Collaboration Among Early Learning Providers

12/21/2006

Collaboration Among Early Learning Providers

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.
Mother Teresa

More than a dozen of the country’s Chief Executive Officers of the largest early care and education providers agreed that the greatest challenge before them is educating policymakers of the integral role that all providers play in supporting school readiness and setting children on a path to lifelong learning. To accomplish that goal, the leaders recognize that the focus on the value of early childhood education requires greater collaboration among providers and organizations that serve children and families in all settings.

Meeting in Chicago on December 13 for the annual retreat of the Early Care and Education Consortium (ECEC), the CEOs were among a group of 50 early care and education leaders focused on state and federal issues impacting school readiness. The ECEC has engaged in a three-year state-centered campaign in support of sound investments in early childhood education. The campaign supports state policies that assure children are ready for school and ready for life, which leaders believe is attainable through programs that recognize supporting families with diverse needs and values. Current efforts are focused primarily on California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Texas, and Virginia.

The Early Care and Education Consortium was formed in 1999 when a number of the largest national and regional early care and education companies and the National Child Care Association came together in an alliance to influence public policy on behalf of quality care and education for children and families. ECEC members represent over 8,000 programs serving more than 800,000 children in nearly every state in the country.

To learn more about ECEC as well as about their December meeting, go to www.ececonsortium.org.

Leadership On Sale!
This week only, you can purchase Exchange's best-selling managment guide, The Art of Leadership for 20% off. The manual for operating an early childhood program contains articles by over 70 natinoally-respected early childhood experts including, Lilian Katz, Jim Greenman, Elizabeth Jones. Julie Wassom, Anne Mitchell, Margie Carter, Roger Neugebauer, Thomas Moore, Kay Albrecht, Janet Gonzalez-Mena, Bonnie Neugebauer, Pam Schiller, and Chip Donohue. Learn more about this guidebook!

For more information about Exchange's magazine, books, and other products pertaining to ECE, go to www.ccie.com.