On Friday, February 6th, TC will host “Seize the Moment: Rise to the Challenge of Pre-K,” an all-day conference focusing on the opportunities and practical challenges New York City faces as it completes its first year of offering 50,000 four-year-olds free, full-day pre-kindergarten.
The conference, which will be held in TC’s Cowin Conference Center, will include sessions on early learning, play, school financing, program quality and parent support.
TC President Susan Fuhrman will deliver opening remarks at the event, which is being co-organized by the TC Reading & Writing Project and the Teachers College Early Childhood Education Program.
Speakers will include:

• Sharon Lynn Kagan, Virginia & Leonard Marx Professor of Early Childhood and Family Policy and Co-Director of TC’s National Center for Children and Families (NCCF), who has advised scores of states and also nations around the world on the setting of early childhood learning standards
• Lucy Calkins, founding Director of the Teachers College Reading & Writing Project (TCRWP), one of the world’s leading authorities on fostering literacy in young children
• Mariana Souto-Manning, Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education and Director of QUIERE, a federally funded TC master’s degree program that provides pre-service teachers with triple certification in early childhood general education, early childhood special education and bilingual education
• Maurice Sykes, Director of the Early Childhood Leadership Institute at the National Center for Urban Education, University of the District of Columbia, and author of Doing the Right Thing for Children: Eight Qualities of Leadership.
• Nationally known literacy consultant and author Matt Glover
• Susan Recchia, TC Professor of Education, Coordinator of the Program in Early Childhood Special Education and Faculty Director of TC’s Rita Gold Early Childhood Center
• Early childhood consultant Renee Dinnerstein , author of the blog “Investigating Choice Time”
• Rebecca Gomez, Research Scientist at NCCF, where she is studying governance of state early childhood education and professional development systems
• Lindsay Mann, TC doctoral student and a staff developer at TCRWP who works with schools across the country to support early childhood education
• Haeny Yoon TC Professor of Early Childhood Education, who specializes in play and curriculum.

Click here to register for the conference or see a full schedule of speakers and sessions.

Published Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2015