High Quality Early Care and Education

Children who attend high quality early education programs and elementary schools are better prepared for success in school — academically, socially and emotionally. Economically disadvantaged three- and four-year-old children who participate in high-quality preschool programs have better school achievement, social skills and behavior than children who do not participate in a preschool experience or who are enrolled in a low-quality program. Children in higher quality programs have more advanced language and math skills, more advanced social skills, and warmer relationships with their teachers.

1. Quality early childhood education for all and the Covid-19 crisis: A viewpoint

2. The Effects of COVID-19 on Early Childhood Education and Care: Research and Resources for Children, Families, Teachers, and Teacher Educators

3. Teachers, Schools, and Pre-K Effect Persistence: An Examination of the Sustaining Environment Hypothesis

Summer Learning

While middle-income students tend to hold steady or gain in learning over the summer, low-income students lose ground, likely because students from disadvantaged families are less able to access educational resources than their more advantaged peers during the summer months. The cumulative effects of year-after-year summer learning loss contributes to the achievement gaps between higher- and lower-income students. Learning opportunities and book access during the summer months can contribute to children’s short- and long-term outcomes.

1. Surprising new evidence on summer learning loss

2. Summer Learning in Early Childhood: Opportunities for Investing in Equity

3. Making Summer Learning Equitable for Students in a Rural, Title I School District: Turning on the Faucet of Resources

4. The COVID-19 Slide: What Summer Learning Loss Can Tell Us about the Potential Impact of School Closures on Student Academic Achievement

Positive School Climate

Students show better academic and social-emotional outcomes when they learn in positive school climates, where they feel safe, connected and engaged.

1. Do Curriculum-Based Social and Emotional Learning Programs in Early Childhood Education and Care Strengthen Teacher Outcomes? A Systematic Literature Review

2. Social and emotional learning in early childhood education and care: a public health perspective

3. A systematic review of targeted social and emotional learning interventions in early childhood education and care settings 

1. Access via Drive here: SEL Review

4. Trauma-Informed Practices in Schools Across Two Decades: An Interdisciplinary Review of Research

Regular School Attendance

Children, particularly those with multiple risk factors, benefit from regular attendance in child care, where they establish good attendance and learning habits. Consistent school attendance in the early grades helps boost children’s academic learning, achievement, and motivation. Early chronic absenteeism is associated with lower academic achievement, truancy in middle school, school dropout, delinquency, and substance abuse. The educational experience of all children is impacted when teachers must divert their attention to meet the needs of chronically absent children when they are in school.

1. Tennessee State Attendance Metrics 

2. The Link Between School Attendance and Good Health

Promotion to Next Grade

A large body of research suggests that students retained in the early years achieve at lower levels, are more likely to drop out of high school, and have worse social-emotional outcomes than similar students who are promoted.

1. Effects of New Jersey's Abbott preschool program on children's achievement, grade retention, and special education through tenth grade

2. Adverse Childhood Experiences and Grade Retention in a National Sample of US Children

3. TN Education: Early Grades Retention Report prepared for State Board of Education