This study examined the impact of COVID-19 on academic "redshirting" in kindergarten, the practice of holding a child back for a year and enrolling them in kindergarten at age 6, using student-level data on all Delaware kindergarten students from fall 2014 through fall 2022. The rate of redshirting declined by 40% in fall 2020, then…

Early education provision in the state-maintained sector has historically played an important role in ensuring equitable access to high-quality early education in England. These settings have higher qualification requirements than other providers, and as they have been concentrated in areas of higher disadvantage, children from lower income…

The Australian Government's (2022) Preschool Reform Funding Agreement and initiatives by state governments aim to lift enrolment and maximise the benefits of early childhood education (ECE) in the year before school. The Agreement is particularly relevant for children and families from vulnerable and disadvantaged backgrounds, many of whom do not…

The year 2025 marks the 25th anniversary of implementation of New Jersey's court-ordered, full-day, high-quality preschool program in the state's 31 high-poverty, urban, "Abbott" districts. As the state continues to expand the program beyond these districts, it is imperative to examine whether Abbott Preschool is effectively meeting the…

Through the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Common Core of Data (CCD), the U.S. Department of Education disseminates data on local educational agencies (LEAs), commonly known as school districts. During the school year (SY) 2018-19, the CCD recorded 13,711 LEAs with English learners (ELs) enrolled. This fact sheet looks more…

China's recent implementation of the three-child policy is expected to have profound implications for population dynamics, leading to potential changes in preschool enrollment and subsequent demand for preschool teachers. This study addresses this issue by utilizing population forecasting software (PADIS-INT) to project population growth trends…

According to the American Community Survey (ACS), about one-quarter (24.8 percent) of the U.S. population over the age of 3 was enrolled in school in 2021. This report provides a comprehensive picture of the state of school enrollment using recently published data from the ACS. It outlines modern enrollment trends while also offering comparisons…

There are long-standing educator shortages in particular subject areas and localities. Recent teacher polls and reports from states and localities indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic has broadened and deepened these shortages. At the same time, enrollment in teacher preparation programs has fallen. These trends have led state policymakers, pre-K…

The 2022 National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) data provide a window into how the landscape of American education has shifted over the past two years in response to COVID-19-related school disruption. Between 2020 and 2022--a period marred not only by the health and safety worries that COVID brought but also by the heated debates about…

The COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented disruptions to school systems around the globe and Virginia's public school system was no exception. These disruptions likely impacted families' decisions about whether and where to enroll their children in public schools. However, many basic facts about how public school enrollment changed in the…

The preschool landscape is complex, consisting of several publicly funded programs supported by federal, state, and local funds. Included in this landscape is Head Start, a critical early childhood education (ECE) program that serves--in every state and territory--young children in families with incomes at or below the federal poverty line,…

Many school districts consider family preferences in allocating students to schools. In theory, this approach provides traditionally disadvantaged families greater access to high-quality schools by weakening the link between residential location and school assignment. We leverage data on the school choices made by over 233,000 New York City…

Public school enrollment dramatically decreased during the pandemic, but the patterns of decline and student movement across schools are not yet well understood. Using statewide student-level data from Virginia, we find pre-K-12 enrollment dropped by 4% between fall 2019 and the first post-pandemic fall of 2020. The changes were the largest in…

In 2011, the "Let's Count" professional learning program was developed into an elective distance education subject offered at Charles Sturt University. The resulting subject, EMC101: Let's Count, has been offered every year since 2012, and has to date been completed by 796 students. This paper details the subject design and provides…

The paper argues that in many developing countries there is a set of linked symptoms in education systems that cohere into what we call a weak foundations syndrome. Multi-source evidence is presented to illustrate how weak foundations through the early years of schooling lead to low primary school completion. Symptoms of the syndrome include (1)…