Funders understand it’s past time for the U.S. to create and support a quality early education system. In her latest piece for Inside Philanthropy, reporter Connie Matthiessen takes a look at the Educare Learning Network and Start Early as a model for change, including the Educare model’s focus on parent engagement, the importance of public-private partnerships and providing parents and families with comprehensive, prenatal-to-five supports.
In the piece, Jessie Rasmussen, president of the Buffett Early Childhood Fund, calls Educare “an initiative by private and public partners to do two big things: change the life trajectories for the children who come into our care, and change the way America approaches and funds high-quality early care and education. By doing what science tells us we need to do in terms of providing quality, we are narrowing and even closing the achievement gap. By working with peers across the country, we’re showing what it takes to deliver such high quality, including a well-prepared, well-compensated workforce, a reliance on data-driven practice, and care that partners with families and nurtures the healthy growth and development of every child.”
“With Public and Private Funds, This Early Ed Program Thrives. Is It a Model for Systems Change?”
At first glance, the price tag for the transformative investments in early childhood care and education included in the American Families Plan looks steep: $450 billion. And with the significant federal spending, policy scope and potential for tax increases included in President Biden’s $3.5 trillion economic package, we should be having conversations about whether this is where we want to invest our tax dollars.
This June, economists Jorge Luis García, Frederik H. Bennhoff, Duncan Ermini Leaf and Nobel laureate James Heckman released a National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) working paper that demonstrates these investments in early learning and care could produce incredible returns.
The paper returns to the Perry Preschool Project, an intervention in the 1960s where a randomized group of students who received two years of preschool sessions on weekdays and weekly teacher home visits, beginning at age 3. Because the study has followed participants into their 50s, economists can now examine the impacts the program had on the siblings and the children of the original participants, who are now well into their adulthoods.
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Their conclusion: the Perry Preschool Project produced dynastic benefits within the first generation (intragenerational) and across multiple generations (intergenerational). The life-cycle benefits of the program include increases in labor income, reductions in crime and in the cost of the criminal justice system. The program also led to improved health and health behaviors. In addition, because the siblings and children of the original participants had higher incomes, they also were able to focus on health and actually logged higher medical expenditures.
As a result of these dynastic benefits, these economists revised the return on investment of the Perry Preschool Project, now estimating that for every $1 invested in the Perry Preschool Project generates $9 in returns to society.
The research makes the proposed federal investments in quality early childhood and care an even smarter investment. Starting early benefits all of us, as it sets children, families and communities up for success for generations to come.
As educators and parents of three young children, Kapria Robinson and her husband know starting early shapes not only a child’s kindergarten experience, but their entire educational journey.
“We wanted to make sure we provided early learning programs for our own children that supported their academic, social and emotional skills. And where they got to experience joy every day at school; a place where they were happy, knew that they were loved, and would thrive,” she recalls.
So when Kapria toured Educare Chicago on the recommendation of their foster care agency five years ago, she knew she has found the right program for her family. She enrolled her two eldest children, Alexander and Catalina, who were just 16-months and 6-months at the time.
Kapria, Alexander & Catalina
“Our case manager said families who had their children at Educare Chicago were thriving and that they were supportive of the blended foster-adoptive family dynamic,” Kapria remembers. “With the foster care process, they were very open to things like working with biological parents. Also, the smaller class sizes and the student-to-teacher ratio is amazing. To have three adults, working with kids when they’re younger just makes all the work of difference.”
I strongly believe that all children should attend preschool prior to going to an elementary school, just so that they get those beginning foundational skills in a classroom setting.
Kapria Robinson
An Approach Making a World of Difference
Parent engagement and coaching is at the core of Educare Chicago’s approach, which begins before the first day of school.
“Early on, Educare staff wanted to learn what our kids were interested in and what life was like outside of school. In fact, we met the teachers and had already spoke with the family support specialist in our own home by the time the kids began school,” Kapria reflects.
From Kapria’s perspective, “Educare’s approach is years ahead of most other programs. They make sure to ask a lot of higher order thinking questions. They engage the kids in a lot of discussions, they encourage them to, you know, have their own voice and to have their own throughs — and they positively affirm them.”
“Their team made sure that the kids got what they needed. When my son had challenges with separation anxiety, teachers like Miss Danielle would reach out with different stories we could read with him to make that transition a little easier. It has been a wonderful experience for us,” she continues.
Catalina & Alexander
Educare Chicago’s family engagement and parent coaching helped Kapria and her husband stay fully informed about their children’s education and able to reinforce behaviors and learnings at home.
“They would make sure that we understood what our kids were learning. During the parent engagement activities, they really make sure to break down different ways to engage your kids around math, literacy, STEM and art activities,” Kapria shares. “They helped us to truly understand how to engage our children, what questions to ask them, what vocabulary to focus on.
In addition to empowering Kapria and her husband in their role as their children’s first and best teachers, the Educare Chicago community offers a space to meet, engage with and learn from other parents.
“It gave us an opportunity to connect with some of the other parents, which is hugely important in building a community for your children, so that you have other families for them to visit for play dates and that share the same ideas about what is important for their children and their education.”
Ready for Kindergarten and a Lifetime of Learning
Quality early learning and care programs like Educare Chicago help children like Kapria’s enter kindergarten ready to learn. Because early childhood is a time of rapid development in multiple areas — physical, emotional, cognitive and social growth — kindergarten readiness is more than observing a child recite shapes, numbers and colors. A child who is ready for kindergarten is curious, can form relationships and has social interactions with nurturing adults and peers.
Kapria believes Educare Chicago’s approach helped spark an ongoing love for learning within her children that has set them up for a lifetime of success.
“Educare’s approach to involving parents in their children’s education journey and constantly getting feedback has been a huge part of why our children are so successful and driven to keep learning,” she says. “They not only taught the preschool curriculum in ways that were engaging, but they also expanded it to include skills or concepts we were interested in our children learning and based on their assessments of what our kids were ready to learn.”
Today, Kapria’s two oldest children have graduated Educare Chicago and are thriving in Chicago Public Schools. Alexander is in first grade and Catalina is in kindergarten, and both recently tested into gifted and classical programs. Her youngest, a 2-year old, is currently enrolled at Educare Chicago.
“Alexander just completed his first year in a gifted kindergarten program and received straight As, awards for citizenship, being a good friend to his classmates and being helpful. He’s accelerated through the remote learning challenges they provided. I know a lot of that had to do with the competence he had in his skills and the motivation Educare Chicago gave him that if he wanted to do something he could absolutely do it,” Kapria proudly shares.
Given her children’s early education success and her own work in education, Kapria advocates that all children should start early.
“I strongly believe that all children should attend preschool prior to going to an elementary school, just so that they get those beginning foundational skills in a classroom setting. Children just excel when they have the opportunity to interact and communicate with and learn from one another.”
In-person conferences are back! This August, Start Early president Diana Rauner and I joined leading minds in technology and education from across the country in San Diego for the 2021 ASU+GSV Summit. With awareness of the importance of early childhood education and the care economy at an all-time high, more than a dozen sessions at this year’s conference explored critical issues facing our field, including kindergarten readiness, equity and workforce development.
Increased Need for Social & Emotional Supports
As we enter the start of another program and school year, children will need continued support and attention, particularly in areas of social and emotional support. We know children will be bringing the trauma that they and their families experienced in the last 18 months to school with them. As one attendee noted, they will be “bringing it in their backpacks and putting it on the table.” We also need to acknowledge the extreme stress and trauma that teachers have experienced and support them through this difficult time.
Start Early president Diana Rauner joined Walter Gilliam (Yale University), Shantel Meek (Children’s Equity Project at Arizona State University) and Janice Jackson (Chicago Public Schools) for a discussion examining kindergarten readiness through the lens of disparities in suspensions, expulsions and placement in special education that have been exacerbated by the pandemic and threaten children of color’s access to education.
Meeting the Moment: The Economic Imperative of Early Childhood Education
The pandemic highlighted how essential early learning and care is to help parents return to work and support the economy. Diana joined Barbara Cooper (Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education), Rhian Allvin (National Association for the Education of Young Children), and Jane Swift (LearnLaunch) for a conversation that explored two other themes critical to the economic imperative of early childhood education: the critical need for workforce development for our current early childhood workforce and how early learning and care supports the development of our children, the workforce of the future. Diana stressed that early childhood education has a triple bottom line — it allows people to work, grows small businesses and most importantly, supports the development of children.
Every School & Community Ready to Serve Children & Families
Finally, I was excited to lead a panel on something close to my heart: flipping the narrative of the school readiness conversation. Rather than ask what we are going to do to make sure children are ready — a question that puts the burden on children and families — we need to think about how schools and communities can be ready for children as kindergarten begins.
Joined by Sophie Turnbull Bosmeny (Khan Academy Kids), Kai-lee Berke (Noni Educational Solutions), Henry Wilde (Acelero Learning), Andy Myers (Waterford.org) and James Ruben (Hellosaurus), our panel explored how we can take advantage of the current moment to ensure all children are equally ready for school.
For more content from this year’s ASU+GSV Summit on early childhood education and the care economy, visit the conference’s website or YouTube channel.
Chicago is a key part of Start Early’s story and identity. Since our founding in 1982, we are proud to have supported each mayoral administration in their efforts to create an exemplary early childhood system here in our hometown.
In the fall of 2020, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot launched Every Child Ready Chicago (ECRC), a multiyear, public-private partnership to align the various prenatal-to-five systems and supports serving Chicago’s children and families under a shared vision of success and build the early childhood systems infrastructure needed for thousands more children to enter kindergarten ready to learn.
Through its work, the initiative seeks to create a strong and equitable early childhood system where all parents and children, particularly those in under-resourced communities, have access to quality services. By partnering with parents and communities, the initiative can build a forward-moving plan capable of withstanding changes in leadership throughout the city that are bound to happen.
Start Early’s Role
Our approach to improving early learning systems centers on developing strong program, advocacy and research partnerships. As a first step, Start Early supported the Mayor’s Office in bringing together a diverse group of agencies, experts, and organizations for the launch of the Early Childhood Working Group.
As the work transitions into the next phase, Start Early will continue to play a project facilitation role, working collaboratively to engage private partners and stakeholders and facilitating family and community engagement to center their voices in the work. We will also continue to contribute our policy, advocacy and systems perspective and share lessons from this important work with other cities and states across the country.
In April 2021, Start Early merged with the Early Learning Lab (ELL) — a nonprofit with expertise in human-centered design, systems thinking and technology solutions — to drive stronger, more equitable solutions, programs and policies that are better informed by community voices to improve early childhood systems across the country.
The merger uniquely positions Start Early to develop new ways of working that draw upon the collective experience of both organizations in elevating parent voice, systems change, and knowledge transfer and network building.
The Early Learning Lab was founded in 2015 to bring new methods and tools from the social innovation sector to the early childhood field to catalyze the design, implementation and scaling of high-impact products and programs.
Now, the Early Learning Lab is a new division within Start Early. The Lab will continue its work to lift up family and community voices and advance smart technology solutions in early childhood programs and systems.
The importance of partnering with parents to support them in their role as the children’s first and most important teacher is at the core of the documentary film, “Tomorrow’s Hope,” which will have its virtual nationwide premiere this Thursday, May 20. The film spotlights three students from Educare Chicago, an early childhood education center run by Start Early, who started at the school as infants through their high school graduation.
“Parents are critical in helping their children learn. Your best chance of any educational intervention sustaining itself is to invest in the parent,” former vice president of program and innovation Portia Kennel notes in the film.
Elishaba Poindexter, a mother whose son Jamal is featured in the film shares, “When my son started at Educare Chicago, he was 18 months old. I thought ‘Wow, this program is actually engaging not only the students but the parents as well — teaching us how to be with our child at home.’” She emphasized how Educare Chicago provided a key sense of community. “For Jamal, to constantly have that guidance and push that’s the village [needed] to raise a child.”
Families are a child’s first and most important teachers, which is why Start Early works directly with families, often starting before birth, to empower parenting skills and nurture the strong bonds between children and their caregivers that are essential to every child’s present and future well-being.
“We work hard to create relationships with parents and look at each family as an individual with their own hopes and dreams,” noted Brenda Eiland-Williford, director of early childhood quality and impact at Start Early in the film.
Parents and caregivers have the clearest perspective of what their family needs. As we begin the work of rebuilding our early childhood system back better in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, family voices — like those featured in “Tomorrow’s Hope” — must be included in the planning, implementation, oversight and evaluation of all programs serving children from birth to age 5 and their families.
As Rebecca Berlin, chief learning officer at Start Early and principal investigator of the National Center for Parent, Family and Community Engagement (NCPFCE) shared with Early Learning Nation, “We know [lifting family voices] will lead to early learning programs that truly support family well-being, effective family and community engagement and children’s school readiness so that every child has the opportunity to thrive.”
“Tomorrow’s Hope” was produced by the Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation and is presented in partnership with a group of organizations from across the U.S. that are united in their dedication to early childhood education.
Teri Rogoway’s love of nature started early, with her own mom. “My mom taught me from a really young age that nature was a gift and that we could be better people as a result of interacting with nature,” she shares. “I’ve always had a positive experience in nature and I wanted to give those kinds of experiences to other people.”
As the educational programs coordinator for the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority, Teri helps children engage with nature from an early age. “We do stroller walks with parents and infants and toddlers, where we let the kids play outside and make things out of twigs, rocks and leaves. I never tell them what to make, I just let them create,” she notes, which helps build creativity skills that follow them into their later years.
Engaging parents is key to increasing young children’s exposure to and appreciation of nature. “You want parents to feel comfortable being out in nature because children watch how their parent responds. If the parents are afraid, then a child might pick up on that fear and carry it with them through life,” she explains.
Nature’s Impact on Early Childhood Development
Throughout her career, Teri has seen the benefits of engaging children early in nature. “Parents who go hiking with their child in a baby backpack, let them play in parks, climb trees, rescue worms and jump in puddles are building up their child’s immunity and increasing their motor skills,” she shares. “Those kids, who have been encouraged to play in and explore nature, are less fearful, more creative and know how to calmly interact with other people.”
In addition to nature’s impact on children’s cognitive development, Teri also sees mental and emotional health benefits for parents. “I want parents to feel the healing, peaceful aspects of nature that they can get away even if it’s just to a little neighborhood park or a vacant lot with wildflowers.”
“Nature is big enough to take anything that we have to give any stress or worry. Kids will respond to their parents being less stressed and spending time in nature also creates beautiful family memories that they can look back on.”
Virtual Programming during the Pandemic
During the pandemic, Teri and her team pivoted to provide online programs via Facebook Live and Zoom to continue to share the benefit of engaging in nature. “Our team gave live virtual trail tours showing people different plants and animals while they answered questions like, ‘Susie from Oakland would like to know what that green flower is called to the left.’”
She saw the benefits for her staff who also missed the in-person interaction with visitors and one another, “We were so grateful to be able to do that and help others and ourselves fight that sense of isolation, it felt like we were fulfilling our purpose.” The park is now open for in-person visits with COVID-19 precautions in place (e.g., one-way trails with social distancing) and is seeing an increase in visitors.
As we celebrate National Arbor Day and parks continue to open, Teri encourages us all to head outdoors: “Nature is where we belong and the place we go to for healing, peace and restoration. Give yourself permission to enjoy time outside for yourself; we work so hard but remember Mother Nature is there to give back to you.”
The weather outside may be frightful, but the great indoors beckons. Inclement weather can offer the perfect opportunity to engage in indoor activities with your children that help them build important academic and social skills; skills such as executive functions, memory, self-regulation and teamwork. Executive Function: means your child will develop abilities to remain focused on an activity, complete tasks and be persistent and Self-Regulation: is the degree to which your child can control their emotional reactions.
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Challenge your memories: In addition to working your preschooler’s memory, card matching games will help them hone their concentration and planning skills. Try spicing up the game with variants that promote math or vocabulary skills for added educational value. Bonus: Using your arts and crafts skills or just a working printer, a deck of memory cards is easy to whip up.
Follow the leader: Games like Simon Says or Red Light, Green Light are a great excuse for toddlers to get silly and also burn off some energy. And they require only a little space and some imagination. Children take away a better understanding of the structure of rules, how to follow instructions and focus attention.
Build together: Young children of all ages love to build and create. Piecing together a puzzle or building a block castle is a great way for toddlers and young children to pick up nuances of cooperation. As they work toward a common goal, they learn the value of teamwork and planning, while reinforcing positive social-emotional skills and developing small motor dexterity.
Stretch your imaginations: Build-a-Story and Act-a-Story games challenge your preschooler to help construct or enact a fun, silly or adventurous narrative with others. You may want to start things off, but before you know it the whole group will be rolling as the story twists and turns. Your child may even surprise you with their creativity as they sharpens their attention, working memory and impulse control. Keep a pen and paper or your phone camera handy—you may want to record these stories for posterity!
So until you can get back outside again, enjoy your indoor time playing and learning with your child. It goes without saying that some games will come across as silly—but the simple play belies the critical lessons learned. Through playing and interacting, you are also helping your child develop essential skills and strengthening your bond. It may be Simon Says today, but it will be so much more down the road.
At Start Early, we know that reading is fundamental to a child’s development. As we celebrate Read Across America Day, we recognize the importance of making reading with your little ones a priority every day! By reading with your young child, you are not only bonding and inspiring a love of reading, but also developing strong early language and literacy skills that are key to future learning and success.
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No matter how old your child is — from babies and toddlers to preschoolers — these six tips from our experts will help you make the most of storytime:
Start early. Reading to babies is important for healthy brain development and lays the foundation for language and writing skills.
Make reading a part of your daily routine. Establishing a routine helps ensure that reading is part of your daily schedule, such as before naptime and bedtime. It also creates times during the day that both of you can look forward to.
Try board and cloth books for babies. By age 1, most babies can grab books. Board and cloth books are great options for babies who like to touch things and put everything in their mouths.
Take turns with your toddler. By age 2, most toddlers can hold a book and point at the pictures. Let your toddler turn the pages of a board book, and respond when they point or react to the story.
Ask your child questions. As you read to your child, make the experience interactive by asking questions, such as “What do you think will happen next?” or “What was your favorite part of the story? Why?”
Just keep reading. Reading to your child helps them develop a habit of listening to stories and loving books. This is one of the most important pieces of advice – make sure you are reading early and often.
One of the most important aspects of building early literacy skills is for parents to read to their young children. Through sharing these moments of being together and parents showing their genuine love for reading, children also get excited for reading which sets the foundation for building lifelong literacy skills.
Danielle Jordan, Senior Master Teacher, Educare Chicago
See our expert in action!
Check out how Educare Chicago Senior Master Teacher Danielle leads her class in a lesson on perspective and how you can tell the same story in different ways.
Families living in communities that are under-resourced lack access to the quality early learning and care programs that help level the playing field and close the opportunity gap. With your support, we can provide literacy support for families in greatest need.
In the fall of 2020, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot launched 
Teri Rogoway’s love of nature started early, with her own mom. “My mom taught me from a really young age that nature was a gift and that we could be better people as a result of interacting with nature,” she shares. “I’ve always had a positive experience in nature and I wanted to give those kinds of experiences to other people.”
Throughout her career, Teri has seen the benefits of engaging children early in nature. “Parents who go hiking with their child in a baby backpack, let them play in parks, climb trees, rescue worms and jump in puddles are building up their child’s immunity and increasing their motor skills,” she shares. “Those kids, who have been encouraged to play in and explore nature, are less fearful, more creative and know how to calmly interact with other people.”
Whether your child is a newborn or about to head to kindergarten, here are some great books to read during storytime: