First 10 is excited to share the first in a series of short videos to spotlight the work of First 10 partnerships nationwide. In First 10, community agencies, families, Head Start, child care, preK, and schools form partnerships and take action to ensure all children learn and thrive. We’ll be sharing a variety of perspectives in our video series. In this first video, York, PA district leaders share their insights on First 10.
Author: jacobsondl
Hear from First 10 Leaders: Campaign for Grade-Level Reading Webinar on 9/27
We are really excited to have this discussion with a fantastic panel of First 10 leaders.
First 10 school-community partnerships bring together elementary schools, early childhood programs and community organizations to improve outcomes for children ages 0 to 10 and their families. Communities in six states are implementing coherent First 10 plans that include transition to kindergarten activities, substantive collaboration between early childhood educators and kindergarten teachers, school-connected play and learn groups, and community-wide parenting campaigns.
Panelists from Alabama, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island will share their experiences implementing the First 10 approach.
Register here.
Inaugural First 10 Newsletter
With the launch of our new National First 10 Network in March, we have created a newsletter for First 10 colleagues and friends. We will share resources and news of interest via the newsletter. In our inaugural issue sent April 5, we spotlight the work that East Providence (RI) is doing to share its progress with community leaders, highlight an article on the vital role Head Start Programs can play in First 10 communities, and feature EDC’s announcement of our W.K. Kellogg Foundation funding.
If you missed the newsletter in your inbox, please check your spam folder! For those of you who would like to stay connected with First 10’s work, you can subscribe here to the newsletter.
First 10 to Form New National Community of Practice
We are so excited about this opportunity to bring First 10 communities together for ongoing learning and exchange. We are beginning with communities in Alabama, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island and will add new ones as we grow. I am so impressed with the work these communities are doing improving outcomes for children and families. Many thanks to the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for supporting school-community partnerships driving change.
Launched in 2019, and guided by the vision “all children learn and thrive,” First 10 assists school-community partnerships in taking action to improve outcomes for children ages birth through 10 and their families.
In First 10 sites across the country, community partnerships are working to address educational inequities, improve the quality of teaching and learning, coordinate and deliver comprehensive services, and deepen partnerships with families in culturally responsive ways.
To launch and sustain the First 10 network, we will host a series of online learning events. The series will include presentations by First 10 leaders, feature experts in early childhood systems change, and focus on relevant topics, including:
- Strengthening partnerships with families with young children
- Launching community-wide parenting campaigns
- Implementing comprehensive transition to kindergarten plans
- Designing joint professional learning for prekindergarten and kindergarten teachers
- Combining explicit anti-racism training with First 10 initiatives
- Accessing and making effective use of federal funds
- Promoting continuous improvement by gathering data and monitoring progress
The network activities will also include an ongoing online community of practice and publication of success stories and lessons learned to inform the field.
East Providence First 10 Shares Progress with Community Leaders
What a great idea–in addition to hosting a presentation and discussion, the First 10 team set up tables on play and learns, the transition to kindergarten, the First 10 community school at Hennessy Elementary, The Basics, and early childhood programs for the Mayor and city council and school committee members.
How Head Start Programs Can Drive Change in their Communities
All across the country, Head Start, school, and community organizations are working to address the fundamental fragmentation that characterizes our mixed-delivery early childhood systems. In my work leading First 10 school-community partnerships, I’ve witnessed the vital role that Head Start and Early Head Start programs play in supporting the whole child and promoting family well-being. Head Start leaders are part of innovative First 10 initiatives across the country that are successfully reinventing school-community partnerships focused on young children and their families. Now more than ever, Head Start agencies have an opportunity to extend their influence, drive change, and improve outcomes for all children and families in their communities.
See my recent blog post for the National Head Start Association, “Head Start School-Community Partnerships Create Change.” It was really a pleasure collaborating with Dr. Deborah Bergeron and NHSA on this article.
Getting Started with First 10: Community Partnerships, School Hubs, and Work Currently Underway (Post #3)
The second post in this series showed how First 10 partnerships are funded, how they are advancing equity by using this funding to support urban and rural communities with significant low-income populations, and how some partnerships are combining First 10 with anti-racism efforts. In this post, I discuss how communities get started with First 10. I describe the two structures—community-wide partnerships and school-based hubs—First 10 partnerships employ to carry out their work, how they form teams, and how they begin their planning efforts.
Community-wide and School-based First 10 Structures, Sometimes in Combination
The First 10 initiative in York City, PA is a good example of a comprehensive First 10 community partnership (see Figure 1 below). York City is a district of approximately 6100 students, 91% are students of color, and 95% are low-income. The First 10 initiative spans the entire city. First 10 is overseen by a steering committee that includes a board member/parent representative and senior leaders from the district, several early childhood programs, the library, local funders, and other nonprofit organizations. York is forming a family advisory committee to allow for more direct community representation, and importantly, the school district is pairing its First 10 work with a major racial equity and cultural competence training push. At the beginning of the pandemic it established several First 10 teams to carry out a number of strategies that impact the entire community:
Continue reading “Getting Started with First 10: Community Partnerships, School Hubs, and Work Currently Underway (Post #3)”Alabama Launches a New Transition to Kindergarten Toolkit
Alabama launched its new Transition to Kindergarten Toolkit in December. We have really appreciated the opportunity to partner with Alabama on this important resource. Congrats to Secretary Barbara Cooper (Department of Early Childhood Education), her team, and her colleagues in other agencies. Alabama asks me to convey its thanks to the Rhode Island Department of Education for inspiring the basic idea of this toolkit.
States and counties may get ideas they can adapt from the toolkit, and communities will find helpful guidance materials in sections 2-9.
The focus of the toolkit is on supporting local communities in developing and implementing effective transition to kindergarten plans. Here are a few highlights that may be of interest:
Continue reading “Alabama Launches a New Transition to Kindergarten Toolkit”Hunt Institute Webinar this Thursday: First 10 in Action
I’m really looking forward to this conversation with Dan Wuori of the Hunt Institute about the great First 10 work underway in Maine and Pennsylvania. We’ll also talk about similar initiatives in Alabama and Rhode Island. I hope you can join us.
You can register by clicking the link here.
Promoting Educational and Racial Equity through Cross-Sector Partnerships for Children and Families (Post #2)
The first post in this series described how the first 40 First 10 and transition to kindergarten communities are working to improve quality and alignment and address early childhood challenge #3 (i.e., local system-building). I also previewed some of the lessons this blog series will explore. In this second post, I show how First 10 partnerships are funded, how they are advancing equity by using this funding to support children and families who live in low-income households, and how some partnerships are combining First 10 with anti-racism efforts.
“The tragic fact remains true in this country: children’s outcomes are predicted by their demographic characteristics, the color of their skin, their family’s income bracket, and their home language. These inequities begin before birth and follow children into the early care and education (ECE) system, one of the first systems with which they interact. Indeed, grave inequities in children’s access to, experiences in, and outcomes during and after early learning vary drastically based on what a child looks like, where they live, what language they speak, and where they are from.”[1]
“The opportunity to finally bring about equitable change across America’s systems, including the early learning and education systems, is as ripe as it has been in a generation.”[2]
Local school-community partnerships that carry out effective strategies to improve the quality and coordination of the supports communities provide to children and families are one of the most powerful strategies we have to address the “grave inequities” referenced above. In conjunction with increasing access to high-quality ECE programs and improving workforce compensation, cross-sectoral collaboration focused on the first decade of children’s lives has significant potential to improve outcomes for children and families who live in low-income households. This includes those most affected by current and historical racism and marginalization and those living in rural areas. A recent call to action on advancing equity in ECE from the Children’s Equity Project and eight other organizations recommends the field take the following four actions (among several others), all of which can be advanced by cross-sector community partnerships: [3]
Continue reading “Promoting Educational and Racial Equity through Cross-Sector Partnerships for Children and Families (Post #2)”
First 10 