The Challenge

The Great Recession walloped Nevada, but the state gathered itself together and began a deliberate process of transitioning toward a 21^st Century economy and economic health.

This new economy of high tech and advanced manufacturing employers, though, demands a highly skilled, literate workforce, a burden placed squarely on Nevada’s Pre-K to 12 education system. 

At the time of the economic transition, the state’s public education was not well positioned to deliver.  In 2012, the state’s high school graduation rate was 63%, the lowest in the country.  On the other end of the spectrum, not quite a third of all 3- and 4-year-olds were enrolled in pre-K in 2015, earning another last place designation among all the states.  It was the norm for nearly 70% of all Nevada children to show up for kindergarten having never been in any kind of school setting before, which is a handicap for them and for their teachers.  And on the crucial indicator of learning success –reading by grade three – only 29% of the state’s public school students were at or above proficient on this milestone in 2015.

Led by then Governor Sandoval, the Silver State began making historic investment in the overall education system, but took particular aim at the birth to 8-year-old cohort of future Nevadans.  The theory was to foster life-long learners from the earliest of days.

“It takes so many different players to advance a cause – local residents, the wide array of organizations that serve them, public and private sector leaders, professional associations, researchers, funders…  Shared Cause has the ability to take the perspectives from people with very different experiences and synthesize them into a shared direction.  I particularly value the team’s ability to bring together stakeholders who haven’t been at the table and need to be.  Shared Cause understands the importance of that and are good at ensuring that all are truly engaged and respected.  I also value their knowledge of how to work across local, county, state and federal levels to solve problems at scale.”

Marty Elquist
Chair, Nevada Early Childhood Advisory Council

Creating the Solution

The Nevada Early Childhood Advisory Council (ECAC) facilitated the development of a first phase strategic plan to kick off the focus on the state’s youngest learners.  The plan adopted high standards to guide all early childhood educators.  It created a professional development and quality improvement infrastructure to serve early childhood educators in all settings – from unlicensed family, friend and neighbor (FFN) providers to community-based centers through kindergarten and the early grades. It initiated efforts to align early childhood learning and care systems’ expectations and outcomes from birth through grade three.  And its Nevada K.I.D.S. Read initiative (also known as Read by Grade Three) is aimed at raising up all children who struggle with early literacy by deeply engaging the public education system with funding and training.

Shared Cause helped the Nevada ECAC lead the development of the second phase, three-year strategic and action plan, focused on the following objectives:

1. Provide excellent early learning systems
2. Link training and teaching and care standards across all systems serving children 0-8
3. Improve fragmented licensing which impedes child care quality
4. Build a well trained and motivated early childhood workforce
5. Expand investment in early childhood education
6.  Ensure strong family partnership
7. Enhance families’ teaching and nurturing power
8. Enhance families’ ability to manage children’s learning experiences outside of school
9. Enhance families’ partnership with educators
10. Support child and family health
11. Ensure all children have access to comprehensive, quality health care
12. Expand health sector workforce skills to effectively work with young children and their families
13. Build and strengthen partnerships with state and local health agencies

The planning process featured deep public and private sector involvement and resulted in multi-sector implementation partnerships.  Working groups made up of the implementation partners are now advancing action plans for each of the areas of focus.

One of the innovations is to provide in-depth training on the science of early childhood development to professionals in all settings that serve young children and their families.  This is engaging the early care and education system, library system, public health and health care systems, and even the workforce development system.  Basically, as many public institutions as possible that come into frequent, direct contact with families with young children.   As part of this effort, all will be engaged in providing practical tools families can use to guide them in nurturing their children’s development through every day activities. Nevada will be building a broad, shared understanding of how to create a nurturing culture of support for young children in every corner of the state.

Nevada is attracting national support for its exciting efforts.  The state was recently awarded a federal Pre-K Development Grant that is providing capacity building funding in support of the plan.  In addition, the Pritzker Foundation awarded Nevada a highly competitive grant to develop a statewide coalition and advocacy plan to drive a dramatic increase in high quality services for children in the prenatal phase through age three.