Grant sustains ongoing CSBA preschool initiatives
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation has awarded CSBA a $125,000 grant—the fourth since 2003—to continue its work on various preschool initiatives, including in-depth research into local board members’ preferences on preschool policy, technical assistance to local education agencies and dissemination of the RAND Corp.’s ongoing “California Preschool Study” reports.
Headed by Holly Jacobson, assistant executive director of Policy Analysis and Continuing Education, and Samantha Tran, senior research and policy consultant, CSBA’s efforts are guided by the principle that effective preschool programs greatly enhance children’s school readiness, supplement school experiences and provide developmental opportunities.
“This most recent grant enables us to accomplish a number of objectives,” Tran said. “We’ll be able to highlight and publicize the work CSBA has already done, make sure that district leadership and administrators are aware of what’s available to them, provide material in a variety of formats, provide richer, deeper information and provide a voice for school board members by educating them about local involvement.
“The grant also allows CSBA to remain visible and to continue policy discussions with state-level partners at the [California] Department of Education and in the Legislature.”
“We’ll be rolling out some exciting new features in 2008,” added Marguerite Noteware, a CSBA research consultant involved in the initiative.
Among these will be monthly podcast transmissions over the Internet, usually in audio form, that users can access at their convenience on computers and portable media players. The first podcast, “How to Step into the Fray,” is expected to be available early next year; it will educate listeners about becoming active participants in preschool activities in their communities. Future topics include ways that school districts and county offices of education can collaborate, information about the CDE’s Preschool Learning Foundations and interviews with researchers from the RAND studies.
In addition, CSBA plans quarterly online discussions with members and a one-time Webinar about how to use the CSBA preschool resource guide, “Expanding Access to High-Quality Preschool Programs”; this online guide—available now at the link below—distills the information that CSBA has developed in the past four years about the importance of preschool in child development.
“It was written for members, and it captures their roles and responsibilities and discusses the ways they can engage” in the process, Tran said, adding that she expects preschool to be a “hot topic of discussion” in 2008’s “Year of Education.”
Related link:
Read “Expanding Access to High-Quality Preschool Programs” online @ www.csba.org/EducationIssues/EducationIssues/Preschool.aspx