Skip to main content
  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Contact

Search form

American Institutes for Research

  • Our Work
    • Education
    • Health
    • International
    • Workforce
    • ALL TOPICS >
  • Our Services
    • Research and Evaluation
    • Technical Assistance
  • Our Experts
  • News & Events

You are here

  • Home
24 Oct 2016
Report

Connecting All Children to High-Quality Early Care and Education: Promising Strategies From the International Community

Johannes Bos, Gabriele Phillips-Fain, Elena Rein, Emily Weinberg, and Suzette Chavez

High-quality early care and education (ECE) provides an important foundation for young children’s success in school and in life. Yet, in the United States, fewer than two out of three children between the ages of 3 and 6 are enrolled in center-based ECE programs. Moreover, children from low-income families are much less likely to receive formal early care and education than their counterparts in more affluent families. Federal and state programs attempt to address these discrepancies, but large numbers of children eligible for these programs remain unserved.

With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, AIR conducted a scan of efforts to improve access to quality ECE for low-income, minority families in other countries that might inform learning and practice in the U.S. context. Because many other countries have higher participation rates in formal ECE programs than the United States, we expected that such a scan could identify successful strategies that could be applicable in the United States.

The scan found that policies and program models that seem to be associated with high rates of ECE engagement among low-income families in a variety of European countries has identified the following factors as being particularly important:

  1. Engaging parents and communities as partners in the ECE system
  2. Making ECE part of a continuous birth-to-school system
  3. Ensuring adequate and stable funding (making ECE a budget priority)
  4. Providing preferential access for high-priority groups to high-quality ECE within the context of universal provision of services

See the related brief for an overview of promising strategies to increase ECE participation.

PDF icon Connecting All Children to High-Quality Early Care and Education: Promising Strategies From the International Community (Report, PDF)
PDF icon Connecting All Children to High Quality Early Care and Education (Brief, PDF)

Related Work

24 Oct 2016
Brief

Connecting All Children to High-Quality Early Care and Education: Promising Strategies From the International Community (Brief)

High-quality early care and education (ECE) provides a critical foundation for young children’s success in school and in life. Yet, in the United States, fewer than two out of three preschool-age children are enrolled in center-based ECE programs. This brief highlights promising practices used in many European countries to ensure all children have access to ECE—practices which can inform similar efforts in the U.S.
Topic: 
Education, International Early Childhood and Child Development, Early Childhood and Child Development

Further Reading

  • Connecting All Children to High-Quality Early Care and Education: Promising Strategies From the International Community (Brief)
  • Lessons From Abroad: Ensuring High-Quality Early Care and Education in the U.S.
  • ESSA │Early Childhood and Childhood Development
  • Five Things We Can Learn from Pre-K in Other Countries
  • Supporting States with Preschool Development Grants
Share

Contact

photo of Hans Bos

Hans Bos

Senior Vice President
Gabriele Fain

Gabriele Fain

Principal Researcher and Practice Area Director

Topic

Education
Early Childhood and Child Development
International
International Early Childhood and Child Development
International Education

RESEARCH. EVALUATION. APPLICATION. IMPACT.

About Us

About AIR
Board of Directors
Leadership
Experts
Clients
Contracting with AIR
Contact Us

Our Work

Education
Health
International
Workforce

Client Services

Research and Evaluation
Technical Assistance

News & Events

Careers at AIR


Search form


 

Connecting

FacebookTwitterLinkedinYouTubeInstagram

American Institutes for Research

1400 Crystal Drive, 10th Floor
Arlington, VA 22202-3289
Call: (202) 403-5000
Fax: (202) 403-5000

Copyright © 2021 American Institutes for Research®.  All rights reserved.

  • Privacy Policy
  • Sitemap