Eight Policy Recommendations for Accelerating Progress

To realize the vision above, we make eight recommendations and suggest specific actions for each recommendation. In the pages that follow, we outline these actions and pinpoint which actors—federal, state, and local policymakers, as well as educators and administrators—should help move the work forward.

1. Realize a seamless early and elementary learning continuum
2. Improve systems to better attract, prepare, empower, develop, and retain high-quality educators
3. Develop two-generation strategies to engage families
4. Embrace children’s language and culture as an asset
5. Put more attention on kindergarten and the early grades
6. Promote efficiency and coordination to improve outcomes for children
7. Emphasize continuous improvement as the goal of data collection
8. Secure predictable, sustainable, and increased funding for children’s earliest years