Using Strengthening Families to Meet the Goals of Race to the Top

Early Learning Challenge

About Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge

• More than $1 billion in competitive state grants• Three rounds of awards between 2011-2013, 20 state• Opportunities for public comments on goals, priorities and

criteria

Successful states: proposed ambitious plans and targets to raise program quality, improve outcomes for young children and increase the number of high-need children who are attending high-quality early learning and development programs.

RTT-ELC: Building Systems to Improve Quality

• Absolute Priority: Promoting School Readiness for Children with High Needs

• Application Centerpiece: Tiered Quality Rating and Improvement Systems

Key Opportunities in RTT-ELC

• Help families build protective factors and build parent capacity;

• Involve parents as partners and decision-makers; • Support children’s social and emotional development; and• Leverage resources and build partnerships across

systems

Help families build protective factors and build parent capacity

“Building Blocks” of a high-quality system:• Early Learning and Development Standards• Comprehensive Assessment Systems• Early Childhood Educator Qualifications• Health Promotion Practices• Family Engagement Strategies and • Effective Data Practices

Help families build protective factors and build parent capacity

Definition of Family Engagement Strategies: Culturally and linguistically responsive strategies [that are] are successfully used to engage families, help them build protective factors, and strengthen their capacity to support their children’s development and learningSource: Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge, 2013 Executive Summary, http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-earlylearningchallenge/applicant.html

Involve Parents as Partners and Decision-Makers

• Involvement in RTT-ELC planning and implementation• Involvement in early childhood assessment processes

and resulting decisions for individual children• Guidance to support early learning and development

standards at home• Inclusion of family engagement and protective factors

content in workforce competencies, teacher preparation and professional development

Support children’s social and emotional development

• Workforce Knowledge and Competency Framework includes effective behavior management strategies that promote positive social and emotional development and reduce challenging behaviors

• Health Promotion standards include involving families as partners and building parents’ capacity to promote their children’s physical, social, and emotional health

• Competitive preference: Identifying and addressing health, behavioral, and developmental needs from 0 – 5 and building families’ capacity to address these needs

Leverage resources and build partnerships across systems

• Organization and alignment of the system to provide the diversity of services and supports needed by children and families

• Leveraging existing resources to promote family support and engagement, including through “home visiting programs, family resource centers, family support networks, and other family-serving agencies and organizations”

What RTT-ELC Grantee States are Doing

• 20 states received RTT-ELC grants• 13 included plans to build on existing

Strengthening Families work or initiate or deepen early-stage efforts

• Strategies align to the five core functions that support Strengthening Families implementation and sustainability

Alignment to Core Functions of Strengthening Families

Implementation• Build an Infrastructure to advance and sustain the work• Build parent partnerships • Deepen knowledge and understanding of a protective

factors approach • Shift practice, policies and systems toward a protective

factors approach • Ensure accountabilitySource: Core Functions Of Strengthening Families™ Implementation, CSSP, [link]

For more information• CSSP Issue Brief: Using

Strengthening Families To Achieve Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge Goals (2014): http://www.cssp.org/reform/strengtheningfamilies/2014/RTT-ELC-and-SF.pdf

• Race to the Top– Early Learning Challenge website: http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-earlylearningchallenge/index.html