LEO | Learning & Engagement Opportunities Network

Play-Based Learning in the Kindergarten Classroom & Beyond
2024-10-15 15:00 - 16:30 (America/New_York)
Moderated by Diana Greene, Ph.D., of Children’s Literacy Initiative, this conversation highlighted the ways that playful learning can and should be used as a classroom method that fosters creativity, curiosity and critical thinking in children.
Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Ph.D., of Temple University and the Brookings Institution served as the key speaker in the conversation and began by highlighting the effectiveness of active playful learning (APL) in early grades classrooms. The approach, Hirsh-Pasek explained, works to enhance joy and depth in learning by emphasizing active, engaged and meaningful work in the classroom. Hirsh-Pasek shared the “Six C’s”— collaboration, communication, content, critical thinking, creativity and confidence — where students are experiencing immense growth after the introduction of APL in the classroom.
Hirsh-Pasek closed by sharing her excitement at the growing movement for APL, with some states, including Connecticut and Oklahoma, implementing playful learning in early grades education, and other states reaching out for guidance on how to enact the programs in their schools.
“In our system, we’re trying to change what goes on in the classroom; to have smaller groups, to amplify student voice and choice, [and to implement] all the things that make the classroom space active, engaging, meaningful, socially interactive and joyful.” – Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Ph.D.
Following Hirsh-Pasek’s presentation, attendees heard from Kristi Kallam, a kindergarten educator of 25+ years, who shared examples of what playful learning looks like in her classroom. Kallam echoed Hirsh-Pasek’s remarks that children learn best when actively engaged in socially interactive and passionate teaching. This has prompted Kallam to organize her curriculum around three central themes each year involving subjects such as math, social studies and science, as well as activities like art and music.
“We begin to think about the other ways in which we can bring in different aspects of the curriculum. What can we do with music? What can we do with art projects? Are there recipes or games we can play? It begins to build this wonderful, engaging and meaningful environment where the kids take ownership.”– Kristi Kallam
Attendees then heard from Loretta C. Brady, Ph.D., of Saint Anselm College and author of Technology Touchpoints, who expanded on the conversation by discussing the role of technology in play-based learning. Drawing on her research, Brady explained that while some argue for or against technology use, it’s more productive to view technology as a tool that can empower children when used creatively and with agency. Brady emphasized that devices such as iPads can support learning, social interaction and joy when integrated thoughtfully, similar to physical play.
“If we can understand and appreciate how technology is meeting children’s needs, we can understand why they’re so fixated on the screens and the content…by empowering a child to utilize that technology in a creative way — one that allows them voice and agency — it can be much more meaningful for the child.”– Loretta C. Brady, Ph.D.
Following Brady’s remarks, Kimberly Nesbitt, Ph.D., of University of New Hampshire emphasized the need for collaboration across various levels — classrooms, schools, districts and state departments — to make lasting change in implementing play-based learning effectively. Nesbitt shared her experience working with the New Hampshire Department of Education to bridge the gap in the implementation of play-based learning models in the classrooms.
“We’re expanding to be able to share this vital information so that we can bring it back to our states, back to our districts, back to our local schools and try to make this movement happen….It’s hard to make systemic change, but together we can do it.” – Kimberly Nesbitt, Ph.D.
Lastly, attendees heard from Debbie Leslie, Ph.D., with the University of Chicago who emphasized the importance of teacher learning and coaching, so that teachers feel supported through these educational changes. Allowing teachers to have choice and voice in their professional development and helping them break down the abstract ideas of play into concrete practices, Leslie explained, can foster progress and deeper learning within the classroom for the educators and teachers.
“It’s understandable that teachers are stressed when they are asked to do too many things. But if we have people who are there to help them think about how to implement these systems, they can take a deep breath.”– Debbie Leslie, Ph.D.

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Building Stronger Teacher Pipelines Through University-District Partnerships
2024-10-22 15:00 - 16:30
CGLR and Deans for Impact (DFI) were thrilled to bring this critical topic to the foreground as communities across the country grapple with new teacher attrition amidst ongoing shortages. We heard from two strong, long-standing partnerships in Ohio and Virginia on how to successfully work together across recruitment, preparation and mentoring, and what it takes on both sides to come to the table in service of students.
Moderator Valerie Sakimura of DFI opened the discussion by providing a brief overview of the current landscape and ways DFI is supporting partnerships of teacher-preparation programs and school districts to make instructional improvement a priority across all pathways into teaching:
Brilliance is equally distributed, but quality instruction is not….We know students of color, for example, are more likely to be in the classroom of a novice teacher….And so we are working with teacher-preparation programs both within and outside of universities to make sure every new teacher is ready to engage students in rigorous and affirming learning experiences.
Sakimura asked Principal Zeb Kellough of Crim Elementary School at Bowling Green City Schools andTracy Huziak-Clark from Bowling Green State University to share how they’re working together to mobilize aspiring teachers at BGSU as high-dosage tutors at Crim. This effort has both strengthened aspiring teachers’ preparation and provided valuable extra support for current teachers. Kellough and Huziak-Clark had similar sentiments about the impact, with Kellough stating:
Some of the most enriching conversations happen whenever those BGSU tutors were able to sit with [our] team of teachers…to discuss data, to talk about what they think the next steps are, to have those BGSU tutors be the problem-solving individuals to figure out what needs to happen next.
Next, Superintendent Melody Hackney, of Hopewell City Public Schools and Willis Walter of Virginia State University unearthed the details of launching and sustaining a registered apprenticeship program, which has created an affordable pathway for Hopewell’s teaching assistants and paraprofessionals to become licensed teachers. Walter shared:
It was about making sure we didn’t take any shortcuts…that we were giving them the same quality education that our traditional pathway provided….We were able to make this even more special through partnering with Deans for Impact [offering] the professional development, because that also gives them some quality skills that they can immediately use on day one in their classrooms.
Panelists offered policy solutions that would help strengthen relationships between teacher-preparation programs and school districts, including providing compensation, investing in more out-of-school academic support for students and prioritizing both access and quality. Thank you again for your interest in this learning opportunity. We hope you found it enlightening and that you will plan to join us again for future opportunities.

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

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An “Honesty Gap”? Shifting State Standards & Accountability for Learning Loss Recovery
2024-10-29 15:00 - 16:30
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is often referred to as “The Nation’s Report Card” because it is the one national report that gives us a broad look at how our kids are doing academically across the country. In recent months, state standards have shifted so that what qualifies as proficient in one state may be vastly different from what NAEP calls proficient. This means that the “cut scores” or the mark on assessments that indicates academic proficiency is moving in various states, creating an “honesty gap” where parents are left perplexed about what their children’s “scores” are and what they mean. This week’s session was an important opportunity to unpack this issue with expert leaders, explore what is happening across the states, and learn about both the educator and parent perspectives on these shifting standards.
Moderator and family engagement advocate Tracie Potts with Learning Heroes introduced the discussion by asking panelists to set the context by sharing their and their organization’s perspective and experience monitoring state standards and the information available to parents on their children’s academic ratings. Jim Cowen of the Collaborative for Student Success took us back nearly a decade when his organization first coined the term “honesty gap” as a way to hold states accountable for making data and information about student progress available to parents. He captured the situation by explaining how this term emerged:
There was confusion and anxiety about shifts in how students got to answers. And there was an enormous amount of distraction, and it became incredibly hard to discuss something that…seemed as reasonable as having consistent academic expectations for our kids. So the idea of the honesty gap was really born out of this desire to cut through that distraction and focus on a very simple but critical point…parents deserve the truth about where their kids stand on their educational progress.
After hearing from each panelist, Potts continued by engaging all speakers in a discussion of action steps and what advocates and educators can do to ensure that the honesty gap is closed and that ratings and “cut scores” for student learning progress are made clear to parents and the public. In addition to Cowen, Christy Hovanetz, Ph.D., of ExcelinEd, José Muñoz of the Education Commission of the States and Keri Rodrigues of the National Parents Union discussed what steps can be taken to understand what a proficiency rating means for students in your state, how this compares to NAEP and how to make sure parents can ask the right questions and get the information they need to support their children’s progress. Rodrigueszeroed-in on what schools and teachers can do to ensure parents have the information they need:
I’m going to issue a challenge to [state departments of education, districts, schools and teachers]. I want to see you having courageous conversations. I want you to do the opposite of what you’re doing now, which is thinking you’re being kind to us by not being honest, not telling us the real deal, not giving us all the data. Because when you do, I think you’re going to be surprised. I think you’re going to find parents who are ready to help. Because we see this stuff playing out in our living rooms. We may not be educators, but we’re not stupid. We can tell when a kid is struggling to read. But we don’t know always how to help them out. But if you tell us what to do and you tell us there’s a problem, we’re going to get to work and we’re going to be right there with you because we have a vested interest in your success. But we can’t help unless you’re willing to be courageous, be honest and tell us where we really are so that we can do this together.
And with that inspiration, we thank you again for joining this unique learning and engagement opportunity. We hope you found it enlightening and that you will plan to join us again for future opportunities.

ELECTION DAY REBROADCAST: The ESSER Funding Cliff Approaches: What States Did & What They Learned
2024-11-05 15:00 - 16:30
CGLR had the rare opportunity to convene and learn from a panel of Chief State School Officers and hear straight from the decision- and policymakers about the interventions and strategies in which they invested their 10% set-aside allowed from the $190 billion Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund over the past four years. With the expiration of ESSER funding on September 30 and the upcoming January 28, 2025, deadline to liquidate the grant before funds must be returned to the U.S. Department of Education, this special Election Day rebroadcast session provided another opportunity to hear these state chiefs share what they did, what they have learned and how they are planning to sustain effective strategies and interventions.
Moderator and competency-based education leader William R. Hite, Jr., Ed.D., of KnowledgeWorks opened the discussion by asking each panelist to set their state’s context by sharing the priority learning recovery strategies they launched using the significant federal investment and what results they have seen. In considering her priority investment in digital equity, Susana Córdova, Ed.D., Commissioner of Education in Colorado, shared that in their need to expand access to digital resources, new innovations emerged from the crisis that are now continuing to benefit districts and students. In setting the context for her state, Katie Jenner, Ed.D., Secretary of Education in Indiana, shared that there had been a strained relationship between state government entities. When it came time to address the COVID crisis and prioritize ESSER investments, her team needed to start with relationship building:
In order to drive change within a crisis situation, it starts with consensus building and relationship building. So our team, when I came in as an appointed secretary of education,…started with relationship building and a commitment to being very transparent with the data…And we still hold this true in Indiana. Let’s not spend our time admiring the problem. Let’s focus in on solutions….That’s always what is needed in the beginning.
Hite continued the discussion by asking the panelists to consider the challenges they had to overcome, what they might do differently in hindsight and what key lessons they have for the field. McKenzie Snow, Director of the Iowa Department of Education, discussed how achievement gap data in their state informed all the decisions they made, leading to their top four priorities: establishing a strong teacher pipeline; narrowing and closing the achievement gap; creating multiple pathways to postsecondary success; and implementing evidence-based reading instruction. Charlene Russell-Tucker, Commissioner of Education in Connecticut, agreed about the importance of data and demonstrating the return on investment — especially to communicate what works and justify state funding to support continued efforts:
We’ve used data to inform what it is that we’re investing in and to really talk about sustainability. Really important. Here in Connecticut, our research collaborative is not going away. We rebranded and renamed it because it is so important that we know the return on investment for what it is that we’re doing.…So that is something I’d say is a best practice that will continue. Imagine now being able to go to the legislature and say, here is this thing we tried doing and, by the way, we know it works….Now it’s your turn to invest in that…A lesson learned is to continue to try to make the case for being able to answer the “so what” question when we make an investment in a program or an initiative.
In recognition of Election Day 2024 and the broad bipartisan support the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading has been fortunate to receive since its launch in 2010, CGLR was also pleased to share brief clips of two sitting governors — one Republican and one Democrat — as part of this special rebroadcast. In these clips, Governor Spencer Cox (R) of Utah and Governor Wes Moore (D) of Maryland stressed the importance of finding bipartisan agreement on sound education policy that ensures early school success and more hopeful futures for children.

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Words in Every Neighborhood: Citywide Efforts to Expand Literacy-Rich Environments
2024-11-12 12:30 - 14:00
This Crucible of Practice Salon explored a recently released brief developed by Philadelphia leaders, Philadelphia as a Literacy-Rich Environment: Unlocking Potential and Creating Change. Participants engaged with these leaders, along with CGLR community representatives from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Charlotte, North Carolina, about city- and county-wide efforts to create literacy-rich environments in the everyday places and spaces where children and families spend time. This “everyday places and spaces” approach, a significant priority for CGLR is focused on tapping into the broad ecosystem supporting out-of-school learning and the 80% of children’s waking hours they are not in school. This week’s session featured city and county leaders, who serve as community backbone supports for collective action, sharing how they are building cross-sector collaborations across neighborhoods.
Moderator and youth development consultant Priscilla Little of The Learning Agenda, who also was the lead writer on the new brief, began by providing an overview of the Philadelphia Community of Practice (CoP), which involved researchers and practitioners and was funded by the William Penn Foundation. Members of the Community of Practice worked together to produce the brief, capturing key learnings from their three years of collaborative work. She then asked two members, Jenny Bogoni of the Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation and Read by 4th and Rachael Todaro of the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Children and Families, to describe the collaborative literacy installations, activities and programs that provide fun and learning across their city. They also reflected on the important insights highlighted in the brief and the relevance to other cities operating similar initiatives. Bogoni described how Read by 4th, Philadelphia’s CGLR Community Coalition, creates working groups to advance their strategies:
In the community mobilization area, we’ve been focused on how we can transform our communities into literacy-rich environments. Where can we make sure that learning is catalyzed in everyday places and spaces to use some language that we hear? And how are we making sure that we are activating individuals to be community literacy advocates? … So our partners come to us from all aspects of Philadelphia and then they join working groups that advance the various strategies.
Little then turned to two additional GLR Community Coalition representatives, Emily Nanney of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library and Dea Wright with the City of Milwaukee, who discussed how institutions and individuals in their county and city contribute and create opportunities to bring words into every neighborhood. Wright highlighted the multiple city government offices and other entities that come together in Milwaukee to support and advance literacy-rich environments in everyday places and spaces:
I direct the Office of Early Childhood Initiatives. I am the sole employee of the office, and I rely on a team of family advisory board members to really help me move this work in the city I’m very proud of. For the last six years, the city has remained committed to investing in this office and the programs it has managed to produce with the help of so many wonderful partners within city government. The Department of Public Works has committed to helping us put story paths in our parks. Our Milwaukee Public School Rec Department has also put funds into our spaces, like our bus shelters and our story paths that are in two of our parks. Our library, of course, is a phenomenal partner, providing books for the readers. The Health Department has been very instrumental in putting big dollars into revamping their offices, the WIC clinic waiting rooms and transforming them into what we call pop spots. And so all this is within city government, but also outside, we’ve also had a local hospital that’s transformed their waiting space.
After learning from our featured speakers, we had the chance to engage in a peer exchange with all participants sharing the ways in which this key CGLR priority of activating community assets to support learning happening anywhere and everywhere is happening in their communities. Check out the Padlet where ideas were captured and plan to join us again for future opportunities!

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The First 10 Framework: Exploring Best Practices and Community Innovations
2024-11-12 15:00 - 16:30
Moderated by Melissa Castillo, Ed.D., with the U.S. Department of Education, this conversation highlighted two communities — Conestoga Valley, Pennsylvania, and Woonsocket, Rhode Island — and explored the ways that they’re implementing the First 10 Framework in their schools.
Attendees first heard from David Jacobson, Ph.D., from the Education Development Center (EDC) and First 10 who discussed the First 10 initiative’s approach to creating effective school-community partnerships that support young children and families. The initiative, he explained, is based on three key ideas: a community-wide approach to the first 10 years of a child’s life; a comprehensive road map addressing teaching, family partnerships and services; and a strategic framework for planning and collaboration.
Jacobson explained that his 2019 study showcased how communities successfully addressed fragmented early childhood systems and implemented effective strategies. These approaches served as valuable models in the development of the First 10 framework used in the Woonsocket and Conestoga Valley communities.
“What’s exciting about Conestoga Valley and Woonsocket, in addition to the creative strategies that they’ve implemented, is how they’ve built such strong partnerships and the capacity to continue collaborating and innovating.” – David Jacobson
Representing Woonsocket, Rhode Island, attendees heard from Beth Campanelli, M.S. CCC-SLP, with the Woonsocket Education Department and Erin Smith from Woonsocket Head Start Child Development Association. They discussed the importance of using the First 10 framework to build relationships with families in the community. A central component of this relationship building in Woonsocket is their “play and learn” sessions, which target children not enrolled in preschool, offering them an early introduction to school in a supportive, low-pressure environment. Encouragingly, Smith mentioned, these sessions have contributed to 41% of the children enrolling in school the following year. In addition to the high enrollments, the play and learn sessions allow for parent engagement and support:
“The parents get to know each other and help each other. They’re helping each other with carpool, which then [contributes to strong] attendance. Parents know that if they’re having trouble, they’ll always be able to get their child to school. They’ve made some really nice connections.” – Erin Smith
Also pivotal to the work is the “Passport to Kindergarten” program that was introduced in Woonsocket in 2023. The program, Campanelli explained, involves six events held at the district’s six elementary schools that are designed to familiarize children and families with the school environment through engaging, positive activities. Using a “passport” theme, children rotate through stations with activities focused on early literacy, motor skills and socialization, and receive materials to take home to continue learning.
Attendees then heard from Michelle Trasborg and Jill Koser, Ed.D., from the Conestoga Valley School District who discussed the work being done in their Pennsylvania community.
Koser began by explaining the social and ethnic diversity that has developed within the past two decades in Lancaster, which, as she describes, has become one of their greatest strengths and assets in the community. In the Conestoga Valley school district alone there are more than 40 languages and dialects spoken. This diversity amplifies the need to ensure that all students have access to successful and equitable learning opportunities, leading to the prioritization of incorporating First 10.
Trasborg continued by lifting up the First 10 and kindergarten transition components in the “Kindergarten Express.” It is a six-step framework that includes events such as play and learn sessions, meet-and-greets and a kindergarten showcase, which are all designed to reduce anxiety, foster relationships and prepare families for school.
Speaking to these opportunities were two Conestoga Valley parents, Mehmet and Ecem Ciklaiblikci, who emigrated from Turkey and navigated the enrollment and orientation process with their child. Initially shy and worried about the language barrier, their child soon benefited greatly from the orientation activities, teacher and student meet-and-greets, and campus walk throughs. These steps, Ecem explained, helped them and their son feel prepared for his new school:
“We met his teacher and gave her information about him, and he had the opportunity to get to know his classmates. I wasn’t worried about him on the first day of school because he knew what to expect.” – Ecem Ciklaiblikci

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Maximizing Impact: The Critical Role of Philanthropy in High-Impact Tutoring
2024-11-19 12:30 - 14:00
“The research shows that tutoring remains the most effective academic intervention, outperforming class size, summer school and extended school years. And [Accelerate] continues to build a research agenda that adds to that evidence and also continues to try to answer some of the outstanding questions that can help the implementation of high-dosage tutoring for some understudied student groups — those older than second grade, those with IEPs and multilingual students.”

In this Funder-to-Funder Conversation, Narric Rome of Accelerate offered the above statement as he underscored the evidence base supporting high-impact tutoring and the need to continue investigating its potential. Thank you for registering for this funder-focused session that explored the wide variety of actions philanthropy can take to ensure effective tutoring is sustained and scaled.
Moderator Alissa Hobart, with the Center for Excellence in Literacy Instruction at the University of Mississippi, started the conversation by describing how Mississippi has utilized AmeriCorps funding to launch and grow its Mission Acceleration tutoring program in recent years.
Peter Lavorini of the Overdeck Family Foundation then set the stage for the session by outlining the characteristics of tutoring programs that lead to significant learning gains for students, as defined by the research base. These include substantial tutoring time each week; sustained and strong relationships between the students and their tutors; close monitoring of student knowledge and skills through data; close alignment between the tutoring and the school curriculum; and continued oversight and training of the tutors to ensure quality interactions.
Chris Helfrich of Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation and Mioshi Moses of AARP Foundation then joined Rome and Lavorini in sharing how their respective organizations are advancing tutoring as a strategy:

Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation: Led by Stephen and Ayesha Curry, Eat. Learn. Play. has committed $25 million to bring year-long professional one-on-one high-impact tutoring to nearly 10,000 students in Oakland, California, and is also working to build awareness about the literacy crisis to audiences nationwide.

AARP Foundation: Functioning as a direct service provider, convenor and funder, AARP Foundation leads the Experience Corps program, mobilizing, engaging and training older adult volunteers to serve as literacy tutors, while also working with national agencies and networks and investing in evaluation of its tutoring programs.

Accelerate funds promising tutoring efforts that have the potential to be scaled, partners with research institutions to evaluate tutoring programs and disseminate research across the field, and promotes the adoption of proven models through grantmaking, policy and advocacy.

Overdeck Family Foundation invests in supporting innovations that can decrease the cost of effective tutoring; in building evidence to better understand how different tutoring programs affect different groups of students across different subjects and grades; and in helping the field as a whole to identify and adopt tutoring practices that generate results for students.

“We focus on identifying and fueling the scale of cost-effective, sustainable programs and solutions that accelerate improvement in academic and social-emotional outcomes for all children. We were initially compelled to invest in high-impact tutoring because we felt that the research and evidence around tutoring demonstrated that it was the best intervention out there for accelerating student learning outcomes, because the research base behind tutoring makes it clear that it is something worth investing in.” —Peter Lavorini, Overdeck Family Foundation
Acknowledging that the implementation and scaling of high-impact tutoring faces a number of barriers such as cost, the panelists discussed how philanthropy was well positioned to help overcome some of those barriers and shared a range of resources that funders and their education partners could leverage to support tutoring. They explored the ways in which technology can be utilized to drive down costs and reach more students, with Lavorini offering examples of virtual and hybrid models that Overdeck has invested in and Moses sharing plans for AARP’s National Virtual Volunteer Corps. They stressed the importance of advocacy for increased and sustained public investment in tutoring, with Rome sharing several examples of states that have recently invested in statewide tutoring programs. Helfrich noted that the general public remains largely unaware of the literacy crisis in America as he described the investments in storytelling by Eat.Learn.Play., including the recently released documentary, SENTENCED.
“What we’re doing is providing a strong base of volunteers to help solve a big challenge that a lot of our organizations have which is staffing. I think it could be really important for funders to consider strategies to support and foster volunteer-based tutoring programs that help schools and districts with a low-cost solution. Ours has the double benefit of keeping older adults engaged in their communities and reducing isolation.”— Mioshi Moses, AARP Foundation

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Collective Caregiving: Talking About What Kids & Families Need to Thrive
2024-11-19 15:00 - 16:30
The session opened with a reflection on the paradox of American caregiving, by David Alexander, M.D., of Leading for Kids who stated, “We know how to fix poverty, we know how to fix education, we know how to fix hunger. But we haven’t really been able to do it.” He explained, “When we talk about why kids should get the things that we all know they need to get, we usually use one of three ways of talking about that. [First,] kids should get this thing because it’s the right thing to do. It’s moral, it’s just. [Second,] we should do this thing for kids because they’re vulnerable and we need to stand up for them. And most recently, we should do these things for kids because they’re our future, and it’s a good investment.”
Jessica Moyer, Ph.D., of FrameWorks Institute elaborated on the research supporting the Collective Caregiving Frame, a powerful new communications framework designed to mobilize communities and build environments that help every child thrive. She explained, “The idea that we share as a culture is that if a child has those meaningful, caring, loving relationships with adults in their lives, they’re going to be okay. They have what they need. If they don’t have that, then they’re going to struggle. But that kind of focus…crowds out a lot of other kinds of thinking. In particular, it crowds out thinking about what’s happening at the community level, thinking about policies, thinking about the fact that in addition to caring relationships, kids also need access to green space and clean water and for their family members to have health care and behavioral health services, etc.” The framework, Moyer noted, encourages redefining care through three pillars: collective, inclusive and expansive, highlighting the need for societal-level policies that support all children.
Reflecting on the United States, Sweta Shah, Ph.D., of the Brookings Institution acknowledged the uphill battle in shifting from an individualist, nuclear family model to collective care, emphasizing that progress requires time and persistence. “Even tweaks in language can take us one step closer,” she noted, encouraging advocates to embrace the framework as a tool for incremental cultural change. Shah also emphasized the importance of addressing systemic inequities, advocating for language that broadens the tent and fostering collaborative redesigns of systems that center the needs of children and families.
Kerrie Urosevich, Ph.D., from Hawai‘i Early Childhood Action Strategy shared how her community frames advocacy through “collective kuleana (responsibility).” She described asking industries, “What is your kuleana to our keiki (children)?” And she highlighted the success of these questions across sectors. Moderator Ernestine Benedict of ZERO TO THREE commended this approach, connecting it to the broader framework saying, “It really links to this idea of systems change — what it means and how we normalize it in ways that resonate.”
Benedict urged participants to focus on hope and collaboration. “If we give up hope, we lose,” she affirmed. She emphasized the need to “leverage surprising opportunities. Reflecting on the framework’s long-term impact, she concluded, “This is about creating the cultural shifts that make collective care a reality for all children.”

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The Daycare Myth Part 2: Creating Better State Systems for Children
2024-11-26 15:00 - 16:30
An earlier session in October, initiated our focus on Dan Wuori’s new book, The Daycare Myth: What We Get Wrong About Early Care and Education (and What We Should Do About It). That discussion sparked so much energy and interest in what we can do — that is, how to develop models and structures for delivering quality education and care. Participants in October expressed a desire to learn about the ways in which states and communities are taking action to address “what we get wrong” and work toward actually getting it right. We left that webinar knowing that we would need to host a follow-on session to go deeper. This week’s session gave us the chance to do just that: We went deeper with state and local leaders who are creating promising systems that address the long-standing problems of cost, quality, workforce development and retention in early learning systems.
Joining us again as moderator was brain development expert researcher Ellen Galinsky with Families and Work Institute. Galinsky introduced the discussion by engaging with Dan Wuori, author of The DayCare Myth, and asking him to recap how his book describes “the disconnect between what we know from the science of early development and how that knowledge is played out, or sadly, in many cases, not very well played out in our public policy across the nation.” He also teed-up the panel of state leaders by previewing how their promising strategies are coming close to “getting it right.” Galinsky asked each state leader — including Berna Artis of the District of Columbia Association for the Education of Young Children; Angela Garcia of Toy Box Early Learning and Child Care Center in New Mexico; Chris Jones, Former North Dakota HHS Commissioner; and Martha Strickland of First Steps, South Carolina — to begin by sharing how their states have addressed the “three legged stool” of cost, quality and workforce development.
Garcia discussed New Mexico’s establishment of a trust fund to support children from prenatal to age 5 and how this had helped with all of the leading issues:
A family of four can make $120,000 a year and still qualify for free child care. The last time I looked at the numbers, about 80% of the population in New Mexico is now getting free child care. That has been huge. As a provider, I can tell you that has been huge.
After hearing from each panelist, Galinsky continued by engaging all speakers in a discussion of the key actions they took to bring about the change that Wuori’s book says is needed, both at the state policy level and in local communities, with a goal of generating tips for audience members on what they can do to make change. Jones had a welcome and somewhat blunt way of expressing his best advice:
No one is probably better than you in meeting people where they’re at. So I mean you’re able to do it as high-quality early childhood educators. You can do that with legislators and you need to meet them where they’re at and ask what problem are they trying to solve. And they will absolutely love you for that. Accept that every parent wants the best for their kid and accept that you can build a better system. As soon as you accept that both the right and the left want quality early childhood experiences, you’ll be able to build a better child care system.

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Uniting Schools & Families to Get Students Back Into the Attendance Habit
2024-12-03 15:00 - 16:30
Co-Sponsored by Learning Heroes and Attendance Works

Moderated by John Gomperts of the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, attendees heard from experts in the field who are actively working to align the priorities of strong attendance and family engagement.
Hedy Chang of Attendance Works opened the discussion by sharing critical insights about the current state of chronic absenteeism. She explained that rates doubled during the pandemic, peaking at 30% nationwide during the 2021–2022 school year, and while rates have improved slightly to just over 20%, they remain alarmingly high. Chang emphasized how chronic absenteeism disrupts entire classrooms, hindering consistent instruction and creating learning gaps. She also highlighted systemic barriers, such as unreliable transportation, housing instability and limited health care access, which were exacerbated by the pandemic. To address these challenges, Chang stressed the importance of building trust with families and fostering belonging in schools:
“This is a key partnership. We can help parents see that we care about them, that we want to be in partnership with them, that we’re willing to stop and listen to them, and that we can jointly and collectively solve the problem. That’s a proven recipe for success.”
Bibb Hubbard of Learning Heroes continued the conversation by discussing the presence of misconceptions among many families, with nearly 9 out of 10 parents believing that their child is performing at or above grade level in reading and math, despite data showing otherwise. The disconnect, Hubbard explained, stems largely from parents relying on report cards as the primary indicator of their child’s academic performance. When children appear to be doing well in school, she explained, parents may feel less urgency to prioritize attendance. Because of this disconnect, Hubbard emphasized the critical role of family engagement and strong parent-teacher relationships, with data showing that schools with strong family engagement reported lower rates of chronic absenteeism and higher academic achievement:
“There are so many strategies and tactics that can be implemented, but if you’re not doing it with a lens of collaboration and deep relationship building with families, you’re not going to see the same results.”
Shadae Harris, Ph.D., with Groundwork Consulting shared her insights on redefining attendance as a family engagement issue, drawing from her work in Richmond, Virginia and explaining how they shifted their language from “attendance officers” and “attendance plans” to “family liaisons” and “engagement plans” as a way to build trust leading to better attendance. She emphasized that addressing chronic absenteeism requires authentic engagement, where school leaders actively listen to and collaborate with families and are able to “share power” with one another. Harris highlighted the school district’s efforts to prioritize family needs by tackling root causes of absenteeism, such as housing insecurity. Through an innovation grant, she shared that over 130 families were able to secure stable housing, fostering trust and strengthening connections within the community:
“We’re talking about sharing power, and that’s what it looks like: sharing resources, building trust, helping one another….[From there] you’re able to start a trust cycle where word is going to spread that you’re consistent in what you’re doing for families.”
Lastly, attendees heard from Emily Bailard who discussed how EveryDay Labs partners with school districts, including Richmond Public Schools, to implement comprehensive improvement strategies. Bailard emphasized three pivotal components of the work:

Providing valuable data intelligence and collaboration tools
Offering professional learning for school staff
Delivering evidence-based attendance communications, including chronic absence nudges, truancy notices and individualized family support campaigns

This approach ensures that staff can focus on meaningful family engagement, while parents receive the essential information and support they need to improve attendance:
“Ensuring that some of that basic communication is happening, so that parents receive the information they need, as well as using technology to coordinate high-touch work [such as home visits and family attendance conferences], is vital in building those relationships with families.”

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Pathways to Progress: Inspiring Success Stories in Student Learning Recovery
2024-12-10 15:00 - 16:30
“Implementation is the new innovation.”
–Doug Scott

This GLR Learning Tuesdays session explored effective frameworks and stories of overcoming learning loss and promoting equity in education.
Kelsey Young, Ph.D., of Curriculum Associates highlighted findings from their research on six urban school districts that exceeded expectations post-pandemic. Her team identified six key practices driving student success. Young underscored that implementation — driven by strong leadership and alignment — was critical to the success of these practices, stating: “If we reflect on those six keys I discussed, most were kind of a culture shift that happened at the district and leadership levels. And so, yes, we want educators to change their mindset, but it falls on district and school leaders to empower educators.”
Doug Scott and Emmy Liss of McKinsey & Company shared insights from their global research on education transformation. Scott emphasized the importance of balancing implementation strategies with longevity in mind. Some of McKinsey’s levers for successful implementation include:

Building durable coalitions for change through clear priorities and stakeholder engagement.
Creating delivery capacity with infrastructure and expertise to ensure strategies are actionable and of appropriate scale.
Driving and adapting with data to effectively make informed decisions and for continuous innovation.

Scott reviewed case studies, including Washington, D.C., where authentic community engagement helped rebuild public confidence in schools, and Liss highlighted a community in Oregon where early childhood programs were implemented because of community demand and advocacy.

Action Steps for CGLR Communities

The webinar concluded with practical guidance for CGLR communities looking to create lasting change.
Eric Duncan, J.D., from The Education Trust focused on systemic inequities and the critical role of policy in ensuring resource equity: “We can really prioritize and start to look at ways to build out policy solutions to support schools and districts to execute on these things, and to identify very strategically and upfront the areas on which we need to focus.” Duncan introduced EdTrust’s Alliance for Resource Equity Toolkit, which helps communities identify disparities in teacher experience, advanced coursework access and school leadership quality. Duncan emphasized that the toolkit can help identify “some of the things that district and school leaders need to be asking and need to be thinking about as they’re trying to close some of the gaps that we see.”
Additionally, the panelists encouraged communities to:

Leverage Data: Remain grounded by “talking about data, not talking about anecdotes” to identify gaps and ensure equitable practices are prioritized.
Build Coalitions: Create what Scott called an “exoskeleton” to sustain initiatives across leadership transitions.
Advocate for Implementation Fidelity: Liss explained the need for this saying, “True education transformation is not sexy. There is no silver bullet. It is really hard work focused on implementing the strategy that works.” Communities can support systems in maintaining focus on evidence-based practices while holding them accountable for results.

Moderator John Gomperts of The Campaign for Grade Level Reading closed the discussion by reiterating the power of community-driven change: “Successful implementation is not just about choosing the right strategies but building the conditions and coalitions to see them through.”
Share with us how you’re doing this work in your own community by completing the survey below.

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Kindergarten Briefing and Update
2024-12-17 12:30 - 14:00
Implementing these programs and getting the work done is not always easy. But the more we can help each other out and lift [each other] up, the better.

Lisa Guernsey of New America shared the above quote as she moderated the session, engaging a panel of experts from the U.S. Department of Education as they highlighted the important work that has been completed through the Kindergarten Sturdy Bridge Initiative launched by Secretary Miguel Cardona.
Swati Adarkar opened the conversation by highlighting kindergarten as a bridge between early childhood and the early grades. She emphasized the need for developmentally appropriate practices that focus on the whole child, including social, emotional, multilingual and playful learning. Adarkar expressed her appreciation for the critical collaboration between the Department of Education and Health and Human Services, focusing on resources for children from birth to age 8, leveraging grants, research and guidance to accelerate this work.
Adarkar drew on the power of engagement with education stakeholders and organizations, sharing how the Transforming Kindergarten Collaborative has created a strong foundation:

[Through collaboration] we have developed solid and durable work to build on for our youngest students. And we’ve got to figure out how to come together to carry this forward. Philanthropy definitely needs to be part of this equation. So onward.

Jamila Smith continued the conversation by discussing several key initiatives from the Department of Education, beginning with the Ready to Learn program, which incentivizes the creation of high-quality educational media content such as TV shows, apps and games. Smith spoke about the Education Innovation and Research Grant program, which supports innovative approaches to education, including projects that focus on early learning and kindergarten readiness
Next, attendees heard from Christy Kavulic who described the joint policy statement on the inclusion of children with disabilities in early childhood programs, again emphasizing the importance of interagency collaboration between the Department of Education and Health and Human Services. Kavulic highlighted the updated policy released in November 2023, which reaffirmed the commitment to inclusion, particularly following the COVID pandemic. She stressed that inclusion in high-quality early childhood programs benefits all children and sets a positive trajectory for lifelong learning.
Melissa Castillo, Ed.D., noted the importance of high-quality dual-language immersion programs starting in kindergarten. She discussed the benefits of bilingualism and multilingualism for both English learners and English-speaking students, the need for clear identification of English and multilingual learners, and recent initiatives including a call to action for governors to support dual-language programs and the launch of a new comprehensive center for multilingualism in schools. Castillo also underscored the importance of clear terminology and identification of English learners and multilingual learners in early childhood, noting the need for explicit definitions to guide programs.
Tracey Scott, Ph.D., finished the presentations by discussing the Department’s Student Engagement and Attendance Center (SEAC) and its work on chronic absenteeism in the early grades, particularly kindergarten. She emphasized the impact of chronic absenteeism on third-grade reading proficiency and outlined SEAC’s efforts, including a recent learning series on kindergarten absenteeism and a new five-year contract to address early grade absenteeism in long-term planning.

Child Care Has Shifted: Are We Ready for the Future?
2024-12-17 15:00 - 16:30
Changes to the labor market, increased understanding of the science of early childhood, and the visibility of the child care crisis present an opportunity to interrogate and reimagine child care, and that is what we did with prominent leaders in the field during this session.
Nationally recognized early childhood and human services leader Susan Gale Perry of Child Care Aware of America moderated the conversation and introduced the discussion by engaging with Marica Cox Mitchell of the Bainum Family Foundation. Mitchell shared the foundation’s WeVision EarlyEd initiative and their work to gather input and ideas from their partners, whom they call “proximity experts” because of their proximity to young children, about what is needed to improve systems and policies and reimagine the field. Mitchell discussed how educators and families need to be part of the solution and unafraid to help shape the systems that they need:
Listening to our proximity experts, we have been leaning in to make sure we’re defining the ideal in making the ideal real. And that definition, like the proximity experts stated, has to be early childhood educators and families not being victims of the future, not being afraid of the future, but leaning into it and shaping it.…Change is going to be required as we lean into these shifts that are happening.
After Mitchell’s framing, Perry engaged a panel of early childhood educators and administrators, along with policy experts representing diverse settings and child care options, who shared their perspectives on how child care can better meet the needs of young children and their families. Rhian Evans Allvin of Brynmor Early Education and Preschool, Jamal Berry of Educare DC, Kayla Corbitt of Operation Child Care Project and Tiffany Jones of Precious Moments Family Child Care discussed how they have handled paying a fair wage to their educators and offering support and professional development; managing licensing and regulatory needs; and ensuring their services are affordable and accessible to families. Berry expressed how he and his organization are managing their budget to ensure that there are multiple measures focused on staff development and care:
We have a staff wellness manager. So I think having a budget for staff wellness support needs to be a proactive measure and not only reactive to when events happen. This is important as well as professional development by personnel who are geared in adult learning principles so they understand how adults learn and are actually creating content and trainings around that. And then last but not least, I think innovation and strategic opportunities — budgeting for innovation, budgeting to do innovative stuff with staff, budgeting to support staff in ways that they want to be supported — are also important.

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Holiday Rebroadcast: Not Just Nice But Necessary: Family Engagement = A Big Bet That’s Paying Off for Kids
2024-12-31 15:00 - 16:30
CGLR has long advocated that strategies focused on getting parents and caregivers to take part in their children’s learning progress are a “big bet” with the potential to make more than incremental change. Yet recently, “family engagement” has become more of a catchphrase than something that is understood as a demonstrable learning recovery strategy. So in May 2024, CGLR took the opportunity to explore exactly how various family engagement strategies have led to measurable results for students, including increased attendance and other many other outcomes.
Moderator and family engagement leader Kwesi Rollins of the Institute for Educational Leadership introduced the discussion by asking his longtime colleagues and national leaders Vito Borrello of the National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement (NAFSCE) and Yolie Flores of Families In Schools about the national landscape and what they have seen in terms of models and approaches that lead to families taking action for their children’s learning progress. Both experts agreed that building relational trust is a foundation for all other strategies and that educators need to first commit to understanding familial context. Capturing this idea, Borrello stated:

Imagine if family engagement started with teachers understanding their students through the lens of a family. We talk about all these tactics, parent-teacher conferences, going to various events, better understanding report cards. But if the first thing that a teacher did before the school year began was to meet a family with the sole opportunity to better understand their future student through the lens of their family, imagine how that communicates respect, how that would be building trust, and, beyond that, how it improves teacher quality. Because if a teacher better understands that knowledge of a student and student learning, they’re able to be a far better educator for that student in ways that will be profoundly impactful in their future.

Rollins then engaged with a stellar group of state, district and community leaders who spoke about their notable partnerships and innovative approaches to family engagement, including home visits, text messaging, parent ambassador programs and more. Emily Garcia of the Flamboyan Foundation with Sarah Parker of District of Columbia Public Schools, Roxanne Saldaña Jones of the United Way of Texas with Kierstan Schwab of Texas PBS and Lisa Levasseur of Elk Grove Unified School District in California discussed their “on-the-ground” work leading to families taking specific actions in support of their children’s learning. We also had the special opportunity to learn directly from a parent. Shareeda Jones, Flamboyan Parent Ambassador, shared one of the most memorable quotes of the session when she said:

Us as parents, it’s not like we do not want to help. We don’t really understand how to help. And the point of even asking for help is hard. I always use this [metaphor] and say that without family engagement, [supporting our children’s learning] is like lotion that you buy from a dollar store. You have to apply it multiple times [to get any result]. But with family engagement, it’s like that good, thick Vaseline lotion. It keeps you shiny, it works and you don’t have to keep applying it when you do it the correct way.

Beyond the Ballot: Sustaining Progress in Academic Recovery and Early School Success
2025-01-07 15:00 - 16:30
“We all like accountability in theory. And then when we start getting real about what it means, nobody really likes it because it’s about tough love.”– Michael Petrelli, Thomas B. Fordham Institute

This inagural GLR Learning Tuesdays webinar for 2025, brought together leading voices in education to talk about what the world of education and kids policy might look like in the wake of the recent elections. Specifically, we set out to explore the intersection of policy changes with ongoing questions about student outcomes, data and advocacy in shaping the future of learning for children and families.

While there has been a lot of heat around education-specific policy changes, Mike Petrilli counseled that the actual changes in education policy may be considerably less dramatic than the rhetoric around those changes. Echoing Petrilli’s cautious view of anticipated changes, Denise Forte of The Education Trust emphasized the importance of looking beyond “education policy” alone to understand potential policy changes that could have an enormous impact on learning conditions. While recognizing that 90% of young children are in public schools and education policy is obviously important, Forte urged participants to pay close attention to the consequences of decisions around Medicaid, school nutrition and the child tax credit. These policies create the backdrop against which schools operate and play a significant role in determining how favorable — or unfavorable — conditions for learning might be.
The speakers also underscored an urgent need to recognize and respond to the “outcomes crisis,” as Kevin Huffman of Accelerate framed it. “We’re in the middle of an outcomes crisis right now in the country, and we have major problems that will ripple through the economy…if we don’t take them on.”
Panelists stressed the need for targeted strategies that focus on kids and families, alongside high-quality implementation of strategies designed to increase student learning and development. Jean-Claude Brizard of Digital Promise added a broader perspective on accountability: “Yes, accountability is important. We have to double down on student outcomes as long as we redefine what that is.” He called for a shift in focus from narrow metrics to goals such as economic mobility and future happiness, urging stakeholders to view math and reading proficiency as means to broader ends.
All participants agreed that we need much more data and research to get a clear picture of what is happening for young students and clarity about the strategies (and implementation approaches) that produce gains in student learning. As Forte said, “Please keep calling out for data from your school districts…we need to have data from communities so we can really understand what’s going on.”
Finally, all the participants zeroed in on the crucial role of external support and coalitions in tackling these challenges. The panelists discussed the power of collective advocacy, from driving demand for data to using narratives to amplify success stories. As Brizard noted, leaders making tough decisions need to be “flanked” by supportive voices and institutions. Forte summed it up saying, “Work through coalitions. [We need] more voices from the community calling for data, doing storytelling and using that information…we can’t leave any more talent behind.” This message underscored a shared commitment to creating equitable, data-informed and outcomes-driven approaches to education that benefit all children and families.

Equitable Literacy Instruction: Ensuring the Science of Reading Works for All Children
2025-01-14 15:00 - 16:30
In this incredibly inspirational learning experience, panelists emphasized that a primary key to dispelling misunderstandings about the sciences of reading is realizing there are multiple sciences that need to be taken into consideration for the vast diversity in race, nationality, background and especially language among students in America’s classrooms. Building on ideas captured in the recent report from the Children’s Literacy Initiative (CLI), Equity and the Science of Reading, speakers suggested instructional techniques and classroom strategies that support educators in building both their literacy content knowledge and culturally sustaining practices.
A nationally recognized leader in the learning sciences, Lisa Guernsey of the Education Policy Program at New America, moderated the conversation. Guernsey introduced the discussion by inviting Diana Greene, Ph.D., and Erica Holmes-Ware of the Children’s Literacy Initiative to unpack the key assertions and recommendations in their seminal report. Greene shared an inspiring analogy, revealing the story of her son being diagnosed with cancer at a young age where there was a standard protocol for treating that cancer, but the doctors knew they had to adjust that plan based on her son’s specific biology and needs. Thanks to these adjustments in treatment, her son is now a thriving 34-year-old professional. She went on to explain that this type of adjustment and tailoring to the science of reading protocols is needed for diverse learners:
It is difficult when you have over 20 students who are coming to your room, all with very different backgrounds, different unique perspectives on life. [At CLI,] we believe that when you dig into the assets that children bring to the classroom and couple [that information] with research and doing best practice, that is going to catapult our children.
After a deep review of the CLI report, Guernsey engaged two leading researchers and experts in literacy instruction for multi-language and multicultural learners. Anya Hurwitz, Ed.D., of SEAL (Sobrato Early Academic Learning) and Xigrid Soto-Boykin, Ph.D., of the Children’s Equity Project at Arizona State University discussed the multiple sciences of reading and the extensive research that demonstrates how to best engage and instruct English language learners and honor the many assets of diverse learners. Like Greene, Soto-Boykin shared her deeply impactful personal story of moving to Florida from Puerto Rico at age 11 and not receiving any support to learn English or any honoring of her background. She related this to her tips for educators:
When we allow children to show up authentically as themselves, we provide them with a tool to love themselves. And that’s the biggest legacy. I learned to read in school, but I learned to love myself despite school. And I think that [we need to make sure students today feel supported by school instead of learning to love themselves despite school.]

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Power of Philanthropy: Supporting Children's Advocacy Through Strategic Framing
2025-01-21 12:30 - 14:00
Baked into our mission is that this work is generational. When it comes to supporting long-term mind shifts, we know it will take more than a grant cycle. So, we approach this work not just in terms of ‘policy wins’ or trying to shift a narrative in two years. It is much more about seeking to strengthen an ecosystem to create stronger narratives and frames over time….That is how we’ve approached the work and why I’ve been really excited to see more funders recognizing that narrative change is a long-term endeavor.
–Jeanette G. Elstein, MPH, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

In this Funder-to-Funder Conversation, Jeanette Elstein of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), offered the above statement as she described her foundation’s investments in the development and implementation of the Collective Caregiving frame. Thank you for registering for this funder-focused session and joining us to explore this new frame and the roles that philanthropy can play in promoting narrative change as a part of efforts to improve outcomes for children and families.
John Gomperts, an executive fellow with CGLR and the board chair for Leading for Kids, set the stage for the conversation by describing evolving efforts over the years that have sought to rally broader public support and demand for better investments and better outcomes for kids and families. Ernestine Benedict, with ZERO TO THREE, then moderated the session, inviting Elstein and David Alexander, MD, of Leading for Kids to provide an overview of the Collective Caregiving frame and RWJF’s work to ensure that parents and caregivers have the resources they need to promote thriving families.
Alexander explained how Leading for Kids worked with the FrameWorks Institute over the course of four years to craft the frame. Responding to social science research, the Collective Caregiving frame is designed to stretch the existing cultural mindset that children need care and that child outcomes are affected by the care provided to them by the people in their lives. It seeks to build on that mindset but extend the idea of care coming only from the people in a child’s life — family members, teachers, health care providers, etc. — to include the systems and issues that affect a child’s well-being, such as housing, food, the tax code, etc. The frame includes three recommendations intended to help stretch those mindsets:
1. Care is collective — Describe policies and other forms of collective action as caregiving.
2. Care must be inclusive — emphasize that we owe care to every child in every community, moving beyond the focus on “my” kids or kids like mine.
3. Care is expansive — Illustrate that collective caregiving happens everywhere, through every issue and is not limited to the narrow set of issues typically seen as “children’s issues.”

The purpose of this new frame is to broaden the tent of people who are interested in the well-being of all of our kids….This frame was not designed to be a response to our current politics….It was designed to meet the culture where it’s at now….But I will note that while this frame works well with all audiences, we did find that it works especially well with people who define themselves as conservative or Republican.
–David Alexander, MD, Leading for Kids

Elstein shared that RWJF funded the development of the Collective Caregiving frame to establish a strong baseline of research about existing mindsets and frames and to equip activists, advocates and practitioners with more effective frames so that they can more effectively advocate for a better future for children and families. She also described how her portfolio is internalizing this research into its own strategies and supporting Leading for Kids and other advocates and communications professionals as they craft toolkits for practitioners to use in applying this frame. Through Every Family Forward, RWJF is hosting learning sessions to introduce the frame to partners and grantees and invite them into a conversation about how they can collectively address the narrative and policy dimensions of our nation’s child care system.
Benedict then invited two other funders with deep expertise in advocacy and systems change work — Marica Cox Mitchell of Bainum Family Foundation and Dave Stone of United Way of Central Iowa (UWCI) — to describe their advocacy efforts and reflect on how the Collective Caregiving frame might enhance them.
Stone explained how UWCI’s cradle-to-career approach aligns nicely with the new frame, building support for children and families from early childhood to the adult workforce, including support for essential needs such as housing, nutritious food and health care. He noted the timeliness of the release of this frame as the nation is seeing a deeper embrace of the idea of individualism, underscoring the need for frames that can encourage a collective shared vision for children and families.

What I think is really important about this frame is the idea of care being collective. This creates buy in across the community. It is not just my kids, not just my family or my network. It is a community. Lifting up that community focus is much better than the individualistic focus that we are heading into.
–Dave Stone, United Way of Central Iowa

Mitchell described how Bainum embraces a “both-and” approach as it helps families navigate existing systems while simultaneously working to reimagine and re-envision those systems to better support children and families. She noted how the new frame aligns with the science of development and the need to focus on the ecosystem in which a child is learning and developing. Mitchell also applauded RWJF’s efforts to mine existing mindsets to inform its systems change approaches.

I think [the Collective Caregiving frame] is very reassuring and aligns research, policy and practice in a beautiful way. I also think it will be more effective because it is America-centric. Typically, when advocates are asked about an example of a progressive policy, we turn to Germany or Finland. Those are great examples, but can we contextualize them a little for who we are? I think this framework does that. It pushes us to be better, but it’s very American-centered.
–Marica Cox Mitchell, Bainum Family Foundation

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Kindergarten in Context: What Makes a Principal an Effective P-3 Leader?
2025-01-21 15:00 - 16:30
This conversation brought together a panel of experienced education leaders who shared insights on how effective P-3 leadership supports high-quality early learning, fosters community partnerships and promotes equitable, developmentally appropriate practices that benefit all students from pre-K through third grade.
The moderator for the conversation, Kristie Kauerz, Ed.D, with the National P-3 Center, kicked off the discussion by sharing persistent and concerning achievement gaps in education, particularly in reading, using NAEP data that has showed stagnant progress. Kauerz shared that these gaps are even more pronounced for vulnerable student populations, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic. She emphasized that while high-quality pre-K programs have proven effective, the gaps present at kindergarten entry are prone to persist through elementary school if not addressed effectively.
This issue, Kauerz explained, is the driving force behind strong P-3 principal leadership:

Research has shown that replacing a below average elementary principal with an above average elementary principal can result in an additional 2.9 months of math learning and 2.7 months of reading learning each year. By the end of third grade, those students will have made up almost two full academic years of growth when their school is led by an above average principal.

Gracie Branch, Ph.D., of the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) then explained the work being done to help principals achieve those successes. Branch shared a glimpse of what is included in A Principal’s Guide to Early Learning in the Early Grades, a resource designed to help principals understand what quality early learning looks like in schools. Branch explained that the guide is structured around six competencies, each with four strategies, effective principal practices and reflective assessments for principals.

Continuous improvement in preK through third grade focuses on developing and supporting systems to provide ambitious whole child instruction, authentic relationships with families and that internal accountability to make sure you’re doing the work and doing it right.

Attendees then heard from three P-3 principals who shared their experiences in understanding the growing importance of their roles.
Jacob Ellsworth, principal at Hawthorne Elementary School in Everett, Washington, began by sharing how his experience in completing a certificate program at a P-3 Center allowed him to understand that the efforts put in early on for students can contribute to long-term success. That success, Ellsworth explained, can be developed through different practices, such as fostering strong parent partnerships in preschool and kindergarten, that can create a lasting sense of community for students and their families.

There’s such an opportunity early on in the grades to not only impact students academically but also within their community, and we can build upon that. The smaller the gap at the beginning, the less likely it is to widen.

Paula Bruno, Ed.D., principal at Indian Valley Elementary School in Sylacauga, Alabama, discussed her experience in prioritizing P-3 learning in her school as a way of creating a cohesive school environment. Part of this work, Bruno explained, required fully integrating the school’s pre-K program into the K-3 school community. Bruno ensures that pre-K students and families have the opportunity to participate in school events so they can understand the expectations when they move up to kindergarten. Bruno also touched on the importance of providing connections to resources for the P-3 community at her school:

I make sure that I build those relationships with parents, to highlight that I’m here to work with you and to help support your child. I try to connect families with library resource centers, recreation centers, early childhood centers. We work together.

Lastly, Gwendolyn Payton, former principal and current Instructional Superintendent for District of Columbia Public Schools, emphasized the importance of having strong P-3 principals who can recognize what high-quality education looks like in a classroom, including understanding what they should see, hear and expect from both students and teachers. In Payton’s experience advising the P-3 group in D.C., she’s seen that principals who work hard to develop their educators’ skill sets see positive outcomes:

I’ve found that with the principals I’ve worked with, once they really lean into the competency, they take it on, and it becomes part of their overall school fabric, and it lasts. That’s what makes it stick. It’s been amazing to witness.

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Starting From a Place of Strength: United Ways Using Data and Messaging to Tell an Impact Story
2025-01-28 13:00 - 14:30
This GLR Learning Tuesdays Peer Exchange Conversation, presented in collaboration with United Way Worldwide and Ascend at the Aspen Institute, explored how data and messaging drive community impact. Moderated by Marjorie Sims of Ascend at the Aspen Institute, the session emphasized the need to shift from an individualistic mindset to a collective approach in advocating for children’s well-being. Speakers discussed how reframing narratives and leveraging high-quality data can enhance advocacy efforts, inform policy and build broader public support for investments in children and families.
David Alexander, MD, of Leading for Kids introduced the Collective Caregiving frame that his organization developed with the FrameWorks Institute. Frames are active choices that advocates use to talk about the issues they care about. The Collective Caregiving frame repositions children’s welfare as a shared societal responsibility. Alexander explored how current policy decisions often neglect children’s needs and stressed the importance of using messaging that shifts public perception toward collective accountability.
“One of the major things that drives the way Americans think about kids is this notion of care. And so we came up with this new framing called collective caregiving….It takes this notion of care and stretches it in three important ways: The first stretch is taking care from something that’s individual to care that’s something that’s collective. The second stretch is by explicitly calling out the fact that we can and should care for children who don’t necessarily look like ours….The third way to stretch this concept of care is to take the narrow band of things that people think of as care issues and bring care into every issue.”
Ayeola Fortune of United Way Worldwide underscored the role of data in shaping equitable solutions and compelling storytelling. She shared how United Way leverages data to assess community needs, track progress and drive strategic decision-making. By effectively using data, organizations can craft impact stories that resonate with stakeholders, strengthen advocacy efforts and influence policy.
“We have to connect [data] both to the frames that resonate currently with people in the culture and society in which we live, and then stretching that, changing the frame.
Sometimes the issues that we talk about can seem intractable, they can seem unsolvable. Poverty is one. I put that right at the forefront. [With the Child Tax Credit,] we cut child poverty in half through that policy measure. Even though not sustained, it showed us what is possible…the framing we use has to show people what is possible through collective efforts.”
Gretchen Ceranic of United Way of Central Florida then provided insights from their Success by Six program, which supports early childhood education in one of the nation’s fastest-growing regions. She highlighted the importance of developmental screenings, authentic family engagement and wraparound services to address gaps in school readiness. She also emphasized the power of strategic messaging in communicating the urgency of early investments in child development.
“So we will share a success story…but the way the message is shared, it is less about ‘look at what this family did’ and the feel, the takeaway is ‘look at how the support from the community came together to make change.’ And I think that’s really important. When those messages are shared, we will often hear from partner agencies that are doing good work for children and families in our community and say, hey, I want to be a part of this.”
The conversation underscored the power of research-driven advocacy and the necessity of reframing narratives to connect personal stories with broader systemic change. Panelists stressed the importance of applying equity frameworks, leveraging data to make a case for sustainable policy shifts and fostering political will to ensure children’s needs remain at the forefront of decision-making. Participants were encouraged to integrate these strategies into their work to drive lasting impact for children and families.

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.

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Sports-Focused Initiatives: A Way Through the Debate about SEL?
2025-01-28 15:00 - 16:30
VIEW SESSION ON YOUTUBE

In this learning experience, we engaged with Olympic gold medalists and other leaders who are successfully creating opportunities for students to engage in sports-based SEL (social-emotional learning) programs and dispelling some of the discomfort and concern that some parents and educators experience with SEL. We explored the importance of ensuring that students’ educational experiences include being part of a safe and open culture to advance their developmental needs, and how sports-oriented SEL initiatives can help achieve this and be a point of unity in the debate about SEL.
Educational leader and sports dad Andy Rotherham of Bellwether moderated the conversation and began the discussion by asking each panelist to introduce themselves and their work and share what they mean when they say SEL. The panelists — Steve Mesler, Olympic gold medalist and founder of Classroom Champions; Christian Taylor, also an Olympic gold medalist and board member and mentor for Classroom Champions; Anthony Andino of the Center for Healing and Justice Through Sport; Kali Thorne Ladd of the Children’s Institute in Oregon; and Becky Wade-Mdivanian of LiFEsports at The Ohio State University — discussed how they frame their work and how they elevate the importance of the skills associated with social-emotional learning.
Ladd, whose work is more broadly focused on SEL, expressed her perspective on the topic in this way:

I’m looking at it from both an educator and through a neuroscientific lens. Thoughts and feelings are intermingled in the brain. And so for students to thrive, for young people to thrive, the SEL muscle being built is really integral to them learning and to them being successful in life.

Rotherham then engaged the panel in a robust discussion of how the “athlete’s mindset” is focused on resilience and perseverance and how this mindset and related skills can be taught by engaging in sports and in other ways that do not require kids to play sports. As Ladd lifted up, speakers discussed the neuroscience research on how brains develop and the need to engage kids in activities that teach them to control their bodies and their emotions, solve problems and ask for help, as well as other basic non-controversial skills critical for youth development.
Wade-Mdivanian expressed how important it is to include opportunities for students to reflect on what they are learning and consider how the skill is transferable.

Sometimes we might play a basketball game and someone fouls us, and we didn’t have great self-control, we didn’t have great emotional regulation [and you learn from that.] How do we teach a kid in that moment a skill to use, but then reflect on it at the end of the activity with the child and say, ‘Okay, now where else could you use this? Could you use this when you fail that test at school and you’re really frustrated? When you didn’t understand how to do a drill at practice and you came up and asked me, could you also go ask your teacher when you’re stuck on a problem?’

We thank you for joining this unique learning and engagement opportunity. We hope you found it enlightening and that you will plan to join us again for future opportunities

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Decoding NAEP: Behind and Beyond the Headlines
2025-02-04 15:00 - 16:30
This GLR Learning Tuesdays webinar featured the voices of journalists, data experts and community leaders in an engaging conversation as the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading launched its new mini-series on what we need to know about NAEP to accelerate learning recovery and close achievement gaps.
Moderated by John Gomperts of CGLR, the conversation began with Morgan Scott Polikoff, Ph.D., of University of Southern California providing an overview of NAEP, its administration and what the various performance levels mean:

NAEP is a national test required by federal law for the purpose of monitoring performance over time.
Randomly selected representative samples of schools and children in fourth and eighth grades from across the U.S. participate.
The National Assessment Government Board determines the content and format of each test including the performance levels.
Students take two 25-minute tests in one subject as well as survey questions about their learning habits and motivations.
NAEP Proficiency is a relatively high benchmark that is above the proficiency levels of nearly all states with NAEP Basic being a little below state proficiency standards.

The release of the NAEP scores on January 29 unleashed a slew of headlines, including stories authored by our panelists who shared highlights and reflections on the issues they explored in their stories.
Kaylin Belsha of Chalkbeat drew attention to the growing gap between the lowest- and highest-performing students saying, “Kids who are reading at the lowest levels are doing so at the lowest levels in 30 years.”
Kevin Mahnken of The 74 looked at the gaps for Asian and Hispanic students noting, “Asian fourth graders saw a pronounced dip in fourth-grade reading, but the figures for Hispanic students really jumped out because they were fairly consistent across both subjects” experiencing significant drops.
Sara Randazzo of the Wall Street Journal pointed out the slide in reading that began pre-pandemic (early 2019) explaining, “You look at these numbers and you want to tell a narrative that says why this happened, but nobody really knows.”
Reflecting on the headlines following the NAEP release, Karyn Lewis, Ph.D., of NWEA said, “I was most surprised by how surprised everyone else was because this is exactly what [we] have been seeing in interim assessment and reporting over the last four years….The reading backslide is really alarming and the reading gaps are continuing to grow.” Meanwhile although there are still significant gaps in math, that subject is “where we rang the alarm bells first” in response to the 2022 NAEP scores with many states and districts responding by directing resources and attention. Polikoff noted that the relative progress in math could also be attributed to the fact that “math is more sensitive to educational intervention.”
In reflecting on data from her company’s assessments over the past four years, Kristen Huff, Ed.D., of Curriculum Associates stressed the importance of paying attention to the ages of students when pandemic disruptions occurred. The fourth graders tested in the 2024 NAEP tests were in kindergarten in the spring of 2020. Curriculum Associates released research in 2024 showing that students who were 3 and 4 years old in 2020 are starting school behind pre-pandemic levels and are not learning at the same rate as their pre-pandemic peers. Huff noted that “what we’ve learned is that the impact of the pandemic on our nation’s youngest students and preK students is lasting….We’re going to continue to see this if we don’t put the right supports and interventions in place.”
With all this data and the variety of attention points, it is important to use the data responsibly — failure to do so is what Polikoff calls “misNAEPery.” Munro Richardson, Ph.D., of Read Charlotte encouraged users to “compare your state assessment with the NAEP, look at what the NAEP says, and if you’re lucky enough to be in [one of the Tribal Urban District Assessment areas] triangulate both of these.” He encouraged attendees to look for patterns in the data in order to ask better questions that can inform action. The data won’t necessarily tell you why, but it can give some insights on what to look for. Karyn Lewis echoed this, calling for self-reflection.
As the panel shared their reflections on the data and the things communities can be thinking and asking about as they seek to apply NAEP data wisely, Belsha called on education stakeholders to drill down into the data, noting that several large districts saw significant drops in eighth-grade math suggesting those students will need targeted interventions. Polikoff agreed with that call to action and pointed to the importance of looking at what is happening in places like Massachusetts, Louisiana and Mississippi that are outperforming their peers. “[Find] one place where it’s working…one district, one school even, where something they’ve implemented is having immediate effects,” said Randazzo.

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.

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Decoding NAEP: Who's Below "Basic" and Why?
2025-02-11 15:00 - 16:30
“I don’t think we should ever stop paying attention to the data. I don’t think we should ever stop collecting data. I don’t think we should ever stop disaggregating and discussing it. But I do think we need to put more time into [engaging] our teachers and families who know more about our students than we might from our broader perspective.” – Melissa Castillo, Ed.D.

This discussion, part of our miniseries on the latest NAEP results, explored the data to begin to understand which students fell further behind and why.
The conversation began with a special prerecorded segment that featured Mark Schneider, Ph.D., with American Enterprise Institute and the former director of the Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education from 2018 to 2024. Schneider emphasized the long-term, continuing, and growing trend of declines in literacy rates and pointed to the large and concerning growth in kids who are scoring at a “below NAEP basic” level.
Schneider pointed out that while pandemic-related disruptions exacerbated these trends, the declines in reading performance have been ongoing for over a decade. He stressed the urgent need for evidence-based interventions to respond to these challenges, warning that without targeted action the consequences could extend far beyond the classroom, affecting economic mobility and workforce readiness. Schneider also underscored the importance of leveraging data to inform policy decisions, so that resources are directed toward strategies with a proven impact on student achievement.
Following the segment with Mark Schneider, we heard from Ian Rowe with American Enterprise Institute who reflected on the sobering NAEP results and emphasized the importance of examining not only students who are struggling but also those who are excelling to understand what contributes to their success. Rowe highlighted that the 2024 NAEP data point to a troubling milestone, with more fourth graders scoring “below basic” than “proficient.”
Rowe then discussed the NAEP student survey, which collects self-reported data on contextual factors such as family structure, noting his concerns about the reliability of responses from young students. He called for a more thorough statistical review of the survey’s effectiveness in informing our understanding of student data.
Katharine Stevens, Ph.D., with Center on Child and Family Policy continued the conversation by arguing that focusing on averages in NAEP reporting masks critical disparities, particularly at the lowest performance levels. While breaking down results by race and income is useful, that analysis overlooks significant variations within these groups. Stevens showed that disaggregating data further reveals that the risk factors for low achievement are more complex than traditional categories suggest, emphasizing no single factor — whether race, income, or family structure — directly causes student performance but rather correlates with a range of influences requiring deeper analysis.
Stevens also shared research underscoring the importance of early childhood experiences, well before pre-K, in determining academic success. She argued that focusing on supporting parents during these formative years could be key to closing achievement gaps and improving long-term student outcomes.
Closing out the discussion, Melissa Castillo, Ed.D., formerly with the U.S. Department of Education, emphasized the need for more nuanced data to make strategic decisions for students below grade level. She echoed Katharine Stevens’ point that conventional subgroups, particularly for Black and Latino students, overlook critical distinctions that could improve interventions. Castillo stressed that addressing learning gaps requires both closing disparities and accelerating learning.
Castillo also highlighted the distinction between English language learners (ELLs) and multilingual learners, noting that while some ELLs are multilingual learners, not all multilingual learners are formally identified as ELLs. This distinction is crucial for providing targeted support and leveraging students’ strengths. Castillo further emphasized the importance of understanding the unique characteristics of students, especially those from Latino demographics, and ensuring teacher training is tailored to bilingual language acquisition and literacy in both English and other languages.

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NCADE Emerging: A Briefing and Conversation With the Institute of Education Sciences
2025-02-18 12:30 - 14:00
The Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the independent research arm of the U.S. Department of Education, has been vaulted into the news cycle with the announcement that the Trump administration has canceled more than $800 million of its contracts. These reports and the ensuing controversy make now an appropriate time for the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading to rebroadcast NCADE Emerging: A Briefing and Conversation With the Institute of Education Sciences, an invitation-only session we hosted during GLR Week 2023. This session was held just after then-President Biden had signed into law a budget package that included an extra $40 million for IES to use for research, development, and dissemination. Then-IES Director Mark Schneider, Ph.D., had proposed using a portion of these funds to establish a National Center for Advanced Development in Education (NCADE) to support “quick-turnaround, high-reward, scalable solutions” to significantly improve student outcomes. As proposed, NCADE would follow a model like that of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to create the extra flexibility, staffing, interdisciplinary perspectives, and practice orientation needed to achieve breakthroughs in education tools and practices.
On February 18, 2025, CGLR hosted a special rebroadcast of a NCADE Emerging, providing an opportunity for a broader audience to hear Schneider and Elizabeth Albro, Ph.D., the commissioner of education research at IES, discuss their vision for implementing a DARPA-like approach in education with commentary and reflections from philanthropic leaders who have invested in transformative research. The fact that this aspirational conversation occurred less than two years ago, encouraged CGLR to believe that a revisit could play a value-added role in illuminating and navigating the current controversy.

Decoding NAEP: Attendance Matters
2025-02-18 15:00 - 16:30
Continuing CGLR’s winter series examining the data and results from NAEP, also known as the Nation’s Report Card, the latest session delved into an analysis of the recently released Education Recovery Scorecard report. While NAEP provides nationwide trends in reading and math, the Scorecard offers an opportunity to focus on the impacts of pandemic-related disruptions and subsequent recovery efforts, providing a deeper understanding of how remote learning, federal expenditures, and other factors influenced student learning during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Among these factors, chronic absenteeism has had the most significant effect and continues to persist, negatively affecting the progress and pace of learning recovery.
In this session, John Gomperts of CGLR had the opportunity to engage with a lead author of the Scorecard report, Tom Kane, Ph.D., of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, along with Hedy Chang of Attendance Works, a leading voice on chronic absenteeism and strategies to increase attendance. Kane and Chang reviewed the findings from the Scorecard and examined data on the ways in which absenteeism is persisting and impacting learning recovery—not only for the students who are absent but for all students in the classroom. Kane provided context by sharing related findings from the Scorecard:

“We provide evidence that shows the districts with higher absence rates had somewhat slower recovery, drawing the connection between chronic absenteeism and slow recovery. From the evidence in the report, [we have realized that we are not fully] understanding the effects of chronic absenteeism, and we’ll be studying this more in the future. We may find out that absenteeism is having an even more negative effect than we’re estimating right now.”

Chang shared additional data on attendance and absenteeism across states and districts, setting the stage for a discussion with state leaders who shared their strategies and the learning recovery progress they have seen as a result of their focus on increasing attendance. Those state leaders included Kari Sullivan Custer of the Connecticut State Department of Education, Lewis Ferebee, Ed.D., Chancellor of the District of Columbia School District, Lori Masseur of Read On Arizona, and Ernise Singleton, Ph.D., of the Louisiana Department of Education, each of whom described their work across their states and districts.
Home visits emerged as a primary strategy to increase attendance through partnerships with families. Custer described how this strategy took effect in Connecticut:

“One of the most effective strategies was our Learner Engagement Attendance Program, which was founded in spring 2021—we call it affectionately LEAP. Governor Lamont and the Connecticut State Department of Education launched LEAP, which is a statewide, positive and relational home visiting intervention to re-engage students and families. LEAP is not just about the home visit. It’s about equipping districts and home visitors with training, performance management tools, and high-touch support. And we use home visit logs to analyze the barriers to attendance and address challenges head-on.”

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.

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Decoding NAEP: Different Contexts, Different Results?
2025-02-25 15:00 - 16:30
The fourth session in our Decoding NAEP series brought together leaders from across educational contexts including: Raymond C. Hart, Ph.D. of the Council of the Great City Schools; Drew Jacobs, of National Alliance for Public Charter Schools; Kathleen Porter-Magee of Leadership Roundtable; Melissa Sadorf, Ed.D., of Arizona Rural Schools Association; and Beth Schiavino-Narvaez, Ed.D. of the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA). Panelists discussed learning recovery, key drivers of progress, ongoing challenges, and future plans.
While concerns about the NAEP results were shared, participants also highlighted areas of progress and effective strategies. A key insight from the discussion was the identification of common success factors across diverse school settings. Here are a few key takeaways:

The importance of a strong and positive school culture means having clear priorities around learning and development, and everyone in the system understanding, living out, and consistently conveying those priorities to students, families, and communities.
The value of a comprehensive approach to early literacy emphasizes early oral skills, word knowledge, and a content-rich, knowledge-based curriculum that supports literacy development.
Student and family supports matter. Kids need to be in a position to learn, and, whatever the setting, it is vital to create positive conditions for learning.
Adequate and dependable resources and support matter. Being able to pursue a consistent approach over time creates predictability and allows for continued improvement.

We hope you will continue to be a part of this important dialogue and attend the March sessions of our Decoding NAEP series. Join us on March 11 when we will hear from parent groups that are using the NAEP data and other assessments to promote better outcomes and resources for their children, and on March 18 to hear from Chief State School Officers in five states about their NAEP scores and their plans for the future.

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Love to Learn: The Transformative Power of Care and Connection in Early Education
2025-03-04 12:30 - 14:00
This special webinar allowed us to dig deeper into the importance of relationships in early education with Love to Learn author Isabelle Hau of Stanford University and a panel of expert commentators who shared their perspectives on how we can enhance these vital connections.
Meera Mani, Ed.D., with The David and Lucile Packard Foundation moderated the webinar and began by emphasizing the importance of the book’s messages and the call to action it presents.
Hau framed the conversation by discussing the urgency of the book’s release in light of societal changes and technological advancements that often undermine meaningful relationships. She emphasized that in a time when technology dominates much of the learning experience, it’s crucial to remember that the foundation of effective learning is rooted in human connection. Hau explained that love is the most important tool we have to combat the increasing stress children face, citing extensive research that shows how love not only mitigates stress but also promotes brain development and resilience.
She further stressed that relationships should be at the center of policy, educational environments, and technology design, so that every child has access to the protective benefits of love and connection. Hau’s call to action was clear: We need to make relationships visible and prioritize them across all sectors, from family to education to the tech world, to ensure that children’s emotional and cognitive development thrives.
Attendees then heard from David W. Willis, MD, FAAP, with Georgetown University who expressed appreciation for Love to Learn’s focus on relational health. He emphasized the critical need to address the relational deprivation crisis affecting child health, development, and learning. Rather than focusing solely on the challenges, Willis encouraged attendees to view this moment as an opportunity — one that requires us to build stronger social networks and community support around children and families. He stressed that fostering relationships, particularly those that are responsive and nurturing, is essential to children’s development. Willis also pointed out that these connections help children manage stress and build resilience, ultimately enhancing their capacity to learn and grow.
Kali Thorne Ladd of Children’s Institute continued the conversation by describing Love to Learn as a “need to have” rather than a “nice to have” and emphasized the importance of Hau’s message that we are wired for love. Acknowledging this, Ladd shared the need for teacher preparation programs to incorporate neuroscience and behavioral psychology, particularly focusing on the critical role that love and emotional well-being play in student learning. She emphasized that by integrating these insights into education systems, we can ensure that children not only have the cognitive tools to succeed but also the emotional foundation to thrive in their relationships and communities.
Lastly, attendees heard from Gloria Corral with Parent Institute for Quality Education (PIQE) who praised Hau’s book and highlighted its urgent message about the importance of early childhood development and educational equity. Corral highlighted the critical role of validating language and culture, particularly in a moment where these aspects are under attack. She stressed that love in the early years is expressed through touch, words, and language, and that this should be nurtured within each community’s cultural context.
She stated, “Technology is and should be leveraged as a valuable way of enhancing relationships. But it’s the love that comes with the human-to-human interactions that has to be foundational in the work. That includes [honoring] language, culture, and history in order for our collective well-being to be valued and nurtured.”

“There is a lot of stress right now. But as Isabelle [Hau] lays out and as the research lays out, love is the single greatest protective factor to mitigate stress in the brain and to create resiliency. If there was ever a time that we needed to lean into love, not just for our children, but adults…now is that time.” – Kali Thorne Ladd, Children’s Institute

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For-Profit Child Care: Implications, Challenges and Opportunities
2025-03-04 15:00 - 16:30
This important session was part of CGLR’s ongoing series exploring the persistent challenges and the hoped for future of child care that began in fall 2024. Many of you joined those sessions with Dan Wuori, author of The Daycare Myth, along with other experts, including state leaders who are implementing promising strategies and advocates who are committed to ensuring that we are ready for the future of child care. We looked at strategies to address the “three legged stool” of affordability, quality, and workforce development/retention. We also “interrogated” and re-imagined the future of child care in our discussions with expert leaders. This week, we had the chance to pick up on one of the important factors in the future of child care: the increasing pace of private investment in the systems of support that families need so desperately.
CGLR’s good partner and early childhood expert, Marica Cox Mitchell of the Bainum Family Foundation moderated a robust discussion among advocates and providers with diverse and sometimes conflicting perspectives. Marquita Davis, Ph.D., of KinderCare, Elliot Haspel of Capita, Radha Mohan, J.D., of the Early Care and Education Consortium, Susan Gale Perry of Child Care Aware of America, Arthur Rolnick, Ph.D., of the University of Minnesota, Linda Smith of the Buffett Early Childhood Institute and Simon Workman of Prenatal to Five Fiscal Strategies engaged in a moderated discussion about the impact of private investment in early care. A big part of the conversation was consideration of guardrails that may be needed for all providers and especially those backed by private equity and other profit-seeking entities. Haspel explained what is meant by guardrails, offering an example from Massachusetts, and then came back to the core point that all speakers emphasized no matter the type of provider or the guardrails in place:

This idea of common-sense guardrails is important. You can look at what Massachusetts did. They said, if you want public money and you’re a large for-profit chain, you have to agree to some common-sense things. You have to agree to a higher level of financial disclosure to check on whether you are over indebted — you would need to report this. You have to agree to spend a certain amount of this public money on educator salaries. So it’s those sorts of guardrails that really give accountability, that give sunlight. But we also need to get the bigger picture in mind, which is how do we center [the voices and experiences of] those who are most affected by the system and how do we build toward a system that’s going to work for them, even if that’s not the system we have today.

The conversation continued and we heard differing opinions about how the issues of accessibility, affordability, and workforce are impacted by whether a provider is backed by profit-seeking entities such as private equity or the stock market. At the heart of it all, everyone agreed that it is important to move beyond the type of financing behind the provider and address the issues that are common across all providers to ensure that the needs of families are met and young children from all backgrounds have the chance to get ready for kindergarten. Davis also emphasized the importance of guardrails for all providers to ensure the persistent challenges are addressed:

I do think it’s important that we impose guardrails on everyone. I’ve worked in all of the systems, and when we talk about guardrails, we can’t just think about one part of the system. If we care about all children showing up in these multiple systems, we invest in the teacher training, we invest in increasing their salaries, we invest in the things that families need and want for good outcomes for their children. So guardrails writ large should be what we’re doing for the early learning field. I think there are benefits of imposing standards of quality on all providers, especially around the notion of finance.

CGLR was thrilled to have the opportunity to use its GLR Learning Tuesdays platform to hold a conversation of differing opinions, and we are inspired to develop future sessions that will continue to address child care challenges and opportunities. Keep your eye out for announcements. For now, we hope you will join us again for upcoming sessions.

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Decoding NAEP: What Families Know and What We Can Do
2025-03-11 15:00 - 16:30
“We all want the best for our kids. But without information… how can we advocate?”– John Johnson, Parent Advocate ​​​​​​​

This Decoding NAEP session, co-sponsored by the National Parents Union (NPU) brought together a panel of parent leaders to explore the role of data in empowering parents, strengthening advocacy, and ensuring that all children — especially those furthest from opportunity — have access to the support they need.
What Parents Want:
Parents don’t just want data; they want timely, clear, and actionable information about their children’s progress, interventions, and learning opportunities. They want to be co-designers of solutions, not just recipients of programs.
Panelists emphasized the need for data about their individual students as well as data that represents all students, including Native American, children of color and lower-income families — not just those with the biggest gaps. As one participant shared in the chat, “Data belongs to the people. Data belongs to students, families, and communities!”
What You Can Do:

Engage parents as co-designers — Go into your community and create spaces for real dialogue.
Be a listener — Understand what parents need and value in education.
Build relationships with diverse communities — Ensure all families see themselves in the data and decision-making processes.
Model consistency — Trust is built through ongoing, meaningful engagement.

The conversation made one thing clear, when parents have access to data, they have power. They can advocate, partner, and push for solutions that help children thrive. The challenge ahead is ensuring that every family — not just a select few — has that access.

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.

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Harnessing the Power of Communities to Help Children: The Early Learning Nation Collective
2025-03-18 12:30 - 14:00
“Through this work over the decades, we have seen the value of community leadership because place is such a critical factor in kids’ life trajectories. If you look at the research on economic mobility and education attainment, it’s down to the ZIP code level because it really is at that community level where the formal and informal systems come together. Can I find a great child care provider? Is there a library with books in my language? Is food getting to families with young children who need it most? So the work of the ELN Collective is about investing in local leaders who can bridge and work across those formal and informal systems in service of local priorities. And it came about because we heard directly from folks in the field that there was a need and an opportunity for more investment in local leadership and local coordination.”
—Megan Wyatt, Bezos Family Foundation

In this Funder-to-Funder Conversation, Megan Wyatt of the Bezos Family Foundation (BFF) offered the above reflection as she described what sparked the Early Learning Nation (ELN) Collective and its efforts to shift power and influence to local leaders to create communities where every child has the resources they need to thrive. Thank you for registering for this funder-focused session and for joining us to explore this powerful new approach to supporting local action.
Angela Garcia, co-chair of the ELN Collective Steering Committee and director of Toy Box Early Learning Centers in Las Cruces, New Mexico, facilitated the discussion which featured the founding funder and national partners of the ELN Collective. During the conversation, Garcia first spoke with Megan Wyatt, who explained how the ELN Collective aligns with BFF’s commitment to fostering early brain development in children through community partnerships.
Garcia then engaged representatives from the seven national partners that comprise the ELN Collective — Center for the Study of Social Policy, Children’s Defense Fund, National League of Cities, Save the Children Action Network, Start Early, The Hunt Institute, and UnidosUS. Each partner shared insights into their unique role within the collective and emphasized how their intentional collaboration strengthens the collective’s impact, ensuring that its efforts are greater than the sum of its parts. They highlighted how their joint initiatives — such as community action tools, technical assistance, community cohorts and convenings, and a Local Action Fund led by community members — position local leaders to drive meaningful change within their communities.
“One of the tenets of democracy is the voice of the people — that those voices are heard and that folks from all walks of life have a seat at decision-making tables….That’s why this collective initiative is so timely and so right for this moment. We say ‘for the people, by the people,’ and this work is really making that happen. We know that local leaders and communities must be part of the solution….Those who are closest to families and the needs of young children, especially those in underserved communities, must be at the table to help us develop systems and services that meet their needs. The collective is about doing that work.” —Tonja Rucker, The National League of Cities
Wyatt encouraged other philanthropic organizations to join in scaling and expanding the ELN Collective, emphasizing that “this work is designed to accomplish what no single organization could achieve alone, and for that reason, it is beyond the capacity of any one philanthropic entity to steward independently.” She announced that the next phase of investment would commence in the summer, with investments from additional funders unlocking further support from BFF.
Wyatt also extended an invitation to state and local funders operating in the 15 priority states where the ELN Collective is currently focused — Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and West Virginia — to collaborate with BFF and the ELN Collective. She highlighted the opportunity to leverage the collective’s free resources and its network of engaged local leaders to advance CGLR’s shared goal of creating brighter futures for young children.
To connect with and explore investment opportunities with the ELN Collective, contact: rucker@nlc.org.

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Decoding NAEP: The Perspectives of State Chiefs
2025-03-18 15:00 - 16:30
This important session was a type of capstone to CGLR’s recent multi-week Decoding NAEP series where we’ve had the chance to hear multiple perspectives on interpreting and making use of the 2024 NAEP scores. This week, we had the unique opportunity to learn from a panel of Chief State School Officers. As the top state education decision-makers, policymakers and influencers, they shared how they are reacting to the NAEP results, the other assessment tools they are using to ensure they are progressing toward proficiency in reading and math, and what this means for their priorities moving forward.
In this Decoding NAEP session, John Gomperts facilitated a discussion that quickly revealed the collegiality among state chiefs from diverse regions of the country. The session provided a unique opportunity to observe top decision-makers as they deliberated on key challenges and opportunities, exchanged best practices, and responded to both pre-planned and audience-generated questions in a candid and insightful dialogue.
Susana Córdova, Ed.D., Colorado Commissioner of Education; Aimee Rogstad Guidera, Virginia’s Secretary of Education; Katie Jenner, Ed.D., Indiana Secretary of Education; Eric Mackey, Ed.D., Alabama’s State Superintendent of Education; and Carey Wright, Ed.D., Maryland’s State Superintendent of Schools began the discussion by sharing their “actionable takeaways” from the NAEP data on reading and math proficiency for students in their states. Córdova shared how data is critical to determining the right interventions to support student progress:

And so the actionable takeaway that we have really focused on is making sure that we’re doubling down on the supports that we have in Colorado for students, for teachers, for district leaders. It’s not just one of those places. It’s like making sure that people have access to resources, high-quality instructional materials, training for teachers, training for school leaders, and readily accessible data. The readily available data allows “just in time” interventions and the resources for trained teachers to provide those supports. And so that’s the area where we really are focusing. A big chunk of our energy is getting those strong foundations in place, moving with urgency and making sure that we have the whole suite of supports that are going to be important to make sure kids get to grade level [by the end of] third grade.

The conversation continued as the state chiefs acknowledged that NAEP data is useful because it provides a broad-brush comparison across the country and across states. It may, however, miss pockets of progress and bright spots where gains are being made in specific and perhaps surprising areas of the country. Mackey spoke to this when sharing a bright spot in a rural area of his state:

DeKalb County is a very rural county. It has a high immigrant population, mostly Hispanic. So Crossville is a school (in DeKalb County) that is about 80% to 85% Hispanic. A lot are first generation coming to America. Of course, many don’t speak English as their first language. And they’re seeing remarkable growth, unbelievable growth. And it’s a different strategy. We put a really good math coach in that school and a really good literacy coach in that school. So they’re helping the teachers think about the best way to work with these students. So I would say the two best things we have found in working with these traditionally low achieving populations is: one, get really good PD for the teachers and a coach, or in this case, multiple coaches in that school to help the teachers learn to implement the PD; and two, create outside learning activities. Whether, again, it is intercessions, it’s after school, it’s before school, it’s summer school.

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.

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