ESSA Major Opportunity to Expand Early Education
March 5, 2018
Nonie Lesaux and Stephanie M. Jones—co-leads of Harvard’s Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative—write that under ESSA, states and districts have the opportunity to “expand access to early education, coordinate those efforts and hold themselves accountable for boosting children’s early learning and development through high-quality early education.” But while ESSA might be a “one of its kind” opportunity, a standard challenge of early education policy—how to offer both “rigorous academic instruction” and a “learning environment that fosters social-emotional skills”—remains.