A 21st Century Education by J.M. Holland

I recently read the quote below in an article forwarded to me by my friend John Norton of the Teacher Leaders Network:

  "We live in a 21st century world. It is time to create a 21st century education system for America's youngest learners."

I write about pre-k policy on a regular basis but it is always exciting to hear another person stand up, even in trying financial times, and say we need pre-k.

On Christmas day David Lawrence Jr., publisher of the Miami Herald, published an Op-Ed making the case for universal and unified pre-k. Miami-Dade voted on August 26th, 2008 to renew an independent funding source for children entitled The Children's Trust. This shows Miami-Dade county's commitment to providing pre-k services to all children.

Adopting a universal and unified Pre-K-3rd approach is crucial to a comprehensive transformation of the U.S. public education system. America's democratic traditions and economic power in an increasingly competitive international marketplace demand the transformation of public education to promote the lifelong learning of America's future generations.

The local Miami based advocacy organization is an example of the type of coalition of concerned citizens that can work together to get what many see as necessary services for young children. Recently, Pre-K Now hosted a live video conference to support local efforts to support access to pre-k for all children. You can watch the archive to learn what its' like to make pre-k happen where you live.
What is happening in your area? Please let us know.

Comments

[CTQ Blogs]

Hey, John – glad you were able to highlight this Miami program. In Lawrence’s article he mentions that the program includes “a nationally pioneering initiative (already in 75 schools) that promises a job-embedded master's degree achieved in slightly more than two years via online teaching and professors in residence in exchange for a five-year commitment to that school.” That strikes me as a pretty smart “grow your own” strategy but I wonder what you and your Pre-K colleagues think. This is definitely not my area of specialty! I did see this story at the Kellogg Foundation website that describes this embedded degree program in some more detail:

http://snipurl.com/m-d_spark