DETROIT — The General Motors Foundation is partnering with Teach For America–Detroit on a new initiative to advance early childhood education in southeastern Michigan. Early educational experiences give children a foundation for success, helping to ensure that these young learners will reach their full potential.
Funded by a $50,000 grant from the GM Foundation, Teach For America’s Early Childhood Education Initiative aims to improve the school readiness of underserved children from birth to age five by building a robust pipeline of talented teachers. Funding from the GM Foundation will not only help to launch the initiative, but also develop educator training curriculum, onboard certified teachers and expand the organizations impact to pre-K classrooms in Detroit.
“Every child deserves the chance to succeed and receiving a quality education is the fundamental building block for a bright future,” said GM Foundation President Vivian Pickard. “Through our partnership with Teach For America and the GM Foundation’s many education initiatives in Detroit, we’re aiming to improve those chances, from birth to college and beyond.”
Research shows children who have access to early educational experiences enter the K-12 system best positioned to succeed academically. Thus increasing early literacy and math skills among preschoolers growing up in poverty is vital to ensuring educational equity.
”Detroit’s students deserve to enter kindergarten classrooms with the knowledge and skills they need to be successful,” said Tiffany Williams, interim executive director of Teach For America–Detroit. “The support of the GM Foundation will allow us to build the necessary partnerships to thoughtfully focus resources toward addressing this urgent need in our city.”
Since 2010, Teach For America–Detroit has worked to address educational inequity by recruiting and training emerging leaders from across the country to teach in local schools. This year, more than 300 corps members are working in K-12 classrooms throughout the city.
Teach For America plans to begin the new programming at various locations throughout Detroit starting in the 2015-2016 school year.