Alabama Governor Kay Ivey (R) and the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education (ADECE) on Tuesday announced the expansion of the Alabama First Class Pre-K program. The department will initially add 69 classrooms in 30 counties this fall, serving an additional 1,200 children.
“Ensuring our youngest learners have a strong start to their educational journeys is one of my top priorities for my second term. Alabama continues to set the nationwide standard for success with the Alabama First Class Pre-K program,” said Gov. Ivey. “I am excited to see additional classrooms being awarded to areas of the state with low access and high rates of poverty. Providing all children, no matter their zip code, with a solid foundation in education is critical to the future success of our state.”
Last month, the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) ranked Alabama First Class Pre-K as the nation’s highest-quality state pre-kindergarten program for the 17th consecutive year. Alabama leads the country while expanding program access to Alabama’s 4-year-olds.
Dr. Jan Hume is the Acting Secretary of the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education.
“Through the leadership of Governor Ivey and the Alabama Legislature, Alabama’s state pre-k program continues to move toward the goal of serving 70% of Alabama’s population of 4-year-old children,” said Dr. Hume. “Since the program’s creation in 2000, we continue to prioritize age-appropriate, impactful early learning and development experiences for children and their families.”
Supporters claim that the state’s investment in high-quality pre-kindergarten will lead to substantial positive outcomes for children who participate in the program. The Department of Early Childhood Education claims that research on the program’s long-term impacts shows that students who participated in First Class Pre-K are more likely to succeed throughout their school careers than their peers who did not participate.
The Legislature hopes that greater access to pre-K classrooms and changes to primary education required by the Alabama Literacy Act and the Alabama Numeracy Act will eventually improve academic performance.
According to the latest numbers, in 2023, 25% of Alabama third graders read below third-grade level. That is up from 22% the year before. The Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama noted in a recent report that since the Literacy Act was passed in 2019, the State Legislature has provided major increases in funding for reading instruction and services, including the Alabama Reading Initiative (ARI) and school-based reading coaches. Teachers from Kindergarten to third grade across the state have received intensive professional development designed to improve the teaching of reading, an instructional approach based on what has been hailed as the science of reading. The third grade is important because beginning next year, the state will prevent children who read below a third-grade level from advancing to the fourth grade with their peers. 22% of second graders, most of whom will start third grade in August, cannot read at a second-grade level. These 11,622 children have less than 12 months to catch up to their peers or may not advance to fourth grade next year. Children who do not read well by the end of the third grade are four times more likely to never graduate from high school.
Governor Ivey signed the 2024 Education Trust Fund budget, which included an almost $12 million increase for the Office of School Readiness that administers First Class Pre-K. The department will continue to ensure pay parity for all First Class Pre-K teachers with the same pay raise as K-12 public school teachers in the upcoming school year. The ADECE expects to fund additional classrooms in areas of the state with wait lists and other identified needs. This is the largest education budget in the history of the state of Alabama.
The classrooms included in this first round are part of Governor Ivey’s specific education initiatives that address turnaround schools and high-needs areas and reduce wait lists for pre-k programs.
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