Senior Fellow on Public Policy for AGE, Mac Haddow, wrote a letter to government leaders in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Georgia, South Carolina and Arkansas calling on those states to follow the lead of the State of Colorado in abandoning the Pearson "Ounce Scale" and "Work Sampling System" used to gauge education achievement results in early childhood education programs.

"The issue of tax dollars being used for early childhood education (ECE) programs is one that has drawn considerable attention in recent years.  Much of that focus has centered on the short- and long-term impacts of ECE on classroom scores, grade advancement and graduation," Haddow wrote.  "For Taxpayers, parents, and grandparents, measuring child progress is critical to knowing if Americans are getting their money’s worth from these programs,"

Investigations and early action by Colorado and Wyoming have demonstrated serious flaws and weaknesses in the Pearson ECE programs that merit a serious review by every state using these programs to determine if they are effective and whether taxpayers are getting a good value for their money.  Based on these investigations, the serious question arises as to whether taxpayer dollars may be wasted in the five states that we know are using the same products that have been questioned in Colorado and Wyoming.

There is no evidence that AGE is aware of that the Pearson ECE programs are any different in the five states using these products than those Colorado and Wyoming have determined to have serious flaws.  Based on that information, it is very likely each of those states would be experiencing the same problems using these programs.

AGE strongly advocates for accountability of taxpayer dollars, and perhaps there is no expenditure that is more critical than when it comes to dollars used to educate America’s toddlers.

To download a copy of the AGE letter on this issue, copy and paste this link into your browser:

http://dc367.4shared.com/download/Ahjn1FsY/AGE_Letter_on_ECE_Aug_11_2011.pdf