Last Week at HiredPen: Early Education, Pay for Success, and Wile.E.Coyote
Read: : Building a Stronger Workforce for Young Children in California (by our own Sarah Jackson writing for New America). Bottom line: progress, but early ed teachers are still abysmally underpaid and too often underprepared to take on this enormous and critical job of preparing kids to be ready to learn. Typical: in the Sacramento Bee cherry-picks the research on early education investments with the tired argument that progress fades by third grade. Thankfully Early Edge’s and counter with the so-apparent-it’s-amazing-we-still-have-to-say-it caveat that quality in the classroom matters.
Utah, for one, is all-in on early education, among the first in the nation to use a “social impact bond” to pay for when the state couldn’t cough up the money. And the first to for investors, . Of 110 at-risk kids, all but one avoided special education in kindergarten after taking part in the public preK program, ultimately saving the state money. In other SIB (aka Pay for Success) news, talks about how housing mobility programs like Moving to Opportunity could be a platform for future SIBs. So far, SIBs have been focused largely on recidivism, supportive housing for the homeless, and early education. The Nonprofit Finance Fund has a list . Plus, we talked to Rinzler earlier this month for an upcoming story on LIFF’s . Stay tuned for that at the .
Watched: Lisa Guernsey and Michael Levine release , a guide to promoting early literacy in a world of screens. In addition to helping with reporting for the book, we produced highlighting some of the most innovative literacy projects across the nation, including a unique in class tutoring program in the nation’s capital, a dual-language project in Maine, and more. After seeing these thoughtful projects, it’s disheartening to about the Disney accelerator for tech startups that makes apps for kids—empty designs that smell like a stab at quick money. (Although the one that allows you to chat with cartoon characters is kinda cool. “It won’t work, ”)
Noted: More innovative, thankfully, is the announcement of , a spinoff of the MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media and Learning initiative. Headed by Connie Yowell, they’re creating a way for kids to see all the amazing out-of-school programs in their own city, which in turn can make learning in and out of school more seamless and interconnected. Also innovative—work underway at the .
Hats Off: Teachers, like babies on a plane, get a lot of grief these days. If they’re not power-grubbing union members, they’re luddites or uninspired. We’re doing our best to counter that notion, profiling teachers who make a difference. A had her students work with scientists to clone a gene and take part in a videoconference on Ebola. instills global awareness and Spanish skills by having her students create their own telenovelas. And taps into Washington DC’s many amazing museums to make history come alive for students. That’s just for starters. Read more and .
