No Escape From School Quality

By Matthew Yglesias on Jun 13, 2011 at 4:15 pm

Kevin Drum says that “in an environment of limited resources, our highest priority ought to be programs that we already know how to implement and that have proven bang for the buck” rather than talking about how to improve the performance of K-12 schools. To that end, he should be excited about the Ready To Learn Act introduced last week by Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Al Franken (D-MN).

I’m all for more investments in preschool, but it continues to be the case that I see no particular reason to believe that talking about four-year-olds rather than ten-year-olds or sixteen-year-olds gets us out of the quality quandry. What we know from the research into preschool is that good preschool programs make a huge difference to kids’ outcomes. But what we know from the research into K-12 schooling is that good K-12 schools also make a huge difference to kids’ outcomes. The challenge in both cases is to actually provide quality at scale.

According to the Murray/Franken press release on their bill, “To ensure high-quality programs that properly prepare children to be ready to learn, state plans will require qualified teachers, a developmentally, culturally and linguistically appropriate early learning curriculum and support for professional development.” The question we have to ask ourselves is does writing down some standard of what degrees you have to have in order to count as “qualified” really ensure that the programs will be high-quality? What if preschool teachers can be roughly equal in their qualification but still vary widely in the actual quality of their teaching? I’m happy to spend any quantity of money anyone cares to propose on expanding access to preschool. Insofar as there’s low-hanging fruit to be plucked in American education, this is where it is. And certainly if you’re concerned about the future of this country, it makes more sense to worry about whether we’re teaching little kids than about whether or not there will be a national debt to pay off when those kids are old. But it’s not obvious how to run a really excellent preschool classroom any more than it’s obvious how to run a really excellent sixth grade classroom. There’s no escape from the challenge of providing schools that are actually effectve.