ECEAP Continues to Make a Difference

Washington state business leaders recognize the need for a highly-skilled workforce to fill the 740,000 total jobs that will be available from 2016 to 2021. Business leaders also recognize that the foundation to a strong workforce is built early, with high-quality pre-K that helps students develop the needed pre-academic skills like recognizing letters and numbers, but also the character skills like problem-solving, perseverance, and the ability to work in groups.

The skills of children from low-income families often lag in both pre-literacy and pre-math. Washington’s Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) is a proven strategy to increase children’s pre-academic and social-emotional skills. Giving children the right start is essential for preparing the next generation of workers and for strengthening our state’s economy.  

High-quality pre-K uses evidence-based, developmentally-appropriate curricula. ECEAP focuses on evidence-based instruction that advances social-emotional, physical, language, and cognitive development, in addition to early literacy, math skills and English language acquisition (if applicable). During the 2015-16 school year, the percentage of children in ECEAP who went from “below age level” to “at or above age level” was 41 percent in social-emotional development, 35 percent in physical development, 35 percent in language development, 39 percent in cognitive development, 43 percent in literacy development, and 53 percent in math skills.

High-quality pre-K engages parents, children’s first and most important teachers. This report goes into further details on the importance of ECEAP for Washington state’s children.