Education & Early Learning

From early childhood education through high school and beyond, preparing children for school and improving educational opportunities are key components of a healthy community. This section highlights examples of and tools for building strong collaborations that support lifelong learning.

Institute Articles

Read our coverage of Education & Early Learning issues and ideas in the In The News section of this website.

Web Resources

• LISC's Community Investment Collaborative for Kids (CICK).  Quality early care and education is a proven means for preparing children for future academic success and a necessity for working parents. Yet virtually every low-income neighborhood lacks an adequate supply of quality child care facilities. To help meet these needs, LISC's Community Investment Collaborative for Kids (CICK) offers financial and technical assistance to develop and improve child care centers.    

• LISC’s Educational Initiatives & Educational Facilities Financing Center.  LISC supports after-school enrichment activities, parent engagement initiatives and programs to remove non-academic barriers to learning, as well as service-learning in order to provide students with a real-world context for learning through curriculum-based service projects. In addition, the LISC Educational Facilities Financing Center (EFFC) helps finance individual school facilities, develop local facilities funds, and foster public policy initiatives. 

• PolicyForResults.org - The Center for the Study of Social Policy at the University of Chicago maintains this website which offers examples of effective policies to ensure (a) Children Enter School Ready to Learn and Prepared to Succeed, Improve early grade-level reading, and (b) Youth are Prepared to Succeed as Adults, Increase high school completion.

• Model Joint Use Agreement Resources - This page includes a number of resources to help a community come to an agreement with local schools to use playgrounds and other facilities. From the National Policy and Legal Analysis Network to Prevent Childhood Obesity.

• Coalition for Community Schools - "A community school is both a place and a set of partnerships between the school and other community resources. Its integrated focus on academics, health and social services, youth and community development and community engagement leads to improved student learning, stronger families and healthier communities." So says the About Page for this deep website, which has background info on community schools, research and reports, hands-on tools, news on schools around the country and much more.