More Racing to the Top in Massachusetts

The State will get an infusion of as much as $50 million over four years to expand access to high-quality early care and education—and to continue strengthening the systems that support this expansion and ensure quality. This is a resounding endorsement of the efforts of countless advocates for Massachusetts’ youngest children, including several Barr grantees.

We featured two of these grantees in an October post on Massachusetts’ new Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS), “A Big Leap for Quality in Early Education”: Amy O’Leary of Early Education for All, a campaign of Strategies for Children (also a Barr grantee); and Mav Pardee of Children’s Investment Fund.

To help us make sense of this latest development, we turn to Strategies for Children and its eye on early education blog. Here are some of the key posts and excerpts:

• “MA Wins Early Learning Challenge Grant” - Massachusetts, one of nine states awarded grants from the competitive federal Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge, will receive the full $50 million over four years for which it was eligible. The commonwealth, with 267 points of a possible 300 points, had the second highest score of the 35 states...

• “MA Plan for Early Learning Challenge Grant” - The start of a new year marks the start of implementing the Massachusetts Early Learning Plan outlined in the Commonwealth’s successful application for the federal Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge...

• “MA Governor Joins Early Learning Challenge Celebration” - “The more we get together, the happier we’ll be.” The familiar children’s song, performed by preschoolers from Boston’s Ellis Memorial & Eldredge House, set the tone for yesterday’s event at the Massachusetts State House celebrating the federal Early Learning Challenge grant...