“My longtime mentor, Dr. Ruby Takanishi, the founder of the PreK–3 movement said, ‘We have to do a better job of reducing the chaos at the schoolhouse door.’ By this she meant that we need to build a more aligned system, a system that requires a ‘sturdy bridge’ between the early years and the early […]
“Not only do we invest in collaboratives to get books in front of children, but we’re also thinking about funding streams that can support access. We’re thinking about library systems. We’re thinking about publishers. We’re thinking about the ways in which we can break down and dismantle the barriers that do not allow for families […]
Swati really called out two key transitions — the transition into kindergarten and then transition from kindergarten into first grade. When those transitions and those systems are so misaligned or disjointed, it puts an extra burden on families because they’re not just trying to align to one system. They’re trying to align to different systems […]
Funder-to-Funder Conversation
“People know that they need to engage families, that relationships are key, but they don’t always connect that to the incredibly important performance indicators we want for kids. That feels […]
“I think of philanthropy’s unique role as the ‘shifter’ — how we shift the conversation, the policy and research conversations from ‘here’s how the system is broken’ to actually defining […]
Catalytic Leadership in Philanthropy is designed to empower more lean funders to get involved in this kind of outsized impact work. The core of it really gets to this idea […]
The ecosystem for literacy support is growing in a good way. There’s much more available than when Barksdale began its work. What makes Reading Universe distinct though is that it […]