What we do.
To be effective in narrowing Minnesotan's worst-in-the-nation achievement gaps, Close Gaps By 5 believes Minnesota's early education policy must embody these core values:
- Help Low-Income Children First. With limited state funding, we must prioritize resources to help the 31,000 low-income children who are a) most at risk of falling into achievement gaps and b) unable to afford high quality programs.
- Help Low-Income Children Early. With evidence of the achievement gap present as early as age 1, we must help the most at-risk low-income children access quality early learning programs as early in life as possible.
- Give Parents Flexibility. We must offer parents options, so they can find a quality program that fits their location, work schedule, culture, and family preferences. We must also make the system "portable," so kids don't get cut off when their location or family income changes.
- Require Best Practices. Because low quality programs can actually set kids back, and don't produce strong returns-on-investments for taxpayers, we must guarantee that children are benefiting from the use of kindergarten-readiness best practices.
Close Gaps By 5 supports any approach that embodies those core values. Currently, the only proven approach in existence that embodies those values is the Minnesota Model for Early Learning: 1) Early Education Scholarships to help low-income children access high quality early education programs and 2) the Parent Aware Ratings, which help child care programs adopt kindergarten-readiness best practices, and help parents find those programs. This Minnesota Model has enjoyed bipartisan support.
In addition to the Minnesota Model, Close Gaps by 5 also strongly supports home-based parent coaching for the most at-risk families, and programs that empower parents to get more engaged in their child's education.