Thread by @DanWuori

This headline from The Onion might give you a chuckle… but the truth is that millions of children actually do fall behind by age 4. Not as elite athletes - but experientially and developmentally, during the years most critical to their long term academic & life success.🧵

That achievement gap that we’re persistently trying to close in our schools? It’s already well established when children enter kindergarten - created by opportunity gaps during the years of #earlychildhood.

How early do these gaps open? At least one study began measuring disparities in development as early as 9 months of age. childtrends.org/news-release/t…

The reality is that young children exposed to nurturing, high-quality interactions and language rich environments - both within the home and in #earlyed programs - begin school in a very different place from their less fortunate peers.

For many children this initial gap is perpetuated all throughout school. And why wouldn’t it be? We wouldn’t realistically expect a marathon runner, for example, to catch up with a competitor who began 5 miles ahead.

Yet expecting teachers and schools to close this gap after the fact remains the basis for too much of our education policy.

If we’re serious about closing the achievement gap, we need to get serious about preventing it from opening up in the first place.

That means expanded supports for families. Ensuring high quality early care and education for those who wish to access it. And starting much earlier than PreK.

Or we can keep paying even more - with limited success - to try to fix the problem after the fact.

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