Starting Early to Boost Success: State Investments in Early Alignment & Accountability

This GLR Week 2025 session, moderated by Steffanie Clothier of Gary Community Ventures, focused on strategies in the states of Arizona Hawai‘i, Louisiana, and Oregon.

Nasha Patel of Watershed Advisors kicked off the conversation by giving an overview of the work Louisiana has done since 2012 when the legislature passed “Act 3.” She addressed ways the states can pull levers for change and the importance of strong state-local partnerships. Patel also talked about the outcomes they have seen around quality ratings (CLASS scores), the approach that allowed the state to count unduplicated children served by public funds and reflect the quality of their experience, and how they have used data to advocate for increased investment and access for children.

Jen Roberts with Agenda for Children joined the conversation to give a local perspective from Orleans Parish on the Louisiana work. She talked about the role her organization plays as the co-lead agency for the work in the parish and the impact of gaining municipal investment and passing an early childhood millage.

“This is a really, really big deal because now we are the largest per capita early care and education publicly funded program in the country, and we are the only one that focuses exclusively on infants and toddlers. We could not have leveraged [the millage] and gained voter confidence, gotten the politicians on board, gotten our business community on board, if it had not been for a good five to seven years of documenting how we could coordinate the system locally with the confidence of our practitioners.”

– Jen Roberts, Agenda for Children

Marina Merrill, Ph.D., with Children’s Institute gave an overview of Oregon’s recent legislative initiatives, including this session’s Senate Bill 141 that focuses on K–12 accountability through continuous improvement and early learning metrics. She also highlighted the Early Literacy Success Initiative, which includes grants for districts to strengthen P–3 literacy instruction, community and tribal partnerships to address local literacy gaps, and a birth-to-5 literacy plan. Together, these policies reflect Oregon’s commitment to transparency and continuous improvement in early childhood

Lori Masseur of Read On Arizona talked about their collective impact model focused on early literacy and shared details about the recent launch of the Arizona Literacy Plan 2030, which was developed over more than a year with input from state and local leaders. The plan is designed to focus on what is working and build momentum toward desired results through its four key drivers: building educator capacity; scaling up evidence-based literacy solutions; engaging families and communities; and expanding access to high-quality early learning. Partners involved with early learning access include the Head Start Collaboration Office, the Department of Economic Security, First Things First, and Local Read On communities.

Kerrie Urosevich, M.A., Ph.D., with Early Childhood Action Strategy (ECAS) talked about the work in Hawai‘i, outlining ECAS’s goals that babies be born healthy; children are safe and healthy and develop to their full potential; children are ready for school when they enter kindergarten; and children are thriving by third grade. She reviewed the indicators they use to measure progress and discussed several programs in the state that are examples of how systems change efforts operate successfully, including the Makua Allies Program that supports pregnant women experiencing substance use disorder.

The conversation then turned to strategies for sustainability and scale as well as barriers to progress with panelists sharing insights based on their work. They also discussed the importance of designing programs with the end-users (families, children and providers) in mind.

If you were able to attend the session, we would love to hear your feedback! We appreciate your help in filling out the following form as we seek to learn and understand the perspectives, ideas, critiques, and recommendations that better inform our key audiences.