TKW Consulting

As a society, we are finally recognizing that which research has shown for a number of years: Investing in early childhood education makes sense. Children benefit through improved social, emotional and cognitive growth and communities benefit by avoiding heavier educational costs down the road.

However, recognizing the value of early childhood education is only the first step. Many obstacles remain to establishing universal early childhood education in our state. The first challenge lies in the language: PreK, day care, nursery school and preschool are all labels for the patchwork of delivery systems we use to provide care and education to our youngest citizens. Just as we have no unified means of offering early childhood education to our state’s preschoolers, we have no unified term that means ‘‘the care and education of children 3-5 years of age.’’

To add to this confusion, some view these varied terms as interchangeable, while others interpret each term as a distinct approach to early childhood education. I have spent many a long phone call explaining our system - or lack thereof - to new parents and newly immigrated ones. If we are to begin seriously addressing the need for universal early childhood education, we should begin by using the term that most encompasses all
the forms this education can take: early childhood education (ECE).ECE, whether delivered part time or full time, in a center, a program or in someone’s home, refers to a setting in which trained educators are engaged in providing a learning environment to children of preschool age.