[Youth-list] CBIA and SACIA on early childhood investment

[JMRab at aol.com]

Hi, folks. We often talk about the role of  business in a partnership with us 
re promoting the development of the state's  children and youth.  See 
examples of this partnership in action at both the  CT Business and Industry Council 
and the Business Council of Southwestern CT  (SACIA). Both organization place 
legislative priority on these  issues.
Note that their frame is: (a) Eliminating  achievement gaps yields (b) A 
quality workforce and economic  competitiveness; (c) Early investment is the place 
to start, but (d) Sustained  attention to educational inequities is 
essential.  (And so the circle is  closed...)
You will also be very interested to know that the  business advisory board of 
CONN Can (CT Can Achieve) has also included early  childhood investment as 
its first plank in building great schools for all  kids.  JMG
SACIA
Achievement Gaps in Our Schools: Realities &  Remedies
 (http://www.sacia.org/achievementgaps.htm#Premise) 

Our Premise
Economic competitiveness – for an individual, community, company,  state or 
society – is built upon knowledge.  Educational institutions and systems,  
therefore, are the bedrock of our economic success. 
Diversity, stemming from historical and current  immigration, challenges many 
institutions.  While equal individual outcomes cannot be assured, equal 
access to  opportunities can and must be.   
Education inequities pose twin challenges to business.  The first is well 
understood:  the workforce of tomorrow is the student  of today.  Student success 
today  literally determines business success tomorrow.  The second challenge 
has only recently  become visible.  Businesses cannot  ask employees to accept 
different educational opportunities for their children  as an unintended 
consequence of being located in any given community.  Business competitiveness in 
the  recruitment and retention of talent, therefore, is linked directly to 
universal  access to excellent K-12 education.  
Access to excellence must be real, not rhetorical.  The responsibility to 
assure access,  performance, and excellence is widely distributed.  No one 
sector, institution or individual  can be responsible for delivering excellence to 
all.  Yet, no one is exempt from playing a  role in ensuring that the knowledge 
system works for all of us. 
A Policy Framework for  Action
The Business  Council's experience in the education policy dialogues of the 
1990's and more than  a decade of involvement in mentoring programs, technology 
initiatives,  afterschool program enhancement efforts, and school to career 
projects were the  foundation for a series of business leadership conversations 
over the past two  years. The subject was simple, but of crucial importance - 
what can business do  to assure that all children receive excellent 
educations. In other words, how can we close the achievement gap?  The following 
observations resonated with our dialogue participants. They are  not intended to be 
"the answer" to an enormously complex question.  However, taken together, they 
constitute a conceptual framework for  businesses contemplating philanthropic 
and employee involvement in our public  schools.    
1.  “Good enough”  isn’t.
Our communities need to do a better job educating all  of our children.  Too 
many children  begin school under prepared.  Too  few children achieve key 
skills mastery.  The gap in standardized achievement test scores among different 
groups of  children is too wide to be explained by the word “diversity.”  
2.  Sooner, rather than  later.
School readiness produces a higher quality education and greater  achievement 
for individual students.  Effective pre-school readiness programs improve 
total school performance,  lead to broad-based achievement gains and reduce 
long-term remediation and  special education expenses.  
3.  Longer and smaller are  better.  “Outside the box” has  virtues. 
After school, weekend and summer programs targeted to students having  
academic difficulty and conducted outside of the public school system structure  
offer increased flexibility and the opportunity for tailored instruction, while  
delivering more instructional hours in smaller groups.   
4.  Better teaching gets  better results.
Professional development for teachers, improved  recruitment and career 
launch strategies, and retention programs will upgrade  student performance by 
producing better trained, more motivated, and more  experienced teachers.  
5.  Effective principals lead  effective schools. 
Leadership and management development programs for principals will  upgrade 
student performance by improving teacher performance, engaging parents,  and 
allocating resources more effectively.   
6.  Employees are  parents.
Involved parents have a powerfully positive impact on a student’s  
achievement.  Small numbers of  empowered parents can have an equally positive impact on 
a school’s  performance.  Employers can help  employees to support their 
children’s educational success and to participate  constructively in improving 
individual schools.  
7.  Partners outperform lone wolves.
Coalitions are the most effective  vehicles for business involvement. 
Creativity, staying power and school  community acceptance are all enhanced when 
businesses work in broad-based  efforts.  
Implications for Business  Leaders
These observations have a  number of implications for business leaders 
interested in assuring that all  children receive excellent educations. As a 
practical matter, they  should: 
1.    Focus resources on narrowing gaps  in performance by  giving a priority 
to supporting efforts to improve the performance of the lowest  performing 
groups.  
2.    Support readiness programs for  pre-schoolers to produce the greatest 
long-term impact.  
3.    Support after school, summer school,  and alternative schools that 
combine more instructional time with smaller class  sizes in order to produce 
immediate results among in-school children.  
4.    Invest in innovative continuing  education and peer mentoring for 
teachers in order to quickly improve morale,  effectiveness and student results.  
5.    Invest in the professional  development of school principals as the 
fastest, most cost-effective way of  improving the performance of entire schools. 
 
6.    Empower employees to participate in the  education of their children 
with information, training, and flexible workplace  policies.  
7.    Join (and if necessary, start) inclusive  community coalitions 
committed to closing the achievement  gap. 
CBIA
Education & Job Training
Finding enough qualified workers is a major challenge for many Connecticut  
companies. Our economy's growing demand for skilled employees is outpacing the  
state's ability to produce them. Connecticut needs to increase the quality of 
 its entire education and job-training systems in order to ensure that all of 
our  young people achieve productive careers, employees can continually adapt 
to  changing technologies, and our state's economy can compete globally.
CBIA recommends making the following areas priorities in the  allocation of 
available resources: 
Early education — Improve the coordination of programs  administered by 
various state agencies in order to direct funding streams to  help ensure that all 
students are ready to learn when they begin school; and  establish an 
assessment tool to determine each child’s developmental stage prior  to entering 
kindergarten. 
Technical high schools — Provide support for the technical  high schools’ 
restructuring plan, which includes focusing on higher standards,  stronger entry 
requirements; and students' math, science and literacy  skills.
Apprenticeship job training — Upgrade the skills of current  employees and 
retrain displaced workers through employer-driven programs such as  the 
apprenticeship job-training program.
College of Technology — Strengthen the college's ability to  coordinate 
technology programs in the community colleges to ensure that they  meet the 
workforce needs of employers.
Connecticut State Scholars — Develop strategies to implement  the Connecticut 
State Scholars program in additional urban school districts to  encourage 
more students to take higher-level courses that prepare them  effectively for 
post-secondary education and employment and that reduce the need  for remediation.
Charter schools — Strengthen the charter schools’ ability to  run effective 
programs that offer public-school choice for students.

Janice M. Gruendel, Ph.D.
Governor's Senior Advisor on Early  Childhood
Co-Chair, CT Early Childhood Education Cabinet
Senior Youth  Consultant
United Way of CT & Office for Workforce  Competitiveness
Home office: 203-481-9940
Blackberry: 203-824-4766
Mail  to: 28 Juniper Point
Branford, CT 06405

"...I hope  you never fear those mountains in the distance, Never settle for 
the path of  least resistance..And when you get a chance to sit it out or 
dance, I hope you  dance..." Lee Ann Womack. I Hope You'll Dance
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