On March 26th, several education, research and advocacy groups submitted a letter to leaders of the Committee on Education and Labor in the U.S. House of Representatives. The letter urges the committee to amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act -- the federal law most recently known as No Child Left Behind -- to prompt improvements in the primary years of public education, from pre-kindergarten through third grade.

The Early Education Initiative played a key role in bringing groups together to build consensus on how to improve the law and in the drafting of the letter, which was signed by 12 other groups and includes more than a dozen specific recommendations. For example, it advocates for policies that support more inclusion of pre-K teachers in professional development programs, better data collection that includes the years before kindergarten, and the creation of a fund that would help states and/or districts to improve and design better, more aligned systems of education that span from the pre-K years up through the primary grades.

The full text of the letter can be downloaded as a PDF document from the column to the right.