Kindergarten Readiness: Boston Opportunity Agenda leads collaborative action toward equitable education

Across the country, communities in the StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network are working to put more young people on a path to economic mobility by addressing barriers to equitable outcomes. StriveTogether’s seven cradle-to-career outcome areas are critical milestones that shape a child’s educational journey and future success. Each post in this series will provide an…

Q&A: Changing systems through collaborative improvement

How can the collaborative improvement approach change the way communities work together to get to better results for every child? Heidi Black, StriveTogether’s senior director of innovation, collaborative improvement, shares what it means to change systems, how to get started in this work and her hopes for the future, including insights she presented at the…

The power of one: Three reasons an elementary principal says real change starts small

Guest post by Melissa McCoy for StriveTogether. The data is stark: Our schools are not preparing every student to succeed in life. Seeking change, educators try programs and initiatives to improve outcomes for kids. These reform efforts often treat students the same, using widespread, one-size-fits-all approaches. But each student is unique and a few solutions…

From distraction to connection: Engaging with families about technology

Guest blog post by Tracy McDaniel, Early Childhood Accountability Partnership coordinator at Cradle to Career Network member Mission: Graduate. It all started with a question that we heard over and over from service providers across Albuquerque: How do we talk with families about technology? Parents are busy, distracted and often checking their devices. Phone alerts and…

From starting small to building community: Working effectively for kids and families

Guest blog post by Ida Thompson, director of national network and program affairs at Spartanburg Academic Movement. 2012 in Spartanburg, S.C.: Too many children were entering kindergarten not ready to learn. Access to developmental screening for young children was non-existent. Only a few educators and advocates kept early childhood issues front and center. The Children’s…

Creating ripple effects: Building a culture of continuous quality improvement in Arizona

Guest blog post by StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network member Cradle to Career Partnership In Pima County, Arizona, the number of 3- and 4-year-olds enrolled in high-quality early education rose from 16.4 percent to 21.5 percent over two years. But nearly 15,000 kids still don’t have access to these programs. We need community leaders to…

StriveTogether’s next national Impact and Improvement Network will focus on prenatal to age 3 milestones

The first three years of a child’s life are critically important to his or her future success. In those first few years, the brain grows to 80 percent of its adult size and decades of research have shown that a child’s earliest experiences impact his or her long-term well-being. In fact, early experiences and interactions…

Key lessons for applying continuous improvement tools to improve educational outcomes at scale

Collective impact has been one of the biggest buzzwords in the social sector, and, unfortunately, the term gets used for a range of activities that deviate from the original intent: achieving results at scale. Our focus with the StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network has been to establish standards for what this work really takes to…