A high-ranking official for a national nonprofit organization that represents state boards of education says that when it comes to serving young learners as part of a comprehensive education, America lacks vision.

Brenda Welburn, executive director for the Alexandria, Va.-based National Association of State Boards of Education, also says in a report released this week that this is especially true for children from poor families.

“To be successful in school, all children must have access to preschool programs,” said Welburn.

“We can no longer view preschool and the early elementary grades as separate and apart entities, but rather as a system that complements and connects to one another for the benefit of a child’s development.”

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The latest edition of NASBE’s State Education Standard is being published this month and focuses on six states, but excludes Maryland.

However, NASBE says the publication is useful for all states in providing recommendations for developing a seamless education system that supports early learning.

The organization also notes that the stalled reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind act has in general, taken attention away from national standards while policymakers grapple with less controversial issues.

According to the Foundation for Child Development in New York, 70 percent of American children are unable to read at grade level by fourth grade and that as a result, a new approach is needed in early childhood learning that improves learning each year from pre-kindergarten through third grade.

Although NASBE reports reflect that large numbers of children enter kindergarten without crucial learning abilities and emotional competencies, Baltimore County Board of Education President JoAnn Murphy said the school system has been active in providing pre-school for children for decades.

“I don’t believe we lack vision,” said Murphy, “but consider it vitally important that children’s brains are stimulated and they receive everything needed aca