White House Summit on Early Education

Today, President Obama is hosting the White House Summit on Early Childhood Education, with a coalition of philanthropic, business, education, advocates, and elected officials committed to expanding access to high-quality early education.

The Cooney Center’s Founding Director Michael Levine will deliver remarks on Equity and Excellence in the Earliest Years at a panel hosted by Megan Smith, Chief Technology Officer of the United States and Shannon Rudisill, Director of the Office of Child Care. He will be joined by Jim Steyer, CEO and Founder of Common Sense Media; Lesli Rotenberg, Senior Vice President, PBS; and Steven Levine, Senior Director, Community Empowerment Initiatives, Univision. (We will be posting his commentary later today.)

We are proud to support the President’s commitment to ensuring that children from all socio-economic backgrounds have access to the kinds of early learning programs that will provide them with the solid foundation that they will need to succeed in school. Studies have shown that investing in a young child’s early education provides benefits that can help prevent an achievement gap due to lack of access at a critical stage in a child’s development.

As part of this effort, the Cooney Center and New America are announcing our Map, Think, and Relink project. We will be working to create an online tool of initiatives around the country that are working to modernize parent outreach and early learning.  The tool will define initiatives by key dimensions such as: age, demographics, the types of tools used, the geographic range of their programs, and the incorporation of high-touch mentorship or on-the-ground programs. Our goal is to drive improvements in program quality by documenting the importance of evidence-based research.

The Summit will be broadcast live at whitehouse.gov. Please join us in following the conversation online today, and in sharing our commitment to our nation’s youth.

Learn more about the event from the White House announcement.