President Obama used his final State of the Union address to ask Congress to build on the bipartisan passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act by “providing pre-K for all.” Unlike some of the speech’s more novel material (like Joe Biden leading the charge against cancer), this particular portion was just the latest mention of the importance of early childhood education by President Obama: In 2013, he released a “Preschool for All” plan that, if implemented, would provide all low- and middle-income four-year-olds with access to pre-K programs. While such an ambitious plan was—and is—extremely unlikely to become a reality in today’s political climate, the mere fact that early childhood education is now regularly mentioned by the holder of America’s highest office counts as progress for advocates of increased access to high-quality education for young children.

[For more of this story, written by Aaron Loewenberg, go to http://www.psmag.com/books-and...ur-littlest-learners]