Last week I shared with you an interest of having  early childhood stakeholders provide public comment for the USDOE’s Race to the Top guidelines grant program. The concern being that early childhood appears to be playing a minor role. I hope you took a moment to post a comment about this deficit last Friday.  

Today, we learn more from Patrick Riccards, Eduflack blogger, with his post “Filling the Gaps on Innovation." Patrick’s well researched article details the problems with RttT and another USDOE program, Investing in Innovation (or i3) program. The focus of his concerns speaks to K-12. He reports about critical responses from Eduflak, EdTrust, DFER, CAP, and EEP. The points listed in the blog are very insightful and need to be considered without a doubt.

But what about prekindergarten? Prekindergarten should have more than a mild consideration! There must be alignment between prekindergarten and early elementary years in this grant program. Our leaders in Washington would be wise to add that component to these upcoming grant opportunities. Without a strong inclusion of prekindergarten school readiness, confusion abounds. Is PreK important or not?