[RFHF] In the News: Governor's focus group on education

[Katie Anderson]

Hi!  I thought you may be interested in this short article discussing the Governor's focus group's response to the questions regarding education:

http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2011/11/get_ready_for_an_early_start.html



If you don't have time to read the full article, here are a few key points I've cut and paste directly from the article.

*         Not one person [in the focus group] mentioned early-childhood education [even when the facilitator pressed them by asking "what else" and "anything else"].

*          Everything [the Governor] and other education leaders hope to accomplish -- attacking the persistently high dropout rate, dramatically increasing college participation -- begins with getting every Oregon child ready to learn before he or she arrives at kindergarten.

*         If the Legislature agrees, Oregon soon will require that all children entering kindergarten be assessed for their readiness. If early-childhood programs are not adequately preparing children, they will lose their public funding.

*         Oregon is not setting out to "test" 5-year-olds on their skills. An assessment of their readiness to learn is something different.

*         If the governor and the many Oregonians who work in early childhood education (that's you!) are successful, one day you'll see it in higher graduation rates and greater college participation. You'll see it in a generation of young Oregon adults who, unlike today's, are better educated than their parents. And you'll see it in a future roomful of Oregonians who, when asked about education, quickly answer that it all starts in preschool.





Katie Anderson, Library Development Services

* Youth Services Consultant * Oregon Center for the Book Coordinator *

Oregon State Library, 250 Winter St. NE, Salem, OR 97301

katie.anderson at state.or.us, 503-378-2528
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