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We have two updates to the Forum that we’d like to fill you in on this week — one on the early results of our informal poll on the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge competition and another on the need for assistant principals who focus on pre-k and the early grades.

In our last “Heard in the Forum” post, we pointed you to an informal survey that we posted on the in hopes to get your thoughts on where the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services should encourage states to focus their efforts in the . We designed the forum’s survey to capture your top priority among eight priorities. (We used the eight priorities that were proposed in the latest iteration of the Early Learning Challenge Fund legislation introduced but not voted upon this spring).

So far, we’ve had a small number of people respond, so if you haven’t done so already, we encourage you to . Here is a snapshot of the feedback so far:

Also on the Forum, Carri Stoltz, early childhood coordinator for Alexandria City Public Schools in Virginia,  hiring a pre-k-2nd-grade-focused assistant principal and how having an administrator that deeply understands the needs of young children has helped to improve the level of support for teachers in the early grades.

Does your school have one administrator designated for grades 3rd – 5th and another designated for pre-k – 2nd? How has this made a difference for teachers and students? .

We encourage you to  to make your views known on other early childhood issues (before birth through third grade), to share lessons you’ve learn, or to recommend helpful resources that you’ve come across in your work.

We look forward to your feedback and hope to see you !