What You Told Us

In November 2013, over 3,000 ExchangeEveryDay readers responded to a joint Exchange and Early Care and Education Consortium survey regarding the federal government’s Early Education Initiative. We encourage you to view the full report, but here in brief is what you told us:

Put Quality First — When it comes to the decades-long debate about access versus quality, the field says that improving quality should be the priority of the Early Learning Initiative.

If You Want Quality, Fund Professional Development — Among eight different areas of investment related to quality care (e.g. personnel, facilities, etc.) respondents say investment in professional development and increasing existing teacher and provider salaries will result in higher quality.

Clearly Define Goals to Ensure Successful Partnerships — Nearly half of respondents (45%) say the biggest barrier to partnerships between the public schools and community-based child care programs is the unwillingness of public schools to partner with community-based child care programs. Respondents say that establishing a common set of goals for early learning contributes most to effective working relationships between community-based child care programs and public schools.

Level the Playing Field — Responses overwhelmingly indicated the best ways to ensure that pre-K programs are delivered via a mixed-delivery system that includes both public school and high-quality child care programs are: 1) a requirement that ensures parents can choose among settings; and 2) a requirement that programs meet high-quality standards. 

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