Podcast: FirstSchool Aims to Transform Early Education

Anyone who has followed early education issues knows there is a big disconnect between the ideal learning environments for young children, age 3 to age 8, and what they experience on a daily basis in their schools and pre-k or childcare centers. A relatively new program called FirstSchool, an initiative led by the FPG Child Development Institute and the education school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, aims to bring the ideal much closer to reality. It starts by working closely with teachers to improve their daily routines and forming focus groups with parents to hear about their experiences with the school. With a $4 million grant from the Kellogg Foundation, FirstSchool is now expanding from four pilot schools in North Carolina to another four schools in Michigan.

For this podcast, we spoke with Sharon Ritchie, senior scientist at FPG Institute and co-director of FirstSchool, to hear how the program works and what’s on the horizon.

Early Ed Watch podcast – November 30, 2010

With our guest Sharon Ritchie, co-director of FirstSchool

Interviewed by Lisa Guernsey for the Early Education Initiative at New America