Rhode Island wins federal Early Learning Race to the Top grant

As WPRI reports, Rhode Island's youngest learners will be the beneficiaries of a Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge award from the United States Departments of Education and Health and Human Services.  Rhode Island is one of nine states to win early learning RttT grant funds. Based on the strength of existing programs including Ready to Learn Providence, Rhode Island applied for $50,000 million to support early learning statewide with a focus on underserved communities. These funds have the potential to create universal high quality preK programs, which would address a one of our state's most fundamental equity issues. Fantastic news!

Update - just ran across this analysis on the Quick and the Ed blog that shares criteria and scoring methods for the states that applied for the RttT-ELC funds. Yeah, I know I cheered above, and I am happy for Rhode Island in this instance, but not at the expense of other states' young learners. I remain opposed in terms of equity to the notion that states must compete to win funding that most if not all so urgently need. Winning comes down to following the rules of the scoring, which does not necessarily demand the same skill set among professionals as building strong programs.

Ready to Learn Providence free high quality preschool opportunity for 4 year olds

If you're a Providence resident with a child who will be four by September 1 and are interested in an option for pre-Kindergarten, visit Ready to Learn Providence's website to find out about the Rhode Island Department of Education's highly rated preschool program, which runs five days a week all day. You can also find information about additional locations. You can learn more about the program here.

The program takes place at the Liston Campus of CCRI on the south side of Providence and is free, with additional locations elsewhere in Providence and Warwick. Applications (PDF download) are due by August 15.