BATON ROUGE, La. -- Louisiana early childhood education leaders earned second place and $10,000 in funding for presenting the blueprint of a leadership academy for child care directors at the inaugural Zaentz Early Education Innovation Challenge. The funding will support a pilot of the developing program, which is scheduled to begin accepting applications in the spring of 2019.
The Zaentz Early Education Innovation Challenge, which recognizes promising new ideas and strategic approaches that have the potential to transform the quality of early education and drive lasting change and improvement, began with a written application process, and once selected, finalists were asked to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges in front of a live audience at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Watch a recording of the 15 finalists' pitches here. Louisiana's pitch begins at 55:20.
The delegation from Louisiana included Emmy O'Dwyer, project lead; Erin Carroll, Louisiana Department of Education team member; Paula Polito, director of Beary Cherry Tree and chair of the state's Early Childhood Care and Education Advisory Council; and Monique Rouege, director of Carlie Care Kids.
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