Detroit Parents Get Childhood Education Selection Tool With "Excellent Schools Detroit" Early Learner Scorecard

DETROIT, May 7, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Detroit parents, caregivers and community leaders are getting an updated tool to help them find the best early education and care options with the release of the Excellent Schools Detroit (ESD) Early Learner Scorecard.

The 2015 Early Learner Scorecard highlights the top 140 early education programs in Detroit and within a five-mile radius in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.

"Given the critical importance of high quality education for children from birth to five years old, families and policy makers need to know what quality services look like and who is delivering it," Excellent Schools Detroit CEO Dan Varner said. "This scorecard provides that information for our community."

"Research shows that learning begins on day one," Varner added. "It is proven that a child's education begins with a healthy, safe pregnancy and birth; continues through early childhood and K-12, and extends past post-secondary enrollment or career into adulthood."  

Excellent Schools Detroit engaged The American Institutes of Research (AIR), in developing its Early Learner Scorecard for a rigorous, fair and transparent scoring system. AIR is one of the largest and most respected social science research institutes in the world.

This partnership of Excellent Schools Detroit with the American Institutes of Science has developed a medaling system that signals a level of quality that goes beyond the State of Michigan's tiered quality rating and improvement system, called Great Start to Quality.

"The Early Learner Scorecard gold, silver and bronze ratings combine to provide families with the most in-depth and dependable indicators of quality learning environments, making the scorecard the single best source in the country of comprehensive information on the quality of the early learning programs," Varner added.

ESD has also partnered with the Detroit Public Library and the Detroit Parent Network to provide help to parents without Internet access. Staffs at both organizations are trained to help parents find specific information and give them a printed copy. 

Excellent Schools Detroit Scorecard and its searchable information can be seen at http://scorecard.excellentschoolsdetroit.org/.

About Excellent Schools Detroit: Excellent Schools Detroit seeks to create the conditions necessary to ensure an excellent education for every Detroit child, cradle-to-career, by the year 2020. This goal was established by a coalition of Detroit's civic, community, education, and philanthropic leaders. Excellent Schools Detroit was established by that coalition in 2011 as an independent nonprofit organization charged with coordinating coalition members and other institutions in the education sector, especially with regard to the issues of talent, accountability, and new school development; identifying and, when necessary, filling gaps in the education ecosystem resulting in poor outcomes for students; and organizing the Detroit community to demand and support excellence in educational services and outcomes. For more information on Excellent Schools Detroit, please visit http://www.excellentschoolsdetroit.org/en.

SOURCE Excellent Schools Detroit

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https://www.excellentschoolsdetroit.org/en