VCC Magazine Fall 2018

A Letter From First Lady of Virginia Pamela Northam

When we decided as a family that my husband Ralph would run for Governor of Virginia, I knew it would bring great changes in my life. I had been happily working at a Virginia nonprofit where I felt we were making a difference in protecting the environment. Now, along with the privilege of serving the Commonwealth as First Lady of Virginia, I have a new opportunity to use my professional experience to advocate for Virginia’s children. I began my professional career in San Antonio, Texas as a Pediatric Occupational Therapist, where I met Ralph during his pediatric neurology residency. Ralph’s Army career briefly took us overseas, but we were happy to return home to raise our children in Virginia. I spent 12 years as a science educator before retiring to work at a local environmental nonprofit. Throughout our professional careers, Ralph and I have experienced the joy of sparking curiosity and igniting a passion for learning in young minds. We see the potential in every child, especially in those first five years when about 90% of brain development occurs. InVirginia, we are proud of our education system. Unemployment sits at 3% and we are consistently ranked among the best states to raise a family and run a business. However, the numbers show we can do better at educating our youngest and most vulnerable citizens. According to the Virginia Kindergarten Readiness Project (VKRP) 40% of children are not entering kindergarten fully ready with the literacy, math, self-regulation, and social skills needed for success throughout their K-12 years. We also see that 70% of disadvantaged children from birth to age five lack access to affordable early childhood care and education option, and two-thirds of children under age five have all available parents in the workforce. Every child is capable of succeeding in school, and beyond, if they have access to quality affordable early education.We can do better. Virginia can lead the nation in early childhood education. For over a year, I researched the early education system and sought the advice of experts. It was clear we need a strong visionary leader who was prepared to do something innovative, scalable, and

sustainable. We heard again and again about a leader in Louisiana who successfully implemented a first-of-its-kind unification of early childhood programs. After several months of conversations, Jenna Conway, a Charlottesville native, moved back to Virginia to join us as the Chief Deputy of the Department of Education in a new role we are calling our “Chief School Readiness Office.” Jenna hit the ground running in June meeting with key stakeholders from multiple secretariats and state agencies, nonprofits, business, and local governments. Virginia is fortunate to have some many people doing such great work, and our goal is to enter the 2019 General Assembly session speaking with one voice. InAugust, our team set out on an ambitious “Back to School” tour that would take us to all of Virginia’s eight superintendent regions to visit child care, Head Start, Early Head Start, and Virginia Preschool Initiative (VPI) classrooms. After nearly 2,000 miles on the road, it became clear that the problems facing our early education system are diverse, and unique to each community. One afternoon we arrived at a Head Start classroom tucked behind an industrial park in a modular building in Scott County. Despite the humble setting, we found a warm and supportive classroom environment. This program had received teacher-student interaction scores that put them among the highest rated programs in the nation. In both rural and urban classrooms there are exceptional teachers working hard to provide quality education for children. With a universal rating system, we can shine a light on both the good work, and potential areas of improvement, for each individual classroom. Having an evidence-based, apples-to-apples comparison of all classrooms will improve quality of education by making our programs more transparent, unified, data-driven, and efficient. Teachers hold the future in their hands. We know that every teacher, whether they are working with infants or teenagers, has the ability to make lasting impressions on young minds. In addition to providing them with a simple, universal, and effective rating system, Continued on next page

V irginia C apitol C onnections , F all 2018

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