FirstSchool is a new vision for early schooling of 3- to 8-year-old children that is being developed through a partnership among families, schools, the community, the FPG Child Development Institute, and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. We plan to develop, implement, and evaluate a local FirstSchool model in order to inform a national framework for other communities to use to guide them toward providing a successful early school experience for all children and families.
Goals
The overarching goal of FirstSchool is to rethink public education for children ages 3 to 8 in partnership with a broad community of people who care deeply about young children. Our fundamental aim is to ensure that all children’s and families’ early school experiences are positive and successful.
Our goals for the FirstSchool planning process are to:
- Develop a national framework for children’s first school experiences, ages 3 to 8.
- Implement FirstSchool concepts locally.
- Develop products and strategies to help other communities interested in implementing the FirstSchool vision.
The FirstSchool initiative has received over $2 million to support a three-year planning process. Financial support is provided by the Foundation for Child Development, FPG Child Development Institute, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, and private donors.
