The Learning Hub is launching this week. The website is a simple, homemade one that we can use as a sort of pilot. It will give us an opportunity to try out different ideas and approaches, and most importantly, to gather your feedback. I’ll be sending out a survey in a few weeks. In the meantime, please share your thoughts and reactions. Based on this initial experience, we will be in a good position to enlist professional website design expertise.
See this page for an explanation of the role of the Hub and this one for three overarching strategies for carrying out the Birth-Third agenda. The blog is starting off with two context-setting pieces: an overview of the original five Birth-Third Alignment Partnerships supported by the MA Department of Early Education and Care and a summary of Birth-Third leader Kristie Kauerz’ presentation in Springfield. Kristie reviews the research on brain development and achievement disparities and then presents the evaluation framework she and Julia Coffman have created.
Upcoming posts will address joint public/private professional development initiatives in Somerville and Springfield, the implementation of Boston Public Schools’ pre-kindergarten curriculum in community-based pre-kindergartens, Pittsfield’s community-wide strategy for dramatically increasing reading proficiency by 2020, and Lowell’s alignment and school readiness work across family childcare providers, center-based providers, and the public schools. Some of these are longer mini-case studies as I set the current stage for future posts. I hope to follow with some shorter posts as well.
The site will begin to fill up quickly, and down the road I expect to develop both case studies and guidance documents based on trends and patterns that emerge across the Birth-Third initiatives covered in the blog.
My plan is to post more substantial pieces on Tuesdays and notices here and there as they turn up while continuing to develop the tools and resources sections. Please share tools you think other communities can use or get ideas from, and I welcome suggestions regarding resources as well.
Thanks to the many Birth-Third leaders across Massachusetts who have shared their time, perspectives, insights, and wisdom with me over the last few years. And yes, for sending me all your notes and documents. I look forward to continuing to work with you. Feel free to reach out if I can be of help.