Early Childhood and School Readiness
Many poor children today enter school already behind, and once behind, few catch up. By third grade, poor children have vocabularies of about 4,000 words compared to 12,000 for middle class kids, and half the math and reading gap for high school seniors can be attributed to gaps at school entry.
Our vision for early childhood and school readiness is for all families to have high quality, comprehensive, culturally appropriate early childhood services and support—formal and informal—right in their own neighborhoods. These programs should also equip parents with the skills and knowledge they need to help their children succeed in school.
Our core objective has been to find the best examples of neighborhood programs that are designed to build the capacity of "informal" early childhood care providers such as family, friends, and neighbors. Models for improving this kind of care exist, but have not been well documented. We believe that identifying and disseminating exemplary strategies for improving this kind of care will accelerate progress in ensuring children in low-income communities enter school healthy and prepared to succeed.
Our work in 2008 continues through identifying best practices in supporting and improving the quality of family, friend, and neighbor care; exploring ways to connect these providers so that they may learn from one another; using policy and practice to reduce racial disparities, especially as they relate to family, friend, and neighbor care; and supporting local and state policies that promote quality family, friend, and neighbor care. The Foundation’s approach to early childhood and school readiness complements its broader education agenda as well as its objectives for families in the health, mental health, community building, and system reform arenas.
Casey Funding in Action
- Examples of 2007 grantees supported by Casey to help accomplish our vision include
- The National Learning Institute to expand its work in adapting the evidence-based military model for family child care to a civilian-based environment;
- Zero to Three, which provides technical assistance to states that are addressing the mental health needs of infants and uses a variety of opportunities to share models of practice in family, friend, and neighbor care that contribute to the healthy social and emotional growth of children;
- The National League of Cities, in partnership with the United Way of America, which is establishing a peer learning community of cities engaged in work to support the quality of family, friend, and neighbor care;
- United Way of America, which is providing technical assistance and advice on incorporating family, friend, and neighbor care quality improvement into local early learning system building efforts to Making Connections communities, local United Ways, the BUILD Initiative, and others including the Sparking Connections sites, communities participating in the National League of Cities initiative, and states working with the North Carolina Smart Start National TA Center;
- Voices for America’s Children, which is training advocates in its state affiliates to identify and develop strategies to address racial disparities in children’s outcomes using the Race Matters toolkit as well as in approaches to promote state policies to support family, friend, and neighbor care;
- Ready At Five, which has developed a cultural and linguistic competence curriculum for teachers of young English language learners;
- Ready 4 K, which has developed a family, friend, and neighbor care curriculum that reflects the values and practices of Somali, African American, Latino, and Hmong families in Minnesota;
- Build, a national initiative created by the Early Childhood Funders Collaborative to assist states that are committed to improving their early care and education systems, which will provide technical assistance on improving family, friend, and neighbor care;
- The Children’s Defense Fund’s Emerging Leaders Project, a policy and advocacy fellowship for emerging leaders in the field of early childhood care and education, which is providing information and tools for these leaders in addressing family, friend, and neighbor care issues; and
- The National Women’s Law Center, which is working with advocates in assisting states in developing sound policies around family, friend, and neighbor care.
- In addition to making direct grants, the Foundation is convening researchers, policy advocates, practitioners, and funders to identify key issues in those respective areas that should be addressed through private and public funding over the next three to five years.
Learn More