Blog

Here’s five social innovation links we are clicking on today:

1. Amplify-New Profit: America Forward: Expanding Focus of Pay For Success in Early Learning “Earlier this week America Forward had the opportunity to participate in the 2nd annual Early Childhood Social Impact Performance Advisors Conference. The event, co-hosted by Institute for Child Success, an America Forward Coalition member, and Ready Nation, brought together federal, state and local government leaders, philanthropy, impact investors, advocates and supporters of the expanding interest and focus on pay for success (PFS) in early childhood. With support from the Pritzker Children’s Initiative of the J.B. and M.K. Pritzker Family Foundation, this three-day event highlighted the interest, impact, and possibility of using PFS to advance the outcomes we all seek for our youngest Americans.”

2. The Century Foundation: A Better Start: Why Classroom Diversity Matters in Early Education “A Better Start: Why Classroom Diversity Matters in Early Education is a new report that describes troubling racial, ethnic and economic disparities in preschool classrooms across America. Featuring TCF fellow Halley Potter as a contributing author, it calls for policymakers to focus on the value of diversity in early education classrooms as a means to increase equity and quality for America’s youngest learners.”

3. The Huffington Post: Why College Signing Day Is Important for the Nation “On May 1st First Lady Michelle Obama will celebrate College Signing Day at Wayne State University by addressing more than 2,500 students from over 40 Detroit area high schools. Her Reach Higher Initiative is aimed, in part, at developing a strong college-going culture that normalizes the pursuit of education beyond high school. Encouraging students to ‘Reach Higher’ is as nonpartisan as it gets: No new legislation is required, no emergency school board meeting necessary, and the only budget implication might be $20 for a new college t-shirt that proudly displays your alma mater.”

4. Chalkbeat: Seven Ed Research Heavyweights to Head to Albany to Help Direct Evaluation Overhaul “Education research heavyweights are headed to Albany next week to offer their advice about the state’s imminent overhaul of teacher evaluations, and they represent many sides of the contentious debates around how to rate teachers.”

5. EdSurge: If You Could Build Any School, What Would You Build? “When I got the call 18 months ago from Achievement First to help design a ‘next-generation’ school model, it was a school designer’s dream. Achievement First has been running great schools serving low-income kids in New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island for 15 years. They embodied the profile of the ‘successful incumbent’: well-established schools which rarely want to take big innovation risks. And yet, a place like Achievement First has built such incredible wisdom and capacity for running great schools, what might it mean to combine that wisdom with a fresh approach to doing school? And so, we began our journey to design and build the ‘Greenfield’ model. Imagine an open, green field with nothing on it; if you could build any school what you build?” Achievement First is a past New Profit portfolio organization.