Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education Hosts Early Education Convening

BOSTON, Sept. 28, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education today outlined the agenda for The Leading Edge of Early Education: Expansion and Improvement for Impact, an invite-only gathering for leading policymakers, scholars, practitioners, and advocates in early education. The convening will take place on October 5, 2017 from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.

"Serving as a cornerstone of the Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative, the convening will reframe discussions around early education, the delivery of high-quality early learning at scale, and its benefit to children and society," said Nonie Lesaux, Academic Dean and the Juliana W. and William Foss Thompson Professor of Education and Society at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. "As part of the Initiative's commitment to the field as a connector of ideas and people, we're bringing together leaders in early education to discuss how policy, research, and practice intersect to ensure our youngest learners are reaping the benefits of sustainable, high-quality early learning experiences and care."

Featured guest speakers at the convening include:

• Shannon Christian, director, Office of Child Care at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families
• Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president, Children's Defense Fund
• Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, director, The Hamilton Project (Brookings Institute) and professor of human development and social policy, Northwestern University
• Margaret (Peg) Burchinal, senior scientist, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Nathan Hendren, faculty research fellow, National Bureau of Economic Research and professor of economics, Harvard University

Highlights of the convening include a set of plenary sessions each organized around key issues facing the field, providing insights and takeaways that will move forward collective strategy and practice. Sessions led by nationally recognized speakers will focus on topics such as the economics of pre–K, strategies for scaling improvement, the impact of policy-making in other domains that bear on early education and the lives of children and families, and the science of responding to childhood trauma and adversity.

"The convening is structured to highlight the best of what we currently know about high-quality systems of early learning, and the challenge of taking ideas to scale, while bringing in new thinking from other fields that influence the design of pre–K improvement and expansion," said Stephanie Jones, Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. "Our goal is to inspire fresh thinking and strategic approaches that drive sustainable, transformative change in early education."

For more information about the Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative and ELS@H, visit here.

About The Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative 
The Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) is a major investment to drive transformation in U.S. early childhood education. The Initiative promotes the knowledge, professional learning and collective action necessary to cultivate optimal early learning environments and experiences. The Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative is supported by a $35.5 million gift from the Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation, one of the largest gifts ever given to a university for early childhood education advancement.

SOURCE Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative