美国州级学前教育治理结构最新战略调整及其反思

Reorganizations of Governance Structures at State-Funded Early Childhood Education in the United States

21世纪初颁布的《不让一个孩子掉队法案》推动美国各州进一步普及学前教育,并促使越来越多的州级政府开始为学前教育项目提供公共经费。基于政府的问责要求,调整学前教育治理结构对于州政府来说势在必行。根据相关文献以及二次数据分析,介绍了州级学前教育治理结构调整的背景,然后深入剖析了三种主要的治理模式:保守派的协同式治理、中间派的合并式治理以及激进派的新建式治理。各州内部治理的主权归各州以及地方政府机构,因此地方在选择治理结构时会受到已有的制度路径和制度传统的影响,后续的发展还需静观其变。

The issue of universal pre-kindergarten(UPK)education has been increasingly a concern within school districts,private and public corporations,state and federal legislators.The paper aims to investigate the new trends of governance structures in the state-funded early childhood education(ECE)from the perspective of universal pre-kindergarten education.Universal Pre-K programs vary from state to state in terms of methodology,availability,eligibility,and execution.Three main modes are fully discussed with example states as follow:collaborative governance,consolidated governance,and creation of a new agency governance,which are highly different in terms of process and structure.Then the paper further explores the reasons behind the different governance modes in three example states,and informs its further implications for universal preschool policy in the United States.