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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 ������Ƶ’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.