About the U.S. Dept. of Ed’s Current ‘Listening and Learning Tour’

 

The Listening and Learning meetings are being held this spring in four cities: D.C., Denver, Orlando, and Chicago, and are being led by Jaqueline Jones, senior advisor on early learning to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, and Joan Lombardi, a deputy assistant secretary in the Department of Health and Human Services and the inter-departmental liaison for early childhood development at the Administration for Children and Families.

 

For advocates of PreK-3^rd, the meeting was an important opportunity to share research and writing on PreK-3^rd strategies with the administration. A panel of four early education professionals presented at the meeting: Deborah Leong, professor of psychology at Metropolitan State College of Denver; Jerry Weast, superintendent of the Montgomery County Public Schools; Gail Connelly, executive director of National Association of Elementary School Principals; and Ruby Takanishi,  president of the Foundation for Child Development.

 

Each speaker shared arguments on why a PreK-3^rd approach to educating young children can help boost performance in the later years. The day included summaries of cognitive development research, videos, and the example of Montgomery County, MD—which undertook a strong PreK-3^rd reform effort under Weast’s direction. Various early education stakeholders also made public comments at the meeting, including myself on behalf of New America’s Early Education Initiative. Among other things, we stressed the importance of building better data systems to keep track of children’s progress starting in pre-K, if not before, and ensuring to include community providers when creating PreK-3^rd learning structures.