From ALA:
State library leaders are promoting two-generation approaches to early learning and fostering environments in which children and the adults in their lives have equal opportunities to create knowledge and gain new skills together. The Global Family Research Project’s new policy brief, State Library Administrative Agencies: Leading Family Engagement in Early Learning, features such initiatives in four states—California, Colorado, Georgia, and Maryland.
The brief examines five change strategies these states use to elevate the role of families in children’s early learning. State library agencies:
- Created a bold vision for the emergence of new ideas and practices. They set ambitious but realistic goals to ensure that families and caregivers of young children—especially those not often reached by libraries—gained access to the resources to support early learning.
- Entered into statewide partnerships. They positioned themselves to join state collaborative efforts to address relevant early learning issues, such as school readiness, closing opportunity gaps, and improving the quality of family, friend, and neighbor care.
- Funded and empowered local library innovation. Through grants and frameworks for action, they encouraged libraries to tinker with new ideas and reinvent family engagement practices in order to meet the unique characteristics of local communities.
- Provided professional learning opportunities. They supported training models and offered ongoing support in order to build the competencies for authentic partnerships with families.
- Took advantage of multiple funding sources. They used federal and state funds and tapped philanthropic dollars to innovate, scale, and sustain the integration of family engagement in the early learning programs of public libraries.
“Global Family Research Project has produced a well-researched and insightful piece on state library agency successes in promoting early learning through family engagement. Their recommendations are well thought out and provide a roadmap for further discussion,” says Timothy Cherubini, Executive Director, Chief Officers of State Library Agencies.
Direct to Full Text Report: State Library Administrative Agencies: Leading Family Engagement in Early Learning
32 pages; PDF.
Direct to Supplemental Guide
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