Webinar: Every Student Succeeds Act Provides New Opportunities for Birth-through-Third Grade Alignment and Funding in North Carolina

In December, the President signed into law the Every Student Succeeds Act (previously No Child Left Behind).  The law strengthens federal support for early learning and provides new opportunities for birth-through-third grade alignment, accountability and funding.

Join us on April 6, 2016 from 2 PM through 3 :30 PM for a webinar on Every Student Succeeds Act: New Opportunities for Birth-through-Third Grade Alignment and Funding in North Carolina. Click here to register.

Presenters

  • Laura Bornfreund, director of New America’s Early and Elementary Education Policy, will outline what the Every Student Succeed Acts (ESSA) means for early learning, including new professional development opportunities, a focus on early literacy instruction beginning at birth, a new preschool competitive grant program and more.
  • Rio Romero-Jurado, Policy Analyst at Ounce of Prevention Fund, will discuss how ESSA encourages states to include the early years in state accountability systems. While state accountability systems often drive improvement, until now federal law ignored children prior to third grade.

Participants will have time to ask questions of both presenters. Space is limited and priority will be given to those from North Carolina. Register now!

Background on the Presenters

Laura BornfreundLaura Bornfreund is a director of Early and Elementary Education Policy at New America. Laura authored the reports “An Ocean of Unknowns: Using Student Achievement Data to Evaluate PreK-3rd Grade Teachers, “Getting in Sync: Revamping Licensing and Preparation for Teachers in Pre-K, Kindergarten, and the Early Grades,” and was lead author on the reports, “From Crawling to Walking: Ranking States on Birth-3rd Grade Policies that Support Strong Readers” and “Beyond subprime Learning: Accelerating Progress in Early Education.” Before joining New America, she worked with several policy organizations in Washington, D.C., including the Institute for Educational Leadership, The Forum for Education and Democracy, and Common Core (now known as Great Minds). Before moving to D.C., Laura worked for the City of Orlando, helping to implement its Parramore Kidz Zone, an initiative modeled after the Harlem Children’s Zone. She began her career as a fourth grade teacher in Orlando, Fla. Laura holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Central Florida.

 

rioRio Romero-Jurado is a policy analyst for the Ounce’s national policy team. She supports the team’s consultation activities to state and local communities by conducting policy research and analysis in early learning as well as supports the collective policy and advocacy work of the Educare Learning Network. Rio has worked in public policy in the areas of early childhood, public health, and human services. Rio was previously research and policy coordinator at the Texas Early Childhood Education Coalition, where she wrote about the importance of high-quality early education initiatives in the state. She also provided program support at the National Women’s Law Center in Washington, DC. In 2012, Rio served as a mayoral fellow for the City of Chicago, studying issues of early education, human services programming and public education reform. Rio holds a master’s degree from the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration and a bachelor of science in human development & family sciences with a certificate in social inequality, health, and policy from The University of Texas at Austin.