Early Childhood Education

Birth through Third Grade Continuity Project

Illinois State Board of Education, 2015 through 2018
$973,067
Staffing: Elizabeth Rothkopf, Lisa Hood, and Erika Hunt

The Governor’s Office of Early Childhood Development (OECD) and the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) have partnered with the Center for the Study of Education Policy (CSEP) at Illinois State University (ISU) to manage the Birth through Third Grade Continuity Project. The project will be responsible for creating useful and practical tools and opportunities to support participating districts and facilitate their planning and implementation of a birth-through-third grade education continuum. Some of the specific work will include:

• Implementing B-3 Conferences. Materials from conferences can be found on the projects website.
• Conducting regional meetings and planning sessions across the state.
• Hosting webinars on topics relevant to multiple districts.
• Meeting individually with districts to assist in their planning and implementation of strategies to ensure preschool-to-third grade alignment.