The Young Child Expo in Spokane was another opportunity to meet more of the participants in the wildly diverse early learning field in Washington. Also a great opportunity to practice speaking extemporaneously, which is what happens when you show up and the sponsors of an event have you on the agenda without you knowing it……

Vanderbilt University just released a large study on the pre-school program in Tennessee. It’s an interesting study and I scrambled to find out enough about Tennessee’s program to respond intelligently to press inquiries on it. My conclusion – Tennessee has focused on access over quality and they are showing some improvements in outcomes for kids…

Thrive Washington is a public-private partnership focusing on ensuring very young children in Washington get the best start possible. Their web site is a great resource. They wrote a nice article about my new job as the Director of Washington’s Department of Early Learning.