Preschool education lacking, report says

When children start kindergarten without being able to name colors, count or concentrate for five minutes, experts say, it puts them at an educational disadvantage from which they may never recover.

Yet Washington is leaving thousands of preschoolers behind, says the League of Education Voters Foundation. The nonprofit group released its first "Citizens' Report Card on Washington State Education" on Monday, giving the worst grades — two marks of "unsatisfactory" — to early-childhood education.

The league, which relied on state and national statistics to compile the report, is slightly more encouraged by K-12 education, issuing three grades of "needs improvement." Higher education got one grade of "unsatisfactory" and another "needs improvement."

The league rose to prominence in 2004 when it backed a failed measure to raise the state's sales tax by 15 percent to pay for education programs.

Among the league's key findings Monday:

• More that 14,000 low-income children who qualify for programs such as Head Start aren't participating. That equates to nearly half of qualified 3- and 4-year-olds.

• In K-12 education, progress has been made in reading, with 79 percent of students now passing the reading portion of the fourth-grade Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL). But major problems remain in math, with only 51 percent of students passing the math portion of the seventh-grade WASL.

Information

Citizens' Report Card on Washington State Education: www.levfoundation.org.

• White and Asian students continue to graduate at much higher rates than African-American, Latino and Native American students. In 2004, 74 percent of whites and 78 percent of Asians graduated. But just 54 percent of African Americans, 54 percent of Latinos and 47 percent of Native Americans graduated.

• The state's public colleges and universities need to accommodate another 26,000 students by 2010 just to maintain present attendance levels.

• There's a growing imbalance between work-force supply and demand. The state produces far fewer engineers, nurses and computer scientists than needed.

Lisa Macfarlane, president of the league, said necessary improvements include more money, better data to track children's performance at every level, and better coordination between K-12 and college administrators to align goals.

Despite the problems, there are encouraging signs of change, Macfarlane said. An example is Gov. Christine Gregoire's proposal to create a Department of Early Learning.

"We see a lot of hope and optimism," Macfarlane said. "It's a policy area that's getting a lot of attention at the state level."

Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson said she welcomes the report and agrees with much of it.

"A lot of people are going to be upset that it's a report card, and we'd like to have better grades," Bergeson said.

"But it's factually based. It's better to face where we are and come up with ways to improve."

Bruce Botka, director of government relations at the state's Higher Education Coordinating Board, said his organization has consistently pushed for expanded enrollment.

An important part of that is providing education where students can take advantage of it, such as close to their home or workplace, he said. Without such improvements, employers will continue looking beyond this state for their workers.

"There's nothing wrong with employers hiring from other states," Botka said. "But we think Washington students deserve those opportunities, too."

Nick Perry: 206-515-5639 or nperry@seattletimes.com