LEO | Learning & Engagement Opportunities Network

Beyond the Ballot: Sustaining Progress in Academic Recovery and Early School Success
2025-01-07 15:00 - 16:30 (America/New_York)
“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.

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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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.

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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Georgia Efforts to Support Summer Learning
2025-03-25 12:30 - 14:00
This Crucible of Practice Salon highlighted the innovative work of the BOOST (Building Opportunities for Out-of-School Time) grant initiative in Georgia, developed in partnership by the Georgia Department of Education and the Georgia Statewide Afterschool Network (GSAN). The initiative, with funds from the American Rescue Plan provided grants over the course of the three years to programs in 115 of 159 counties. This statewide expansion has led to more sites providing robust summer programs for young people.
Katie Landes of the Georgia Statewide Afterschool Network opened the discussion with an overview of BOOST’s design, emphasizing the program’s intentional focus on collaboration with local initiatives, as well as its commitment to transparency and flexibility.
Kinyatta Trice, also from Georgia Statewide Afterschool Network, joined the conversation to discuss BOOST’s implementation. She highlighted grantee success stories and outlined the approach used to provide technical assistance and quality support. Next, Jeannie Adams Myers, Ed.S., of Los Niños Primero USA—a BOOST program grantee—spoke about the impact of the funding on her program, describing how it helped enhance program quality and build capacity.
Akia Lewis, MPAA, PMP, of Georgia Family Connection Partnership, addressed the organization’s efforts to engage and support rural and other non-traditional grantees. Dawn Boyer of Metis Associates then provided an overview of the program’s evaluation, detailing how program partners were involved in designing the assessment. She also shared key outcome data and system study findings.
Finally, Katie Landes returned to discuss the program’s future. With federal funding coming to an end, the team is working toward a sustainable model, including efforts to secure funding for BOOST 2.0 in Georgia’s FY26 budget.

More Hopeful Futures or Children as Collateral Damage?
2025-03-25 15:00 - 16:30
The recent GLR Learning Tuesdays session examined the evolving role of the federal government in education, focusing on the children and families who may be affected by proposed policy changes.
The discussion featured Amalia Chamorro of UnidosUS, Bob Cunningham formerly with Understood, Denise Forte of the The Education Trust, Lindsay Jones, Esq. of CAST, Elson Nash, Ph.D. of the Education Commission of the States, and Leslie Villegas of New America. Panelists explored the history of federal engagement and investment in education, highlighting key areas such as support for schools serving low-income students, protections and opportunities for children with special needs, and resources for English language learners.
The session also addressed the establishment of the Department of Education in 1980 and the challenges of potentially shifting its functions to other agencies. Discussion centered on the implications for children and families, the role of federal funding streams, the value of national benchmark data NAEP, and the importance of technical assistance, particularly in smaller states and underserved regions. The panel emphasized the Office for Civil Rights’ critical role in empowering parents to advocate for their children’s education.
As debates continue in Washington, D.C. and across the country, understanding these issues remains essential. This session provided key insights, and participants are encouraged to engage further. The next session, Impacts of Accelerated Deportation, will take place on April 1.

More Hopeful Futures or Children as Collateral Damage? Potential Implications of Accelerated Deportation
2025-04-01 15:00 - 16:30
“The problems caused by a lack of a coherent immigration policy are now being compounded by a flood of executive orders that will fail to replace such a policy. Instead, indiscriminate mass detention and deportation is separating children, parents, and other family members, and threatening to do so to others. We all know that the trauma of those separations and the stress of living in fear of the separations to come for children today can have lifelong negative effects on their health and mental health as adults.”
— Joshua Sparrow, MD, DFAACAP, Brazelton Touchpoints Center

In this April 1, 2025 GLR Learning Tuesdays session, Joshua Sparrow, MD, DFAACAP, of Brazelton Touchpoints Center (BTC) offered the above statement during his opening remarks and highlighted the varied and important contributions of immigrants to the United States.

Cecelia Leong of Attendance Works facilitated the discussion, which opened with some context-setting data from Wendy Cervantes of the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP). Cervantes explained that about one in four young children are part of immigrant families, but 90% of these children are U.S. citizens. She noted that most of these immigrant families have very deep roots in the U.S., with more than half having resided in the country for more than 10 years. Cervantes also walked attendees through some of the recent proposed and enacted policy changes, explaining that they are aimed at three primary goals: increasing immigration enforcement; restricting or eliminating access to lawful status and entry to the U.S.; and restricting or eliminating access to health care and other critical benefits.
“I usually refer to [young children who arrive as unaccompanied minors] as the children who are the most vulnerable under normal immigration policies. But under the current policy context, while I still believe that these are the most vulnerable populations, I also really believe that the larger number that I covered earlier, the 18 million or 1 in 4 children who are part of immigrant families, are all facing really severe threats to their well-being under the current policy context.”
— Wendy Cervantes, CLASP
Leong and Cervantes were then joined by Adrián Pedroza of Abriendo Puertas/Opening Doors and Mayra Alvarez, MHA, of The Children’s Partnership in an engaging and informative conversation that explored how the current policy environment and misinformation about various policies are impacting children, families, early childhood programs and caregivers, schools, and families’ access to health care services.
Pedroza shared highlights from his organization’s recent National Latino Family Survey, noting that significant numbers were avoiding normal activities such as signing their child up for school programs (30%), talking to their child’s teacher (26%), or visiting a doctor (25%). He also stressed the power of trusted messengers to combat misinformation, stating that the vast majority of families surveyed reported high levels of trust for nonprofits, community-based organizations, doctors, schools, and faith-based organizations.
“Because we are hearing from families that are being caught up in immigration enforcement situations or being asked about their immigration status — even if they are U.S. citizens or here with a permanent residency — there is this fear that’s happening within the community now. We always tell family-serving organizations in our communities that it’s important to have accurate and true information because there is also a lot of misinformation out there.”
— Adrián Pedroza, Abriendo Puertas/Opening Doors
Alvarez discussed the impact of immigration policies and enforcement on children’s health and well-being and their access to health care services, noting that the stress immigrant parents and caregivers are experiencing can impact their children’s sense of well-being and healthy development.
“As we think about the implications of immigration policy on child health and well-being, you can’t separate a child’s health from that of their parents and caregivers. So, as we know that parents and adults in the lives of these children are worried about deportation, are worried about detention, are confused by the changing policies, that then impacts the very environment in which we are raising our children….This is absolutely [true] for children who are part of undocumented families or mixed-status families. But it’s also the broader community of children who are part of immigrant families — who share a classroom with a child in an immigrant family, who play on the playground — and they have questions about what’s happening.”
— Mayra Alvarez, The Children’s Partnership
Leong shared data on the spikes of chronic absenteeism in the wake of the pandemic, explaining that nearly one-third of English learner students were chronically absent in the 2022–23 school year. She noted that student attendance improves when children feel physically and emotionally healthy and safe in school and shared data from the previous Trump administration when chronic absenteeism spiked in schools in the wake of ICE enforcement efforts.
Throughout the conversation, the panelists shared a wide range of actionable resources and offered several concrete recommendations in their closing comments, encouraging attendees to call for the restoration of legal services for unaccompanied children; share “know your rights” cards with families, providers, and schools; advocate for access to K–12 education for children regardless of their immigration status; and more.

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Decoding NAEP: Frontline Educators Reflect on the Pace and Progress of Learning Recovery
2025-04-08 15:00 - 16:30
I was really inspired…to think about what do innovation and transformation look like?…How do we drive that from the classroom up? To ensure we’re structuring both the supports, the training, [and] how time is used throughout the day in a way that centers what teachers tell us is most important, and what the data shows us as driving outcomes for kids.
– Evan Stone, Educators for Excellence

In the April 8, 2025 Decoding NAEP session, moderated by Roberto J. Rodriguez, we heard from education leaders and practitioners who are working directly with students every day to translate NAEP data into meaningful action.
Our guests spoke candidly about the urgency of closing learning gaps and the need for both immediate and long-term strategies to support student success. Superintendent David Moore, Ed.D., from the School District of Indian River County in Florida, emphasized the power of real-time data, high-quality instructional materials, and strategic partnerships to drive instructional change. He called for innovation in public education — like rethinking grade structures and exploring the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) — alongside regulatory flexibility to allow local solutions to flourish.
Joan Dabrowski of Baltimore City Public Schools shared the district’s investments in instructional coaching, extended learning time, and student learning plans that engage families. She urged attendees to reimagine special education so that all learners are better served.
Attendees also heard from teacher leaders Peggy Brookins of National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, NBCT, Evan Stone of Educators for Excellence, and Arthur Everett, a high school teacher from Brooklyn, New York, who highlighted the evolving nature of the teaching profession. They spoke to the importance of mentorship, professional learning communities, and the need to recruit and retain a diverse educator workforce. They also advocated for innovative staffing models, differentiated compensation, and universal access to board certification.
This session underscored that lasting change requires more than new tools — it calls for new mindsets, stronger systems, and policies that empower educators and put student needs at the center.

Counting on Philanthropy: How National & Local Funders Are Collaborating to Advance Early Math
2025-04-15 12:30 - 14:00
This Funder-to-Funder session was a continuation of a series of conversations focused on early math that began in 2020. This session explored how funders are working creatively and with growing impact to ensure that more children get a stronger start in this critical building block of early school success.
Jessica Tilli, Ed.D., of The School District of Philadelphia moderated the session and framed the importance of early math to long-term success. Holly Kreider, Ed.D., of the Center for Family Math noted that math skills at kindergarten entry are as accurate a predictor of eighth-grade reading skills as are kindergarten reading skills. She described the Center’s focus on family and community engagement to help young children build knowledge, skills, and positive attitudes toward math.
Funders on the panel explained why their respective foundations started to work on early math and what strategies and philanthropic tools they have deployed. Kimberly Brenneman, Ph.D., of the Heising-Simons Foundation noted that their work in this area has roots in both the head and the heart. She described how it has evolved since 2011 and how they now see themselves as one contributor in an increasingly interconnected field to which they are able to provide financial support, foster connections, and bring attention to the issue and to promising approaches. Geeta Pradhan of the Cambridge Community Foundation in Massachusetts explained how their concern about income inequality and their conversations with local leaders led them to invest in early math. Douglas Ismail of the California Masonic Foundation shared how they moved into the “adjacent” field of early math, building on extensive work in literacy and family engagement.
Omowale Moses and Claudia Ferrara of MathTalk explained their approach to making math fun, enjoyable, and valuable for families by creating immersive digital and physical experiences that work across a rich ecosystem of schools, museums, zoos, and other real-world contexts, including a recent pilot in a health center. The earlier CGLR webinar Get to Know MathTalk offers a deep dive into this exemplary approach and how MathTalk engages communities in planning and implementation.
Responding to a question from the audience about the applicability of these approaches to rural communities, Moses said that while the settings may differ, all communities offer places and spaces that can become “fun, meaningful, valuable math resources and math moments.”
As the conversation turned to entry points and opportunities for funders and community organizations to move into early math, panelists emphasized that early math can be incorporated into ongoing literacy and family engagement work, without needing to create an entirely new program area. They also gave examples of using “more than money” strategies and the complementary roles that national and local funders can play in supporting children’s early math development.
As one example of weaving these threads together, Ismail and Kreider described a new partnership among Raising A Reader, PowerMyLearning, the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, the Center for Family Math, and the California Masonic Foundation to transfer knowledge about family and community engagement in early literacy to early math.
Panelists agreed that “narrative change” is an important issue for the field to continue to address. Brenneman said that “we will not make the progress we want to make until we figure out how to change adults’ views of mathematics,” and Pradhan stressed the need to make it “not something that you fear, but something that you love.”

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Equitable Literacy Instruction Part 2: Ensuring the Science of Reading Works for All Children
2025-04-15 15:00 - 16:30
In this follow-on discussion to our January session with executives from the Children’s Literacy Initiative and other leaders, we picked up on the notion that a primary key to dispelling misunderstandings about the science 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. This time, we zeroed-in on the federal, state, and local policies that lead to effective classroom practices and the specific strategies and activities that make instruction focused on the science of reading truly effective for all learners.
Speech and language pathologist Ryan Lee-James, Ph.D., of the Atlanta Speech School and Rollins Center for Language and Literacy moderated the conversation and offered compelling framing remarks. Lee-James introduced the discussion by engaging with Diana Greene, Ph.D., of the Children’s Literacy Initiative (CLI) and Melissa Castillo, Ed.D., formerly of the U.S. Department of Education to again review the assertions in CLI’s recent white paper and unpack what research says about what it takes to teach multilingual learners how to read and write. Castillo emphasized the importance of taking an asset-based approach and honoring students’ oral use of their native language:
One of the biggest, most effective practices that really, in my mind, is the easiest to address is moving from that deficit-based approach to an asset-based approach where we very clearly agree on the fact that our English learners and our multilingual learners are linguistically gifted. They come with beautiful languages that really, when it comes to learning to read, language is language is language. So regardless of any language that they’re developing, if they have a strong foundation in oral language, [and when their oral language] is prioritized and continued not only in school but outside of school, it will benefit and support the acceleration of students learning to read.
After the discussion of the broad ideas and research about how students gain literacy knowledge, Lee-James shifted to a discussion around policy and practice with Esther Quintero, Ph.D., of the Albert Shanker Institute, Paula White of JerseyCAN, and Susanne Nobles, Ph.D., of ReadWorks. From these experts, we first learned about the 400+ legislative bills addressing the science of reading that have been analyzed by Quintero and her team and the pillars that drive policy and practice in New Jersey though JerseyCAN’s Legacy of Literacy campaign. We also learned about one free resource available to teachers to help them conduct literacy instruction with culturally sustaining practices. Although it is not a curriculum per se, ReadWorks provides supplemental resources that greatly advance children’s literacy development and generate a love of reading. Nobles explained further how these resources build the knowledge that is critical to literacy development:
Our goal is to bring together all that we’ve been talking about, the science of reading, along with culturally responsive teaching, with a particular focus on building background knowledge and vocabulary in support of reading comprehension. Sometimes the science of reading gets reduced to just phonics. Yet there’s so much more to it. And we’re focused at ReadWorks on bringing in that knowledge and vocabulary through reading, in support of reading. Because no one curriculum can bring enough knowledge.

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How to Be an Effective Communicator in Difficult Times: Using Data and Messaging to Tell an Impact Story (Part 2)
2025-04-22 13:00 - 14:30
In this session, Lorelle Atkinson of The Aspen Institute described the Institute as an organization that ignites human potential to build understanding and create new possibilities for a better world by driving change through dialogue, leadership, and action. She explained how Aspen is leaning into values-driven, nonpartisan messaging and emphasized the importance of being a “values amplifier,” focusing on content that promotes trust, empathy, and a sense of civic responsibility. Atkinson explained the best use of various platforms such as TikTok, LinkedIn, and podcasts to reach both broad and niche audiences. She also discussed the challenge of separating fact from fiction and the importance of building trust and empathy, citing the Edelman Survey, which shows that 84% of people say that the nature of the political debate has become less respectful and 78% feel that it is less fact based. After Atkinson’s presentation, Marjorie Sims of Ascend at the Aspen Institute moderated a conversation engaging United Way leaders in a discussion responding to Atkinson’s presentation.
Michael Wilkos from United Way of Central Ohio shared how they are using deep, data-driven community education to address rising housing instability and poverty. Focused on six school districts with the highest needs, the organization prioritizes helping partners understand local demographic and housing trends before discussing programs. While conversations may differ between boards, donors, policymakers, and the nonprofits, Wilkos says the narrative is always the same, first you need to understand the community. “If we come out and explain that this is the community we now share, this is how it is changing, and these are the needs of the families we care about,” a richer stakeholder conversation is possible.
Nalisha Henry of United Way of Greenville County, South Carolina, described Greenville’s rapid growth and increasing inequality, emphasizing United Way’s role in reshaping local narratives around poverty. The organization uses Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed (ALICE) data to show that financial hardship is widespread and systemic, not individual. ALICE is a United Way initiative focused on families earning just above the Federal Poverty Level but less than what it costs to make ends meet. Through public education and national thought leaders, United Way of Greenville advocates for inclusive growth and shared prosperity across the community.
Rooted in values of equity, inclusion, and justice, United Way of South Central Michigan’s (UWSCM) communications and messaging is focused on reducing economic and racial inequities through values-led leadership and community engagement. Chris Sargent of UWSCM emphasized, “We lead with our values in everything that we do. And I think right now, especially in the environments in which we’re operating in, that’s critically important to our stakeholders. This is a moment by which our values have to define us.” In Michigan, 4 in 10 households are ALICE families and in some areas that rate can be as high as 70%. This data coupled with the commitment to equity is driving UWSCM’s focus on eliminating economic and racial disparities. By leading with values, United Way is shaping community conversations that bring people to the table to learn, grow, and understand together.
Larry Warner shared how United Way of Rhode Island blends data and storytelling to build trust and drive impact across the state. By tailoring messaging formats — from reports to community convenings — they show how issues like housing and education affect all residents. Warner emphasized using both quantitative and qualitative data to communicate urgency, opportunity, and relevance, ensuring messaging resonates with diverse audiences and supports statewide systems change.
Todd Battiste of United Way of Southeast Louisiana described the city of New Orleans as “a tapestry of strength, filled with families and educators in neighborhoods with a rich history, culture and resilience.” He offered the messaging challenge as one that must hold the tension of honoring the urgency while uplifting the assets. Battiste discussed storytelling as a strategy to shape perception and open the door for policy, funding, and collective action. This local United Way uses a ] “collective care framework” to drive a movement for early literacy rooted in equity, community, and hope. Their messaging blends hard data with lived experience, designed to inspire action. Battiste advised tailoring messages for specific audiences — for example, focus on return on investment for funders and policymakers, create tools that are practical and affirming, because if you only tell a story of what’s broken, you miss the opportunity to elevate what’s possible.
To offer the national perspective, Ayeola Fortune of United Way Worldwide emphasized that United Way’s global network is united by a mission to mobilize community power for the common good, guided by values of equity, inclusion, and shared prosperity. She stressed the importance of using both data and storytelling to inspire belief in systemic change — grounding community impact in local knowledge, lived experience, and shared goals. Fortune urged leaders to craft messages that convey both urgency and aspiration, showing that equity benefits everyone and makes thriving communities possible. According to Fortune, “We have to be equal to the challenges that we are facing in creating those clear, consistent, and compelling messages — messages that are cognizant of the culture but go beyond that to paint a positive vision of a future.”
Panelists echoed the importance of clear, authentic, and timely communication that builds trust, reflects community voices, and inspires action. Messaging should be grounded in data, highlight real human experiences, and create space for inclusive narratives. Ultimately, effective communication moves people — toward understanding, unity, and meaningful change.

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Beyond the Ballot: Did Child Policy Predictions Hold True?
2025-04-22 15:00 - 16:30
“We need reform and resources. I mean, that’s been the recipe forever. So I just think we have to be honest that if we fail at reform, we invite revolution.” — Michael J. Petrilli, Thomas B. Fordham Institute

In our first session of the year, on January 7, we gathered a few of the education sector’s top leaders to hear some predictions.
Now, just about 100 days later, we brought those experts back for a follow-on. Our aim was to sift through the policy noise, clarify what matters most, and stay grounded in our shared mission: improving learning conditions and outcomes for children in economically fragile and historically marginalized communities. We were joined again by our trusted friends and colleagues — Jean-Claude Brizard, Digital Promise; Denise Forte, The Education Trust; Kevin Huffman, Accelerate; Michael Petrilli, Thomas B. Fordham Institute; and new to this round, Robin Lake, Center on Reinventing Public Education — who helped us examine the swirl of disruption and what it might mean for kids, families, schools, and communities.
Each panelist offered a lens into some of the surprising — and in many cases concerning — actions taken or suggested by the administration. Amid all the changes, and talk about changes, Lake distilled one core concern: that for all the changes we have seen and are hearing about, “. . . there really was no plan, and there still really is no plan, for improving student achievement in the U.S.” Others agreed and underscored the need for a new national commitment to student achievement.
In addition to exploring areas of concern and uncertainty, our guests recognized the opportunity that comes with disruption. Huffman pointed out a path forward saying, “There really is this impetus on states to step up, define their plan, define their objectives.”
As our discussion turned to what’s next, Lake reminded us that meaningful reform requires both innovation and coalition, “Burning it down isn’t going to get us where we need to be…but neither is protecting the status quo.” Forte, picking up that thread, emphasized the power and promise of local coalitions, “We are seeing successful examples where communities are pushing back or raising up important issues.” These aren’t just reactions; they’re signs that a new kind of leadership — rooted in place and purpose — is rising up to meet the moment.”
We closed with a mix of hope, concern, and vigilance. The weeks and months ahead will surely bring challenges and opportunities, but as Huffman noted, improved outcomes are our compass. As always, CGLR will continue to center on what matters most — kids and families — and double down on what works. Thanks to our panelists for their candor and courage, and to our audience for staying with us through the uncertainty. Let’s keep lifting up the signal and quieting the noise.
“The plot is one where we make sure we keep whole what happens in our schools and classrooms and keep the noise and the distraction as far away as possible.”— Jean-Claude Brizard, Digital Promise

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Schools as “Safe Spaces”: Beyond Active Shooter Drills to Trusting Relationships?
2025-05-06 15:00 - 16:30
CGLR leading partner and renowned education advocate Andy Rotherham of Bellwether moderated the session. Rotherham shared how he is passionate about the trusting relationships that can help get “left of boom” (see below) by creating the positive school culture and climate needed to give students outlets to express their concerns and fears, which might otherwise lead to dangerous behaviors.
Rotherham began the session in discussion with Senior Security Consultant and Retired U.S. Army Special Forces officer Drew Pache, who helped us understand how strategies on the front lines of the military are not so different from strategies that work in schools. This is where the concept “left of boom” comes from. As Pache explained, this is the idea that to prevent an attack you need to get ahead of it by doing reconnaissance and getting to know people and listening to their grievances. In this way, there is a much better chance of learning when something is not right or a violent attack is brewing. As he said, “If something doesn’t seem right, it’s probably not right.” And this same approach is what works in schools. When teachers and other adults in the school building are trusted by students and communicating about students’ needs, they can get “left of boom” by listening and understanding.
Garry McGiboney, Ph.D., of Health Security Dynamics then joined the discussion. While he has a different background than Pache as a researcher and former Deputy State School Superintendent in Georgia, McGiboney had the same message as the Green Beret. Emphasizing that we need a new paradigm for school safety that puts mental and behavioral health before heavy doors and active shooter drills, McGiboney explained how teachers can come together with school resource officers (SROs) to recognize when students may need someone to listen to and hear them:
“Teachers want to know. And when we train the SROs, they want to know too. What should I look for? Regardless of the age of the student, it could be elementary, it could be a kindergarten student, it could be a high school student. What should I look for as an indicator that child is in trouble and may need some help? That’s how we can avoid tragedies occurring in our schools. [It] is those relationships — when we identify what may be going on with a child or even a colleague for that matter.”
Two school district leaders followed in the discussion and offered insights about what this new paradigm for school safety looks like on a school campus. Yolanda Reid Wheeler of Henry County Public Schools in Georgia and Daniel Mojica of Chelsea Public Schools in Massachusetts emphasized that when there is coordination across ALL the adults surrounding the students — including SROs, bus drivers, teachers, lunchroom attendants, and, most importantly, parents — and this coordination is supported by training in behavioral health, there are many more opportunities to see and hear students who may need help. Reid Wheeler highlighted the system of support that creates a positive school culture:
“I think about the systems of schools, and what that means is that when the student is getting off the bus, when they’re being dropped off, who do we have there at the door greeting them? And that greeter has a behavioral checklist. They are scanning, they’re observing: What’s the countenance of those children when they’re coming off the bus? Also, talking with the parents helps with understanding who’s coming into the building. Then being able to observe that by the scan, I call it eyeballing: What is it that you’re seeing coming into the building?”

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Medicaid as Linchpin: Truth and Consequences | More Hopeful Futures or Children as Collateral Damage?
2025-05-13 15:00 - 16:30
We haven’t reached the pain point yet. This is the first step….And then there’s going to be that snowball effect where they either lose benefits, or a nursing home closes down, a rural hospital closes a unit, etc. And then it starts really picking up steam. And the challenge is going to be coming back from that. We can see the immediate impact in front of us, but there’s the economic impact that’s going to be longer term. We don’t talk enough about the long-term impact on the child. Right. It’s not just that we’re going to lose this benefit today, it’s going to be the effect on the child as we move forward.
–Moe Hickey, Voices for Utah Children

In this May 13 GLR Learning Tuesdays webinar, a diverse group of policy experts, health care leaders, education advocates, and community voices came together to explore the critical role Medicaid plays in supporting not just children’s health — but their learning and development, their families’ stability, and the foundational systems that serve them. They also highlighted key action steps that can be taken now to ensure that this vital program is sustained and strengthened.
Moderated by Dr. Robert K. Ross, former President and CEO of The California Endowment, the session made clear that Medicaid is far more than a health insurance program. It is a central pillar of educational equity, economic resilience, and community well-being. Dr. Ross grounded the conversation in a powerful historical and moral context, urging participants to see Medicaid as part of the nation’s democratic promise to its children.
Panelists — Paola Andujar of National Association for the Education for Young Children, Anne Dwyer, JD, MP, of Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families, Moe Hickey of Voices for Utah Children, and The Honorable Jessica Schubel of Day One Strategies — brought deep insights into the consequences of current policy shifts and the opportunity to act now to preserve and improve Medicaid.
Key themes included:
The Impact of Medicaid Policy on Children’s Health

Proposed Medicaid cuts could lead to significant coverage losses for children and families, with an estimated 8.6 million people potentially becoming uninsured and coverage losses exceeding 14 million when combined with other ACA provisions.
Medicaid coverage is correlated with improved educational outcomes. Research shows Medicaid enrollment improves reading scores and future earnings.
Medicaid covers a significant portion of health services provided in schools and access to these services is linked to improved academic outcomes.

The Broader Implications of Medicaid Funding

Understanding the economic implications of Medicaid cuts is crucial, as cuts can lead to increased costs for states in other areas, such as emergency care, and long-term economic impacts can affect community stability and growth.
Cuts to Medicaid can lead to reduced funding for schools and community health programs.
Reduced Medicaid funding and/or increased administrative burdens not only limit individual access to care, they also threaten the sustainability of early childhood systems, public schools, and community health providers that depend on Medicaid as a reliable funding stream.

Opportunities for Advocacy and Collaboration
Panelists stressed that Medicaid is deeply interconnected with education, economic opportunity, and equity. Advocates, educators, and funders must work in concert to protect and strengthen the program. Examples of activities include:

Collaborating with other organizations to promote Medicaid’s benefits; educate the public; share resources and information to empower local advocates; and support joint campaigns to enhance visibility and understanding of Medicaid’s role.
Increasing awareness about the ways Medicaid funding impacts various sectors, including education and health services.
Encouraging a holistic approach because the health and education systems are interconnected.

The session closed with an urgent message from the panelists: The future of Medicaid is not just a policy debate — it is a defining moment for how we support children and families. To protect this vital infrastructure, coordinated advocacy, informed messaging, and strong local leadership are essential.

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Timely Support for Immigrant Families & Children: Philanthropy Striving to Meet the Moment
2025-05-20 12:30 - 14:00
“So what does it look like for philanthropy, which has so much privilege, to be able to stand in solidarity with movement partners, with communities? Funders wait for a rainy day — and it’s pouring out right now. Now is the time to be contributing and funding support for immigrant children and families. Use your privilege and use your voice…and stand strong and speak out against the harmful approaches that are leading to the backsliding of our democracy and that can have repercussions for not just our children, but our grandchildren….This is not a marathon. It’s not a sprint. This is a relay race. We are building toward a better future, not just for ourselves, but to be good ancestors to our descendants and to leave a better world for the children that will continue beyond us.”

​​​​– Ivy O. Suriyopas, Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees

In this Funder-to-Funder Conversation, Ivy Suriyopas of Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees (GCIR) offered the above passionate call to action in closing to an engaging conversation about the experiences of immigrant children and families in the current policy environment and the ways in which funders are joining together to support them.
The session was co-sponsored by Hispanics in Philanthropy (HIP), a transnational network of grantmakers dedicated to strengthening Latine leadership and influences and mobilizing philanthropic resources in Latine communities. HIP’s Jazmín Chávez moderated the discussion that featured Rodrigo Barraza of Global Fund for Children, Shannon Rudisill of Early Childhood Funders Collaborative, and Ivy Suriyopas of GCIR.
Rudisill and Suriyopas shared how their organizations joined together with other funders this year to launch the 1 in 4 Project. The project supports the 1 in 4 children living in the United States who are part of immigrant families, advancing policy advocacy and litigation, narrative building, and research and data collection to support action at the federal, state, and local levels.

“We wanted everyone to understand how many children in the United States are living in immigrant or mixed-status families. Most of them are U.S. citizens. We wanted everybody to think about the populations that they are serving in the communities where they are funding and realize that these kids are in their portfolios already, that they’re in the communities where they’re serving, and that some special attention needed to be paid to support them.”
– Shannon Rudisill, Early Childhood Funders Collaborative

The panelists discussed how the current immigration policy environment is causing trauma for immigrant children and their families and communities, highlighting some of the ways that funders are promoting trauma-informed responses. Barraza noted many of the traumas are “collective traumas” that challenge children’s sense of belonging, language, and cultural identity, and therefore require collective responses such as healing circles to help children build a sense of community where they can recover together.
Rudisill shared several examples of efforts being advanced by the funders in the ECFC network, including trauma-informed programs for new mothers and their babies and legal service programs to help families prepare for possible separation. She also noted how several funders had been taking proactive action to strengthen the systems serving immigrant populations, including investments in New Jersey to support dual language learners and to build a stronger pipeline of Latine early learning educators.

“Please be brave. Be bold. Please don’t shy away from the conversation. Don’t give in to fear. I think right now it’s our opportunity to stand on the right side of history and keep fighting and keep pushing and keep looking for ways to connect and to keep building these diverse communities.”
– Rodrigo Barraza, Global Fund for Children

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Education Savings Accounts: High Expectations & Continuing Concerns
2025-05-20 15:00 - 16:30
In this discussion, we built on a session from 2023: Opportunities and Potential Pitfalls: State Expansion of Education Savings Accounts and again created a forum for thoughtful and nuanced conversations to go beyond the headlines on a controversial policy. As this policy has expanded across multiple states — growing from 13 to 19 states since CGLR hosted the 2023 session — we wanted to explore this issue through a balanced discussion that “detoxifies” conversations about parent choice to get to a place where we understand the background, motivations, language, possibilities, and concerns.
What many are now calling “Education Savings Accounts” references the policy where states are giving families access to public per-pupil funds that can be used to pay for tuition to private schools, homeschooling supplies, curriculum materials, online learning, tutoring support, etc. Proponents of school choice see this as a necessary way to allow students to learn in the setting that works best for them, and skeptics see it as a disinvestment in public school systems at a time when they need as much support as possible. In this session, I moderated a conversation with a powerhouse panel who helped to define the various terms and variants of this policy while exploring the expansion of state policies and the history and evolution of this particular approach to parent choice. We also discussed the pros and cons and zeroed-in on parents’ views and why choice is important to them.
Ben DeGrow of ExcelinEd provided an overview of where we are today with various state policies. Luis Huerta, Ph.D., of Columbia Teachers College reviewed the history and how we got to where we are today. Beth Lewis of Save Our Schools Arizona articulated several of the challenges of the expanded funding for per-pupil accounts in Arizona, including the severe under-funding of public schools that has led some to close. Derrell Bradford of 50CAN spoke to the way these public funds can help to provide the same level of choice to low-income families that wealthier families have always had by moving to geographies with better schools. Colleen Dippel of Families Empowered in Texas explained how her organization has helped parents navigate and take advantage of the opportunities offered in Texas. Mike Goldstein of the Pioneer Institute described parent experiences that illuminated some of the ways parents have used the available public education resources to enhance their children’s learning experience.
Through the discussion, we explored some of the different perspectives — the possibilities and concerns about public per-pupil funding. The following quotes from two of our speakers help to illustrate the different perspectives on this issue that make it so contentious:
“Ninety-two percent of our families are choosing public district and charter schools that have accountability to the public. We are sending 12 percent of our state budget to this ESA voucher program for only 6 percent of our kids. The vast majority of these kids are kids who were already in private school. They were already [being educated at home]. In Arizona, the reality is people are sticking with their public school, but the other reality is that our public schools are shutting down because of the voucher program, because we are a revenue poor state! There is not enough funding for both of these and that’s true. The data all shows that the vouchers are primarily going to wealthier families in wealthier ZIP codes.”
–Beth Lewis, Save Our Schools Arizona
___________________________
“Parents are our core customers, so we connect them to religious and non-religious schools, and then, certainly, for parents who want to homeschool, we make sure that they have information that is accurate and actionable.…We’re providing direct service day in, day out to connect families to schools and schools to families. Last year, we made about 37,000 individual phone calls. So we’re very supportive of all forms of school choice. We think it’s really important to ensure that parents have a neutral service that is not incentivized by one sector over the other. So there ought to be a parent service that is just about helping parents get kids into ESA programs or getting kids into charter school programs or magnet school programs and the individual schools [or whatever educational option they prefer].”
–Colleen Dippel, Families Empowered
Parent voice, parent leadership, and parent choice have always been central to CGLR’s strategy for increasing student learning and achievement. The policies that are being pursued under the banner of parent choice are complicated, and their implications are as yet uncertain. This week we started to explore this terrain in more detail, and we will continue to do so in the coming months. We hope that you’ll come with us on this learning journey.

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More Hopeful Futures or Children as Collateral Damage? Head Start as Cornerstone for Early Learning and Development
2025-05-27 15:00 - 16:30
“Head Start is not in an existential crisis. But to remain impactful and relevant, the program must continue to evolve.”
— Tammy L. Mann, Ph.D., The Campagna Center

The discussion during the May 27, 2025 GLR Learning Tuesdays session focused on the following key question:
How can we strengthen and evolve Head Start —building on its legacy to expand its reach, deepen its impact, and meet the moment we’re in?
Attendees heard from national and regional leaders, including former Directors of the Office of Head Start, current program leaders, and field innovators. Together, they offered concrete ideas for improvement, bold questions about the future, and hopeful reflections on what’s possible.
Head Start is Grounded in Data and Impact

Head Start plays a critical, stabilizing role in early childhood systems — especially for rural communities and children with special needs.
Weakening this infrastructure would have nationwide ripple effects.

Head Start’s Core Strengths and Foundational Elements

The heart of Head Start — comprehensive services, a two-generation approach, and local flexibility — remains strong and essential.
New federal policies (e.g., expanded eligibility, mental health supports, and pay equity) offer opportunities to strengthen the model, not dismantle it.

Hope is Rooted in People, Persistence, and Collective Agency

Head Start’s enduring strength lies in its mission-driven people — educators, leaders, and families who continue to show up despite challenges.
The program’s federal-to-local structure is a “superpower” for community-led innovation.
There is power in the Head Start community’s adaptability, data-informed storytelling, and collective strength.

Evolution, Not Just Preservation

Now is the time to modernize, align with broader systems, and preserve parent choice within a strong mixed-delivery system.

Throughout the conversation, one idea echoed loudly: We need a national messaging campaign to reintroduce Head Start to the American public. Not as a relic, but as a relevant, innovative, and essential part of the early childhood ecosystem.
Such a campaign should:

Center parent and alumni voices who can speak to Head Start’s life-changing impact.
Emphasize Head Start’s proven results — from school readiness to long-term health and economic outcomes.
Push back on outdated stereotypes and affirm Head Start as a model for culturally responsive, equity-driven systems change.
Unite allies across sectors — education, health, housing, philanthropy — to advocate together.

The panelist conversation continued through the end of the webinar, leaving limited time for Q&A with the audience, but the panelists took time after the session to share responses in writing to several of the audience questions. Those are available here.
Thank you for being part of this moment — and for all you do to ensure Head Start continues to deliver on its powerful promise to children and families.

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Starting Strong: Preparing Children and Families for Kindergarten Success
2025-06-03 12:30 - 14:00
“This simple but profound shift changed our thinking from asking ‘Is this child ready for kindergarten?’ to ‘Is our system ready for the child?’”
– Nadira Rizkallah, Eugene School District 4J

The June 3, 2025 Kindergarten Matters session focused on the vital role that the kindergarten year plays in setting the stage for long-term learning, health, and development — and highlighted promising strategies to make the transition smoother and more supportive for children and families. Swati Adarkar, who served as moderator for the conversation, opened by framing kindergarten as a critical yet often overlooked bridge between early childhood and the early grades. She stressed the importance of aligning supports, building strong relationships, and treating kindergarten as a universal early learning opportunity to help close persistent opportunity gaps and ensure early school success.
Attendees then heard from David Jacobson, Ph.D., of First 10 at Education Development Center (EDC), who discussed how school-community partnerships can better align early learning systems to support children and families. He shared how First 10 communities implement strategies such as transition plans, play-and-learn events, and joint professional learning, and highlighted examples of more coherent, equitable, and relationship-driven approaches to kindergarten.
Heidi Schumacher, MD, FAAP, with the University of Vermont, emphasized the deep connection between health and school readiness. As a pediatrician, she noted that preventive care — for example, developmental screenings, immunizations, and attention to family well-being — helps children arrive at school ready to learn. She called for greater collaboration between educators and health care providers through joint advocacy, aligned messaging, and shared efforts to support families holistically.
The conversation then shifted to on-the-ground perspectives from leaders across the country, who provided examples of how they are putting these ideas into practice.
Deidre DeJear of Oakridge Neighborhood, Iowa’s largest affordable housing community, described how the organization supports families through housing, workforce development, out-of-school programs, and early learning. She emphasized how strong partnerships — with more than 50 organizations — are enabling them to meet broader needs like health and food access. To boost readiness and enrollment, Oakridge now offers on-site registration and is keeping soon-to-be kindergartners in structured classroom settings through the summer to help them build key routines and skills.
Jennifer Andrews of Chattanooga 2.0 shared how her organization is improving kindergarten readiness in Hamilton County, Tennessee, by addressing gaps in alignment and access. In the absence of a statewide definition, they launched the Ready, Set, Kindergarten! campaign, creating a community-driven readiness definition and tools including skill-building materials, Spanish-language videos, and transition guides. Through their Early Matters team, Chattanooga 2.0 has also hosted school-based events and developed toolkits to help schools consistently support families.
Nadira Rizkallah and Gretta Sagolla of Eugene School District 4J in Oregon outlined their district’s system-wide approach to strengthening kindergarten transitions. Rizkallah explained how their Kindergarten Transition and Alignment Plan centers on the belief that the system must be ready for the child — not the other way around — focusing on trust, equity, and coherence through trauma-informed practices and inclusive planning. Sagolla highlighted efforts such as shared professional development, preschool visits to kindergarten classrooms, social stories, and after-hours enrollment sessions that help families feel welcomed and informed. Looking ahead, the district plans to expand its work through online enrollment and new community partnerships, laying the foundation for broader, systemwide change.
