Creating and Sustaining Gains in Early Education: Lessons from New Jersey

New America Foundation’s white paper, Education Reform Starts Early: Lessons from New Jersey's PreK-3rd Reform Efforts, recounts New Jersey’s path to national leadership in early education and the lessons learned from that journey. After the New Jersey Supreme Court’s mandate that the state provide high-quality pre-Kindergarten programs, New Jersey crafted an expansive provider system and worked to link its early education investments with reforms in the K-12 system. The paper details the state’s successes and challenges in this effort, identifying lessons and providing recommendations for state and national policymakers to create and sustain large-scale gains in early education.

Policies to increase early care and education and improve K-3 academic success.