Delaware Cited Nationally for Early Learning Progress

Delaware has made great progress in the past several years in supporting the development of young children. In 2011, these efforts were catalyzed when Delaware was awarded nearly $50 million through the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge (ELC) to assure that more young children from low-income families have access to higher quality services.

So how has Delaware risen to the challenge? Chapter 2 of the recently released BUILD Initiative e-book Rising to the Challenge: Building Effective Systems for Young Children and Families shares learnings from the initial implementation of the ELC. Delaware is highlighted for creating local coalitions to build a strong system of early learning.

In Delaware, these coalitions are called the Delaware Readiness Teams. They were created in 2013 in high-needs areas and comprised of community leaders from all sectors in order to:

• Strengthen family, community, and school partnerships that improve early learning experiences
• Align systems and services on the local and state levels to more effectively serve young children and families

The foundation of their work is the Delaware Readiness Equation: Ready Families + Ready Schools + Ready Early Learning Providers + Ready Communities = Ready Children.

Delaware is recognized in the e-book for the Readiness Teams’ involvement in assisting local programs to increase their Star levels so that families have more choices of high quality programs. The state also receives attention for its particular focus on linking the early learning and K-12 sectors together and for its focused effort on public education and building community engagement. At the local level, Readiness Teams are pursuing these goals through a variety of initiatives. They are engaging in joint professional development between early learning providers and elementary schools to build a shared understanding and ease transitions for students. They are hosting Kindergarten registration drives to generate community awareness and excitement.

This chapter is an opportune time to celebrate our progress and build on locally driven solutions to preparing children for success. The next phase for the readiness teams includes achieving community and family outcomes—and to identify state policies that are barriers to making even more success.