Education Law

Promoting the benefits of early childhood education

BoardBuzz attended the Early Childhood 2010: Innovation for the Next Generation conference earlier this week, hosted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Education.  The conference marked the first of its kind collaboration between the two federal departments, as they welcomed both state and local partners from a variety of early childhood programs. Over the course of three days, various presentations, meetings, and workshops took place aimed at better integrating efforts on early childhood development between different organizations.  NSBA and the Center for Public Education were both exhibitors.

?Planning for Pre-Kindergarten: A Toolkit for School Boards? is just one of many resources available at the NSBA/Center for Public Education exhibit

Coinciding with the start of the conference was Education Secretary Arne Duncan?s announcement of the creation of a new partnership in early childhood education. The new Early Learning Interagency Policy Board, composed of senior staff from the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services, hopes to integrate the diverse work of different organizations towards their common goal.

The Board?s goal is to collaboratively work to develop quality indicators for Head Start and other programs, coordinate research, technical assistance, and data collection to help eliminate barriers to collaboration between systems. Duncan, in reference to surmounting these obstacles, “We have to get the bureaucracy out of the way of creativity.?

BoardBuzz hopes steps like these will be a start of more concerted efforts to promote the benefits of early childhood education.

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on August 05, 2010 (boomark / email).