City officials, Columbia Public Schools administrators and other community leaders gathered on the University of Missouri campus on Tuesday, May 17, to address an increasingly hot topic — early childhood education.

The topic often is discussed at local school board meetings or highlighted by candidates running for school board, but keynote speaker Jacqueline Jones, senior adviser on early learning to the secretary of education for the U.S. Department of Education, told the audience of the growing emphasis on early learning at the federal level.

“For the very first time at the executive level, there’s a focus on early education,” Jones said. “There’s a sense of urgency in the department and across the country.”

By 2018, students with just a high school degree will be shut out of two out of three jobs, she explained, but right now one out of four American students doesn’t even finish high school.

But focusing on early education can play a significant role in reducing the dropout rate, she said. If children come to school well-adjusted and socially prepared, they are more ready to learn and less likely to fall behind their peers. Once children fall behind their peers, they often can’t catch up.

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Stephanie Fanjul, President of The North Carolina Partnership for Children, Inc., the organization that leads Smart Start, appeared on the Triangle’s My Carolina Today show. Stephanie explains how Smart Start benefits all North Carolina families with young children and how it improves the quality of child care across the state. Stephanie concludes the interview by explaining how those who value the program can let legislators and others know the value of Smart Start.

A recent longitudinal analysis of children in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) adds to our understanding of the role of third grade reading in later academic performance. Researchers from the University of Chicago used administrative data to track educational outcomes for 26,000 students who were third graders in 1996-97.

“Findings from this study are consistent with existing literature that emphasizes the importance of early reading ability for future educational success,” the report concludes. “Third-grade reading level was shown to be significant predictor of eighth-grade reading level and ninth-grade course performance even after accounting for demographic characteristics and how a child’s school influences their individual performance. Third-grade reading level was also shown to be a predictor of graduation and college attendance, even when demographic characteristics were included as controls.”

The study comes after a recent Duke University study found that Smart Start, North Carolina’s early education initiative, is helping improve third grade reading levels. The study found that North Carolina third-graders have higher standardized reading and math scores in counties that had received more funding for Smart Start and More at Four when those children were younger, showing the investments in early education benefit children at least through third grade.The study is ongoing, and the researchers plan to extend the analyses to include other educational outcomes beyond the third grade.