Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge: 2014 Annual Performance Report. North Carolina
Author: Department of Education (ED)
Date: 2015-06-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Educational Legislation,Federal Aid,Federal Programs,Federal Legislation,Early Childhood Education,State Programs,Educational Quality,Accountability,Program Evaluation,Program Effectiveness,Child Development,Academic Standards,Health Promotion,Labor Force Development,Outcome Measures,Progress Monitoring,Preschool Teachers,Teacher Competencies,Student Characteristics,Preschool Children,Budgets,Expenditures,Tables (Data)

This Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) annual performance report for the year 2014 describes North Carolina's accomplishments, lessons learned, challenges, and strategies North Carolina will implement to address those challenges. North Carolina's Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge grant is an investment in high-quality and unique approaches to build system-wide capacity. The grant provides and strengthens early learning opportunities statewide that also address the geographic, socio-economic, and cultural diversity of North Carolina's young children and families. North Carolina's grant strategies build upon this State's local, statewide and national successes and resources. The strategies are supported by research and are designed to foster dramatic progress in North Carolina's early care and education system that helps ensure positive outcomes for young children as they learn and develop. The work of the grant is building broad statewide supports that can be felt at every level of the system, including children and families, the early care and education workforce including educators, administrators, specialists and support staff, postsecondary students entering the field, as well as at the State and local levels, building capacity within the agencies that fund programs and serve young children and their families. The State-level agencies that are implementing North Carolina's Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge (RTTELC) grant are the NC Division of Child Development and Early Education, the Office of Early Learning of the NC Department of Public Instruction, the NC Division of Public Health, and the NC Partnership for Children (Smart Start). These primary agencies have additional collaborators with responsibilities for implementing projects and activities, including local school systems, the NC Child Care Resource and Referral Network agencies, local Smart Start agencies, local Head Start agencies, local health departments, the NC Community College System, several constituent universities of the University of North Carolina system, and other service agencies. To highlight the commendable work of these partners, North Carolina launched an RTT-ELC website in 2014 that provides detailed information about the array of projects and activities funded by the grant (http://earlylearningchallenge.nc.gov), as well as a monthly e-newsletter and a webinar series that are both accessible through the website. In 2014, the NC Early Childhood Advisory Council (NC ECAC) reconvened with a new Executive Director, new Chair, and new appointments. The initial focus of this Council is to develop a detailed understanding of the current services North Carolina provides for young children and families, support the work of the RTT-ELC grant to improve and build the early childhood system, and to establish the council's priorities and goals. With this infrastructure in place, North Carolina made significant progress in implementing the RTT-ELC grant in 2014. [For &quot;At a Glance: The Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge Year 2014 Progress Report,&quot; see ED583096.]