Educating The Future, Not Reinventing the Wheel

Chicago’s Preschool for All initiative, a universal preschool program that promises access to full-day preschool in community centers and Chicago Public Schools for all Chicago 4-year-olds, is currently in its first year of fully-fledged implementation. The promise of access to universal preschool in Chicago is on the verge of being fulfilled. But along with access, students need high-quality preschool.

The impetus for creating universal access to preschool is the far-reaching benefits that pre-Kindergarten programs help create. Studies have shown strong correlations between preschool attendance and improved academic performance in elementary school and beyond. Preschool attendees tend to score higher on standardized tests in the third and fourth grade. The social-emotional skills that are central to high-quality preschool programs set strong foundations for a student’s academic career, teaching students early on how to navigate conflict, build meaningful relationships with other students and their teachers, and regulate their emotions in a learning-centric environment. As a result, preschool attendance is linked to higher rates of high school graduation, college attendance, and employment, along with lower rates of criminal misconduct.

With so many correlated benefits, universal access to preschool seems to be a leap in the right direction for Chicago’s student population. However, ensuring preschool access is only the first step. In nearly every study that investigates the long-term benefits of preschool, there is a caveat attached: the preschool program in question needs to be of high quality. That simple fact tells us that the next step in developing Chicago’s Preschool for All program is ensuring that its preschool offerings are of a consistently high quality in order for all of universal preschool’s benefits to be realized.

So what makes for a high quality preschool program? Luckily, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel; instead, we can look to the nation’s capital (among the nation’s earliest adopters of universal preschool) as a beacon of successful implementation. In Washington, D.C., children are ensured access to full-day preschool from the age of three. The district’s preschool teachers are well-educated, and they are compensated at the same generous payscale that D.C.’s K-12 teachers receive. Every preschool program must meet quality standards upheld by the city, and the mandated curriculum is constantly being upgraded by education experts. And, perhaps most impressive, D.C. has allocated significant amounts of their budget towards preschool education, with nearly $19,000 spent per preschool student in 2018. The long-term benefits of preschool – lower crime, less grade retention, higher earnings, better health, and so on – are such that even high program costs can lead to budgetary savings down the road.

For comparison, Chicago only guarantees full-day preschool seats to 4-year-olds, while 3-year-olds generally only have access to half-day programs. This is an important distinction, as half-day preschool programs have significantly lower rates of program participation, because parents find it difficult and inconvenient to coordinate care for the second half of their work day. Though Chicago and Washington, D.C. have quite similar educational requirements for their preschool teachers, Chicago does not provide its preschool teachers a salary that is competitive with that of K-12 educators. Without a competitive compensation package, teachers specializing in early education are more likely to find employment in private preschools or in elementary schools, thus leaving preschool teaching positions to less experienced teachers. Further, Chicago’s universal preschool program lacks a set of program quality standards such as those that Washington, D.C. employs, making it difficult for Chicago to ensure program quality across the board. Finally, the state of Illinois’s $5,219 spend per preschool student pales in comparison to D.C.’s $18,580 per student.

Chicago’s efforts to provide universal access to preschool are a significant step towards enhancing the city’s public education system and helping to improve educational outcomes among its students. Further development of Preschool For All to raise and ensure program quality will allow Chicago to see the full benefits that preschool has the potential to provide. Chicago can begin to do so by following the example of Washington, D.C., investing in measures that have already proven to be successful.