| The tentative agenda for the April 15th Pre-Conference Advocacy Workshop being held in conjunction with the April 16-17 School Readiness Conference is summarized below. Registrations for the pre-conference continue to run at a high level and, as you can see by the program of speakers, we are anticipating a very exciting and valuable day for all participants.
If you are planning to attend the pre-conference and have not yet made your hotel reservations, please do so as soon as possible. The cutoff date for reduced room rates at some of the conference hotels is fast approaching.
If you need registration information or any assistance, please contact USA Child Care Executive Director Michael Stafford at mstafford@usachildcare.org or 703-875-8100.
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 Early Childhood Preconference Advocacy Workshop
April 15, 2004
| Covington, Kentucky
Sponsored by:
USA CHILD CARE and CHILDREN, INC.
The purpose of this workshop is to provide advocates the strategies and tools to make persuasive arguments on behalf of quality childcare and other evidence-based programs for young children and families. Participants will hear leaders in the field recommend key messages that ought to be included in early childhood advocacy initiatives, particularly at the state level. After each presentation, participants will have the opportunity to discuss and refine these messages and to recommend content of an Advocacy briefs that will then be broadly disseminated.
Tentative Agenda
Note: Some sessions will run concurrently. |
| 9:00 AM |
Welcome and Introductions |
| 9:15 AM |
NCCP'S LIFT Initiative: Using Research to Improve Policy
Jane Knitzer, Ed.D., National Center for Children in Poverty
This session will help advocates understand the importance of using evidence-based arguments in support of policy recommendations. Advocates will learn sources of empirical information, how to frame research results for legislators, and how to use NCCP's Project LIFT as an advocacy tool. Praise for the newly launched Project LIFT includes: "LIFT raises the capacity of our member organizations to respond quickly during legislative sessions," commented Deborah Stein, Director of Policy and Advocacy for the National Association of Child Advocates (soon to be renamed Voices for America's Children). She added that "once the budget fray is over, the data tools and research summaries on the LIFT website can be used by child advocacy organizations to inform the agenda for the next session or to assess the implications of recently released studies." |
| 9:15 AM |
An Economic Perspective of Pre School Programs
(Invited) Lynn Karoly, Ph.D., Senior Economist, Professor of Economics at the RAND Graduate School
This session will help advocates argue the cost-benefit of quality early childhood programs. Dr. Karoly's expertise is in social welfare policy, welfare and children, early care and education, poverty and inequality, U.S. labor markets, and retirement. She has recently led a project that comprehensively synthesized the research literature on the effects of the 1996 welfare reform legislation on economic outcomes and family and child well-being. Testified in 2001 on the findings for the hearing on "Welfare Reform: Success in Moving Toward Work," before the Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness, Committee on Education and the Workforce, U.S. House of Representatives. Also led a team that investigated the costs and benefits of early childhood intervention programs based on a thorough literature review and synthesis, and a cost-benefit analysis. Testified in 1998 on the findings before the Subcommittee on Human Resources, Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, U.S. House of Representatives. |
| 10:00 AM |
Group discussion - Views from the field |
| 11:00 AM |
Early Childhood Education: A Call to Action from the Business Community
Tita Freeman, Business Roundtable
Last spring the Business Roundtable (BRT) and Corporate Voices for Working Families (CVWF) issued a joint position paper urging legislators at state and federal levels to support quality early childhood education. This session will present the six principles that should guide programs and policies and strategies for framing quality early education and care as an economic issue. |
| 11:00 AM |
Framing Child Care as Education in Advocacy Initiatives
Virginia Edwards, Editor, Education Week
This session will provide advocates with key messages in framing child care as education. The breakthroughs in neurosciences and developmental sciences have underscored the tremendous learning endeavors of young children. It is essential that advocates convince legislators to move away from the vision of child care as custodial to the understanding that child care is the first and very important segment of a child's education. |
| 11:45 AM |
Group discussion - Views from the field |
| 12:30 PM |
Lunch |
| 1:15 PM |
Minds in the Making: Building the Public Will to Support Early Childhood
Ellen Galinsky, President, Family and Work Institute
This session will present materials that will support advocacy efforts to build public knowledge and will. It will feature messages from a 13-part PBS series under development entitled, "Minds in the Making." |
| 2:00 PM |
Group discussion - Views from the field |
| 2:45 PM |
Governors' Initiatives in Early Childhood
Anna Lovejoy, National Governors Association |
| 2:45 PM |
Promising Practices in Assessing School Readiness
Lisa Klein, Ph.D., Hestia Advising, formerly with the E. Marion Kauffman Foundation |
| 3:30 PM |
Group discussion - Views from the field |
| 4:00 PM |
Using NCLB and other state data sets as advocacy tools
Jane Wiechel, Ph.D., Ohio Department of Education and Past-President, NAEYC |
| 4:00 PM |
Trends in Our State
Panel of state advocates reviewing state advocacy experiences and potential |
| 5:00 PM |
Joint reception with Education Writers Pre-conference |
| 6:00 PM |
Dinner for Advocates and Education Writers
"Long Term Effects of Trauma on Children's School Readiness"
Frank Putnam, M.D., Director, Mayerson Center for Safe and Healthy Children, Children's Hospital Medical Center of Cincinnati
Dr. Putnam was formerly the Chief of Developmental Traumatology Program at the National Institute of Mental Health, where he directed the first research team investigating the biological effects of child abuse. |
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