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New research adds to previous findings about the benefits of Head Start programs for young children, showing children are 93% less likely to end up in foster care. “New evidence suggests Head Start not only helps kids develop and allows parents to go to work, but it may also help at-risk kids from ending up […]

A recent article appears in Slate as part of its Better Life Lab series that address challenges around advanced degrees for early childhood professionals. As states across the country are increasing the postsecondary degree requirements of early childhood providers, its causing parents everywhere sit back and reflect on what their children need in the classroom. […]

The Associated Press reported that the Ohio Department of Education has awarded Ohio a Striving Readers Comprehensive Literacy Grant. The grant is for $35 million over three years that will target language and literacy development for early childhood-grade 12 students with a special focus on vulnerable students. According to state education officials, students living in […]

The National League of Cities (NLC) reported on the City of Columbus’ and greater Franklin County’s coordinated efforts to increase residents’ access to healthy food and efforts to minimize food waste. As the report argues with compelling statistical evidence, Franklin County is a microcosm for the national trends of healthy food access and of food […]

The North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation and the Institute for Child Success recently released a new resource for states and communities, What Works for Third Grade Reading. As an educational tool for the North Carolina Pathways to Grade-Level Reading (Pathways) initiative, this collection of 12 working papers addresses each of Pathways’ whole-child, birth-to-age-eight Measures of Success […]

The deadline for extending federal funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) draws near at the end of September. Although no reauthorization from Congress has yet occurred, a bi-partisan agreement to extend CHIP was announced by two senators last week. Chairman of the Finance Committee Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah (R), and Senator […]

The deadline for states’ ESSA plans is today, September 18, 2017. The 34 states that did not submit their ESSA plans in April are expected to submit by this deadline. The United States Department of Education (USDOE) Secretary DeVos has already received ESSA plans from sixteen states and the District of Columbia, which submitted their […]

Nearly two-thirds of Americans do not have a four-year college degree, but a new class of “middle-skill” or “new-collar” jobs in the technology, healthcare, and advanced manufacturing industries are giving many Americans an opportunity to obtain a middle-class lifestyle with shorter, less expensive training programs. A recent article in The New York Times looked at […]

The latest policy update from the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) focused on the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and its call for adding a measure of school quality and success. Dubbed the fifth indicator, many states are using this call to focus on career and technical education (CTE) goals. By focusing […]

Children can’t perform well in school if they aren’t there. In fact, a May 2017 Policy Update from the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE), argues that chronic absenteeism should be considered a primary indicator for low-performing schools. “Chronic absenteeism” is defined as missing 10 percent or more of school days for any […]