What's New

Medill News Service: Medill on the Hill

By Elizabeth Schiffman

February 17, 2010

http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/390/news.aspx?id=157065&terms=%22invest+in+us%22

WASHINGTON - An interactive exhibit unveiled Wednesday at the Capitol aims to educate legislators about the impact of strong kindergarten and pre-K programs.

The exhibit, entitled "Invest in Us" features five interactive stations with wireless headphones, interactive touch screens and video clips addressing the topics of childhood brain development, quality classroom and curriculum construction, economic returns on early education investment and quantitative results of strong early education programs.

The First Five Years Fund, in conjunction with other leading early childhood education programs, is behind the outreach effort.

"The early education folks traditionally haven't always been their own best spokesperson to laypeople," said Cornelia Grumman, executive director of The First Five Years Fund. "We wanted to create a drop-in trade show exhibit that looks professional and highlights the benefit of good early education ... as well as the nuts and bolts about how federal funding works and some concrete examples of high-quality programs."

Education advocates are eagerly awaiting the Senate's consideration of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, which passed the House on Sept. 17.

Wednesday's event marked the exhibit's "coming out party," its first completed presentation before it embarks on a national tour of schools, state governments and related organizations, such as the Education Writers Association conference in San Francisco this May. The idea to reveal it at the Capitol stems from a desire to educate policymakers, staffers and journalists, as well as those who work in the education field, Grumman said.

"I think allowing people to go through and explore and ask questions is a unique way to start the conversation about early childhood education," said Andrea Thomas, chief of staff at the United Planning Organization who visited the Wednesday morning. "We have a Head Start program [at the UPO], so for me, this is an education."

The newness of the exhibit was evident when two administrators from the Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, one of the exhibit's collaborators cited as an example of exemplary early childhood education and K-12 curricula, pointed out a factual error in one of the interactive presentations. Moments later, a staff member arrived with a portable mouse and made the correction.

Although Grumman says the decision to host the inaugural exhibition on the Capitol Hill is not intended as a lobbying effort, the early education field is acutely focused on encouraging the Senate to pass the student aid bill. Advocates are also interested in influencing the budget, which for the last 10 years has been "flat-funding" early childhood education, resulting in an ultimate loss of actual dollars because of inflation.

"[The exhibition here] was conceived of when someone said, ‘Don't forget about the Hill staffers; they need to be educated about early education, too,'" Grumman said.