First 10 Blog

A meeting in a school room of educators.

Home-based childcare programs are an important part of the mixed-delivery early childhood education system. Outside of parental care, home-based, also known as family childcare, is the most commonly used primary care arrangement. Partnering with home-based childcare professionals is a critical component of supporting kindergarten readiness for all children. The River...

    Congratulations to the twelve communities that recently received Birth-Third Alignment Partnership grants from the Department of Early Education and Care. Momentum around Birth-Third continues to grow in Massachusetts, and we are expanding the...

A critical step in improving teaching and learning in the early elementary grades is developing an effective, coherent curriculum. To support districts in aligning curriculum to the 2011 Common Core-aligned frameworks, the Department of Elementary...

My colleague Renee Perdue and I are leading a Curriculum Mapping Institute tomorrow (Tuesday) for the MA ESE and the Readiness Centers. See the Massachusetts Curriculum Alignment and Mapping Project for a variety of resources...

NEW RESOURCES OF INTEREST Formative Assessment: Guidance for Early Childhood Policymakers. Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes at NIERR. This policy report provides a guide and framework to early childhood policymakers considering formative assessment. The...

DATE: MAY 17, 2014 TIME: 1:00 – 3:00 P.M. ON SAT. MAY 17TH The Pittsfield Promise is offering a FREE presentation for families, children and educators with Mary Pope Osborne, the #2 Children’s Author in...

As discussed last week, there are multiple entry points for understanding Lowell’s Birth-Third work—the Leadership Alignment Team, the use of the CLASS tool, the emerging school readiness agenda—but a good place to start is with...