Blog
Nancy Perez: Sixpence Parent Educator
Nancy Perez was introduced to Sixpence as a teenager when pregnancy complications forced her to drop out of school. Through Sixpence, she discovered her passion for early chlidhood education, and now is a Sixpence parent educator. She was the first parent educator in Nebraska to receive a perfect score on the HoVRS, which the University of Nebraska Medical Center administers to evaluate parent coaches and they support they give.
Child Care Providers Can Be Part of the Solution in Closing the Achievement Gap
As child care professionals, we know that good quality early childhood environments matter.
Children’s Book Week Is May 4-10
Next week is Children's Book Week. Reading to children helps increase their vocabulary, comprehension, concentration, memory and curiosity.
How Does Poetry Help Children’s Development?
Reading poetry to children facilitates their language, cognitive and even physical development, but most of all, it's fun!
New Study: Children in Educare Schools Narrowed the Achievement Gap
High-quality early education is especially advantageous when children start younger and continue longer, says a new report from the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute.
Nebraska is Poised to Take Innovative Step to Meet the Needs of At-Risk Kids
The partnership formed between Sixpence Early Learning Fund and Step Up to Quality in LB547 will mean that more kids at risk will benefit from early care and education programs that meet the rigorous, high-quality standards known to narrow the achievement gap.
Common Ground is Key
Child care and education fall under the purview of two different systems in Nebraska, and each approaches early childhood from a unique standpoint. For the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees child care, the issue revolves around ensuring that children’s fundamental requirements for health and safety are met while in care. Nebraska’s education system, on the other hand, focuses on whether children begin kindergarten ready to learn and prepared to advance academically. The science of early childhood development tells us that these two aspects of child development shouldn’t be addressed as separate considerations. Early child care environments are, or ought to be, learning environments—just as the health and safety of young children are necessary for quality learning to occur.
LB489 Provides New Option to Help Close Achievement Gap
LB489 allows child care providers to partner with school districts to receive Sixpence Early Learning Fund grants, making them critical partners in local efforts to close the achievement gap for Nebraska's youngest, most at-risk children.
York Public Schools Superintendent Mike Lucas: Opportunity Knocks—Expanding Sixpence in 2015
As public school educators and administrators, we deal directly with the outcomes of children’s earliest learning experiences. All too often, it’s alarmingly easy for our teachers to tell which students are likely to succeed or struggle in our classrooms within the first days of kindergarten.
Quality, Accountability, Results: Hallmarks of Wise Investments in Early Childhood
In recent years, Nebraska has opened new opportunities for genuine investment in the development of children who stand to lose or gain the most from their earliest experiences. Among these, the Sixpence Early Learning Fund rises to the top as an investment opportunity that meets the most stringent criteria for quality, fiscal accountability and demonstrable results.
2 Bills Aim to Help Close the Achievement Gap
We know that a significant number of Nebraska’s children arrive at kindergarten unprepared to learn. In fact, more than 64,000 children ages birth-5 are at risk of failing in school. Of these, about 30,000 are infants and toddlers who are not receiving the kinds of early experiences known to support strong brain development during the first three years of life.
Early Experiences Shape Brain Architecture
Babies are born ready to learn. At birth, the brain contains about 100 billion neurons that are connected by synapses carrying electrochemical signals in response to stimuli from the world around us. During the earliest years, those synapses are firing at an astonishing rate, and they become the neural foundation upon which everything else is built.