Practical Ideas for Deepening Family Partnerships
We at First 10 were excited to welcome Dr. Karen Mapp to our May network meeting. Dr. Mapp, a Senior Lecturer on Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) and Faculty Director of the Education Policy and Management Master’s Program, developed the widely-used Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships for the U.S. Department…
Initiative aimed at helping children get a better start in life offers real promise
A strong editorial statement on P-3 by the Lancaster County newspaper, the Lancaster LNP: “It’s devastating to think that as early as infancy, a child might be deemed to be “at-risk” — that is, at risk of failing in school, of being trapped in poverty, of even facing a diminished life expectancy. ‘The achievement gap…
Why focus on Lancaster County’s youngest kids could break cycle of poverty
Last week I posted Thomas Friedman’s article about civic renewal in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. On Sunday Lancaster’s newspaper published an article about the county’s new P-3 initiative (which I’ve been supporting). Reporter Jeff Hawkes does a nice job using local examples to introduce P-3 improvement. See in particular: How Hawkes follows a family receiving home visiting services…
Innovative Communities Support Young Children and their Families
Just out in Kappan magazine: “In many cities and towns across the United States, elementary schools are forging deeper partnerships with families and community organizations well before children arrive at kindergarten. The aim of this work is to improve children’s experiences and family engagement and support along the entire continuum from prenatal care through grade…
Former Lawmakers Set Aside Policy Differences for Early-Childhood Initiative
Another example of the potential for bi-partisan support of early childhood programs (in line with A Purple Agenda for (Early) Education). From Education Week’s Early Years blog: “Proving that leaving Congress sometimes makes it easier to find bipartisan accord, former Democratic Rep. George Miller, of California, and former Republican Sen. Rick Santorum, of Pennsylvania, have come…
Why DeVos Should Embrace Early Childhood Education (Brookings)
See this strong statement with a helpful review of the evidence from the Brookings Institution. “As Betsy DeVos ascends to the role of secretary of education amidst partisan rancor, she would do well to embrace early childhood education, an issue offering an oasis of bipartisan support. Ninety percent of voters, regardless of party affiliation, endorse…
The Way to Beat Poverty (Kristof and WuDunn)
Commentary from the Sunday New York Times: One reason the United States has not made more progress against poverty is that our interventions come too late. If there’s one overarching lesson from the past few decades of research about how to break the cycles of poverty in the United States, it’s the power of parenting…
Parent-Child Home Program in the Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article about the Parent-Child Home program, which operates in many communities in Massachusetts. For all the energy poured into [New York City’s] preschool expansion, some researchers and early-childhood advocates say that the most at-risk children need help with literacy much earlier than pre-K. While skeptics question whether these…