Forum

Linking Ready Kids to Ready Schools: Building Policy on State and Community Successes met March 30-31, 2009 in Washington, D.C. Attended by more than 200 community leaders and education and learning experts (including Secretary of Education Arne Duncan), this first-ever national policy forum covered transition and alignment of policies necessary to help young children and their parents move easily from the early care system to K-12 education.

Highlighted during the forum are the challenges national, state and local policymakers experience with the twin systems of early-care education and K-12 schools and that they are seldom aligned.

At the forum, two sponsors, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Education Commission of the States, released a report titled Linking Ready Kids to Ready Schools: A Report on Policy Insights from the Governors’ Forum Series. The report calls attention to the importance of better links across early learning and early grades and documents the success of five states in implementing strategies to create those links.

• View the forum agenda and videos of speakers
  (Allow time for videos to download before viewing.)
• Read forum speakers' biographies
• Read the forum report
• View resources for using economic recovery funds