From Cradle to the Classroom, "
Eliminating the Achievement Gap Must Start Early" By Paul Vallas & Nina Rees
"As a starting point, rather than reinventing the wheel or creating a new board or program, we need to encourage greater dialogue between school systems and community-based early-care and -education centers. This can be done by asking district superintendents to hold forums that bring school principals together with early-childhood-education directors to explore the issues and challenges facing each."
"80 percent of early care and education is offered by the private sector...lawmakers ought to...put in place monetary incentives for districts to ensure that federal dollars reach young children where they are already being served."
Paul Vallas is the superintendent of the Recovery School District of Louisiana, and a former chief executive officer of the Philadelphia and the Chicago school systems. Nina Rees is the senior vice president for strategic initiatives at Knowledge Universe, a provider of early care and education. She headed the U.S. Department of Education’s office of innovation and improvement as an assistant secretary of education in President George W. Bush’s administration.
