High quality early childhood education (ECE) programs can help all children enter kindergarten with the foundational academic and social-emotional skills they need to succeed. However, access to high quality ECE in the U.S. is low and unequal. While Black children enroll in center-based ECE at about the same rate as their White Non-Hispanic peers with higher rates of enrollment in publicly funded programs, the quality of their preschool experiences differs. The quality of ECE programs Black children attend are-on average-lower than that of programs attended by White non-Hispanic children (see Figure 2). Only high-quality programs can be expected to substantially reduce inequalities in learning and development. Low-quality programs, on the other hand, likely exacerbate inequality. (author abstract)