High-quality early education helps kids succeed, but public institutions and teachers aren’t always up to the task.
The size and diversity of New York City makes creating a consistent program and training teachers to implement it a serious challenge. But when New York State enacted groundbreaking universal pre-kindergarten legislation, a group of philanthroprists seized the opportunity to do just that.
The Child Care and Early Education Fund (CCEEF), administered by United Way, was established in 2001 to unite private funders, government agencies, and local nonprofits to improve the quality of early education in New York City.
In order to build a sustainable system, there needed to be a common vision of quality and a way to ensure that teachers could gain necessary skills.
Two major initiatives have begun to make a difference:
- A uniform standards and assessment system for all publically funded early education programs, and
- The New York City Early Childhood Professional Development Institute (PDI), a partnership between City University of New York, private funders, and three public agencies to provide and coordinate professional development opportunities for teachers.
The CCEEF has been the catalyst for helping the public sector work better, ensuring that an increasing percentage of NYC children enter school primed to succeed.
To date, the CCEEF has raised and distributed more than $4 million from nearly 30 funders and helped leverage federal, state, and local support. Now, more than 60,000 NYC children receive pre-kindergarten instruction each year and more than 1,000 teachers have completed additional training using the PDI.
The Mayor has established the interagency Early Care and Education Policy Steering Committee, which is devoted to creating a seamless system of early care and education services for New York kids. With the release of federal Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds, the CCEEF’s efforts should begin to have an even larger impact.