics and Public Policy, and Director of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University. He has conducted two of the best-known cost-benefit analyses of preschool programs for disadvantaged children, many studies of the long-term effects of preschool programs on children and their families. A recent publication is Lives in the Balance, a cost-benefit analysis of preschool education based on a 25 year longitudinal study. Eugene García, Ph.D., Arizona State University Dr. García has been the Dean and Professor of Education at Arizona State University's College of Education since 2002. Prior to coming to ASU, he was a Professor of Education at the University of California, Berkeley. He is presently conducting research in the areas of effective schooling for linguistically and culturally diverse student populations. William Gormley, Ph.D., Georgetown University Dr. Gormley is University Professor and Professor of Government and Public Policy at Georgetown University. He is co-director of the Center for Research on Children in the U.S. at Georgetown. He is also currently directing an evaluation of Oklahoma's universal pre-kindergarten program. Gary T. Henry, Ph.D., Georgia State University Dr. Henry is a professor in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University. He previously served as the Director of Evaluation and Learning Services for the David and Lucille Packard Foundation. He has evaluated a variety of policies and programs, including Georgia's Universal Pre-K program and has published extensively in the field of evaluation and policy analysis. Michael L. Lopez, Ph.D., National Center for Latino Child and Family Research Dr. Lopez is the executive director and co-founder of the National Center for Latino Child and Family Research which is dedicated to conducting research and disseminating research-based information on issues relevant to local, state, and national policies/practices affecting the lives of Latino children and families. He directed the National Head Start Impact Study, the first ever national, longitudinal study examining the impact of Head Start on the school readiness of children participating in the program, as compared to children not enrolled in Head Start. Arthur Reynolds, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin at Madison Dr. Reynolds is a professor of social work, educational psychology and human development at the Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. For more than 18 years, he has studied the long-term benefits of early childhood education programs. He is a principal investigator in the Chicago Longitudinal Study which compares children that attended an early education program with those that did not and the long-term outcomes for those children. Lawrence Schweinhart, Ph.D., High/Scope Educational Research Foundation Dr. Schweinhart is an early childhood program researcher. He has conducted research at the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation in Ypsilanti, Michigan since 1975 and now serves as its President. He has directed the many research studies including High/Scope Perry Preschool Study through Age 40 and the Michigan School Readiness Program Evaluation. Marcy Whitebook, Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley Dr. Whitebook is currently Director and Senior Researcher, Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, Institute of Industrial Relations at the University of California, Berkeley. She has served as Project Director for several large child care studies including Two Years in Early Care and Education: A Community Portrait of Quality and Workforce Stability (2004) and Then and Now: Changes in Child Care Staffing Study (2001). In 2001, she was selected as a Woman of Vision by the Ms. Foundation for Women and in 1998 was selected by Working Mother Magazine as one of the 25 most influential working mothers in the country. |
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