Early Childhood Matters: A Perspective from Ruby Takanishi

In this first installment of our ongoing Early Childhood Matters series, we’re highlighting work from nationally recognized early childhood expert Dr. Ruby Takanishi. Dr. Takanishi is a senior research fellow with the Early and Elementary Education Policy Program at New America. She is the author of First Things First! Creating the New American Primary School. Takanishi is the former president and CEO of the Foundation for Child Development, a grant-making philanthropy that launched the PreK—3rd movement in 2003.

In this episode of the Early Link Podcast, we speak with Ruby Takanishi about her new book First Things First: Creating the New American Primary School. In the interview, Dr. Takanishi says, “Primary education today reflects the social and economic divides in our country.” While some children in the United States are getting an outstanding world class education, many more children are in danger of being left behind. She describes early education efforts as essential to closing opportunity gaps, “the civil and human rights challenge of our times.”

Early Ed Expert Ruby Takanishi on Why K-12 Doesn’t Work Without Pre-K

(The 74, Aug 2016)