PRE4CLE is Cleveland's approach to expanding high quality preschool access across the city. The program began in 2014 and connected the community, county, school district, teachers, local philanthropy and of course, local government. Now they’re launching So Cleveland Early Learning Spaces, a focused effort to improve facilities in order to improve the learning environment. As Michelle Connavino, PRE4CLE’s Director of Communication & Special Initiatives, explains: It’s all part of Cleveland’s goal to ensure greater access for all three and four year olds throughout the city.
Willie Lightfoot is a Rochester (NY) City Councilmember. He’s also a longtime barber. And it’s in both roles that he has made an impact on early learning. As Lightfoot explains, the time when a child waits for a haircut makes for an outstanding opportunity to read. It’s just one of the lessons one can take from Lightfoot’s chair, including his common reminder to be positive.
One way to improve education: communication. For Pinecrest (FL) Vice Mayor Katie Abbott, that means not only regularly connecting with the school board, but also with students. Abbott co-coordinates the Pinecrest Youth Advisory Council, a group of 24 students in grades 8-12 across public and private schools who engage in government, volunteering and education, tackling issues from the environment to preparing for college.
One of “Aesop’s Fables” goes like this: “A group of pigeons, terrified by the appearance of a Kite, called upon...
As a professor, nurse, mom and policymaker, access to efficient, effective and equitable early childhood education is and has been an ongoing top priority of mine.
Elliot’s Provocations unpacks current events in the early learning world and explores how we can chart a path to a...
Does putting young children in a preschool setting harm them? Opponents of publicly funded child care and early education have...
Within a notoriously underpaid workforce, Louisiana’s child care teachers receive some of the lowest wages—making on average $9.77 an hour...
Some companies are responding to the child care crisis in a somewhat predictable way: they’re looking after their own. Stories have been emerging about a proliferation of on-site child care programs; an NPR article a few weeks ago noted that
When Jack Shonkoff speaks, the early childhood field listens. Shonkoff, a pediatrician who leads Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child,...
It’s long been clear that children who grow up in poverty struggle later in their lives, experiencing everything from increased...
2021 was a momentous year for early childhood care & education. The field suffered blow after blow from COVID and then a knock-on staffing crisis; received nearly $50 billion in rescue funds to temporarily patch the gaping leaks; and is ending the year on the precipice of receiving enough public funds through the Build Back Better Act to finally become a stable and healthy sector.
