Six school districts in urban and rural communities will start pilot preschool programs with grants announced recently by the Alaska Department of Education & Early Development (DEED). Earlier this year, the state legislature appropriated $2 million to fund the Alaska Pilot Pre-Kindergarten Project. Alaska is one of only 12 states that don’t have state-sponsored preschool. Read More
Happy birthday to us!
September marks the third birthday for Best Beginnings. What a ride it’s been so far! The movement for early childhood is growing – nationally and locally. Here in Alaska, momentum is building, and Best Beginnings is proud to be both a leader and supporter. Social movements don’t happen overnight. At risk of overstatement, what we’re Read More
Activities and Advocacy
Legislators heard from Alaskans across the state through e-mails, phone calls, personal visits, and testimony at committee hearings, advocating for programs, services, and initiatives that support young children and their families. Why does it matter? Because they all contribute to achieving the Best Beginnings vision: All Alaska children begin school ready to succeed. There is Read More
Is your child ready?
In the fall, thousands of young Alaska children will begin kindergarten. What can parents do over the summer to help their children be ready for the new challenges of kindergarten? Will teaching children letters and numbers guarantee their success? You may be surprised at a kindergarten teacher’s five recommendations to parents. All Alaska children begin Read More
The time to speak up is now
With fewer than 30 days left in the first session of the 26th Legislature, we at Best Beginnings, along with our early childhood partners and supporters, are doing all we can to ensure programs, services, and initiatives that support young children and their families get a critical infusion of resources. “Early childhood development programs are Read More
A Promise of Things to Come
What a thrill we had at Best Beginnings recently. Representatives from 22 Alaska communities connected in Anchorage around the shared goal of making their communities better for young children and their families. This is a harbinger of what we hope to build long term: a connected, coordinated, statewide network of engaged early childhood advocates. What Read More
Early Learning gets Positive Attention
If anyone doubted that early learning is rising in the public and political consciousness, consider recent developments: President Obama’s choice for secretary of education; Governor Palin’s proposed budget for FY 2010; and recent grants for early literacy opportunities. Find out how Best Beginnings will capitalize on these opportunities and step up the pace in 2009. Read More
Major Grocer Pushes Books
Carrs/Safeway encourages employees to read with their kids Carrs/Safeway is encouraging Alaska parents to read with their children by distributing “ABC Read and Talk With Me Anchorage” book bags to its employees. The book bags, a project spearheaded by Anchorage’s First Lady Deborah Bonito with funding from BP, were designed to help parents and care Read More
Statewide Education Summit
Alaska educators convened to attend “Building Alaska’s Future One Student at a Time,” held in Anchorage, Alaska, Nov. 13-14, 2008. The purpose of the summit was to draft a vision, mission, goals, and outcomes for education in Alaska prekindergarten through secondary education, as well as to broadly define what every Alaska high school graduate should Read More
Employers and Child Care: Credit Union 1
For many working parents the struggle to balance family and a career is complicated. Parents struggle to find high-quality, affordable child care, which keeps some parents who would like to work or continue to work, from doing so. Other challenges working parents face are work environments that do not have policies that support working parents Read More