Early Ed Watch

Last December, the U.S. Department of Education announced 20 winners of the 2011 Promise Neighborhoods grant program. Promise Neighborhoods is the Obama administration's attempt to replicate the Harlem Children's Zone, a 100-block area of Harlem where community organizations and schools work closely together in their efforts to break the poverty cycle for local children.

As we've discussed in the past, Promise Neighborhoods has our attention at Early Ed Watch for several reasons, first and foremost its focus on early learning and building a "cradle-to-career" educational pipeline for kids from low-income families. For fiscal year 2012, Congress funded Promise Neighborhoods at $60 million.

The potential benefits of the Promise Neighborhoods grant program-finding new ways to curb poverty in some of the poorest areas of the country-are big, but grantees also face many potential pitfalls. For this podcast we spoke with Michael McAffee, director of the Promise Neighborhoods Institute, about this year's grantees and the challenges they face, such as garnering support from organizations in their community, building data systems that track student progress and creating sustainable Promise Neighborhoods programs that will exist after the grant period is over. The Promise Neighborhoods Institute is a nonprofit that offers resources and guidance to areas wishing to build and sustain Promise Neighborhoods.

Early Ed Watch podcast – January 6, 2012

The Year Ahead for Promise Neighborhoods Grantees

With our guest Michael McAffee, director of the Promise Neighborhoods Institute