Below are resources for early childhood professionals and those serving the early childhood community.

Pre-K: Decades Worth of Studies, One Strong Message — Some of the nation’s top researchers who’ve spent their careers studying early childhood education recently got together in Washington with one goal in mind: to cut through the fog of studies and the endless debates over the benefits of preschool. (NPR, May 3) 

Illinois’ Early Childhood Innovation Zones: A New Model for State Policy? — This report is an evaluation of efforts made by Illinois Action for Children (IAFC), with oversight from the Illinois Governor’s Office for Early Childhood Development (OECD), to test, support, and facilitate innovations in the early childhood system in 11 communities across the state. The Early Childhood Innovation Zones (IZ) initiative, funded by Illinois’ Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge (RttT-ELC) grant from the U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services, was designed to spur experimentation with new systemic strategies for increasing the number of children from priority populations enrolled in high quality early learning programs.