Why do so many Americans believe that elementary schools are doing a fine job despite clear evidence to the contrary?

Why, as a nation, do we rely on single solutions for such a widespread pattern of underachievement, pouring resources into one year of PreK?

In education, as in economic, energy, and other areas of American policies, the time for wishful thinking is past.  With a new administration in Washington, DC comes a new realism - a determination to look clear-eyed at the barriers that face us and the actions that can overcome them.

In this spirit, a new Policy to Action Brief, released today by the Foundation for Child Development (FCD), The Case for Investing in PreK-3^rd Education:  Challenging Myths about School Reform, overturns three widely held assumptions about school reform.  Foremost among these is the belief, despite powerful evidence to the contrary, elementary schools are doing just fine, and learning problems begin later.