Establishing Early Childhood Education as a Statewide Priority
CEI will conduct meetings to inform a cross section of stakeholders of the need for high quality early childhood education through a series of summits focusing on policy, economic benefits, programs in neighboring states, program criteria, and collaboration.
Early childhood development and learning ensures children are ready to learn when they go to school and have the foundation to build the skills necessary to be productive members of society and the workforce when they graduate.
Learning Starts at Birth, not with Kindergarten
90% of the human brain develops between birth and age 5 — the most valuable time for preparing Mississippi’s children to enter Kindergarten and build a foundation for life-long success. Building a high quality, affordable early childhood development and learning system will contribute to the achievement of higher grade scores, a higher graduation rate and fewer grade retentions.
Economic development and workforce preparedness starts with Mississippi’s kids having access to a high quality, affordable early childhood development and learning program. The goal of this program area is to advance early childhood development and learning in all aspects ranging from increasing state funding to promoting childcare as not only a place of learning for young children, but as a valued local business enterprise. Our vision is to ensure that all entities impacting the education of young children are working together on their behalf and are garnering and leveraging resources for the maximum benefit to all children.
State Budget Actions FY 2011
State Budget Actions FY 2011 http://www.ncsl.org/default.aspx?tabid=22343 with online map, specific state and category information and 50-state profiles of data from FY 2008 to FY 2011:
Charts available include:
- 50-state child care
- 50-state prekindergarten
- 50-state home visiting
- 50-state other early childhood
- State-by-state profiles of appropriations for each year beginning in FY
- 2008
ECE Budget Map
http://www.birthtofivepolicy.org/Policy/Policy/tabid/64/Default.aspx with updated FY 2011 information is available on the Birth to Five Policy Alliance website.
Goal
To ensure that all entities involved in the education of young children are working together on their behalf, garnering, and leveraging resources for the maximum benefit to all children.
Highlights
Allies for Quality Care
Through a competitive statewide RFP process the Mississippi Department of Human Services – Division of Early Childhood Care and Development awarded The Center for Education Innovation the Allies for Quality Care Program. This program serves eligible randomly selected childcare centers located in Hinds and Rankin Counties and will be implemented for 1 full year upon program start up. The focus of this effort is to address the programmatic needs of child care centers through evaluation and intense technical assistance. This program will provide direct assistance to participating centers in an effort to (1) improve the learning environment in each classroom, as evidenced by improved ITERS/ECERS scores, (2) improve the nutritional quality of food provided to children, as evidenced by menus and shopping plans approved by a nutrition specialist, and (3) develop operating budget for the program, including the identification and implementation of available cost-saving measures.
To find out more, visit the Allies for Quality Care homepage.