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A new blog post from the Brookings Institution calls on the nation’s business community to understand and support the importance of early childhood development if it wants to create a workforce for the future. Authored by Brookings Visiting Scholar Tamar Manuelyan Atinc, a former World Bank VP, the post highlights the fact that while education […]

Common sense should tell you that students living in poverty will not have the same advantages as those who are economically well off, and that those differences in circumstances will show up as differences in academic performance. That’s exactly what the latest round of state report-card data shows for Ohio schools, according to a Columbus […]

ACS President Lori McClung recently coached close to 100 executive directors, communication directors, and board chairs from NC Smart Start partnerships in the art of crafting a compelling story about their organizations. As part of the Smart Start conference in North Carolina, Lori taught her workshop attendees how to effectively frame messages about early childhood […]

This summer was an eventful one for one of ACS’s first clients, Towards Employment. Based in Cleveland, Towards Employment is building career pathways for economically disadvantaged and formerly incarcerated citizens. They help people prepare for a job, get a job, keep a job and advance in a career. Since 1976, they have helped over 120,000 […]

Having returned from The BUILD Initiative’s conference on Quality Raging and Improvement Systems (QRIS), ACS Senior Director Rebecca Cohen has six high-level takeaways to share: 1. Data and research about the state of early childhood education is getting better, but it’s still not complete. Look for new and deeper information from studies coming out this […]

Collaboration seems to be the model for our times, and it should be. No single person or group can solve the sticky problems that are seemingly entrenched in our education, justice and economic systems. Indeed, solving societal problems requires the engagement of that society — and that requires collaboration. But collaboration that doesn’t engage a […]

When First Things First of Arizona (FTF) needed powerful plans for community outreach and communications to educate families statewide about the importance of early childhood education, they called on ACS. Now, ACS is assisting FTF with building the capacity of its regional community outreach staff and regional council directors to successfully facilitate community stakeholder conversations […]

Kudos to Cincinnati Public Schools for a great article in Ed Source that touts the district’s Community Learning Centers as a model for the nation. The district brings community partners into every one of its 55 schools in a “whole child” approach to improving academics. Cincinnati’s program employs the concepts of “community schools,” in which […]

ACS has once again been selected by First Things First (FTF) in Arizona to help guide the implementation of thier statewide efforts to ensure all Arizona children ages 0-3 years have access to screening, supports and treatments services in a coordinated early childhood health and development system. Supported by a federal grant for Arizona’s Early […]

ACS gives kudos to Akron Public Schools Superintendent David James for his comments on a recent panel discussion broadcast by 90.3 WCPN and WVIZ Public Television in a special edition of the Ideas program. James, a member of ACS client The Ohio 8, spoke about the challenges that surround students who live in poverty, and […]