The #HerefortheKids campaign brings together families, educators, and community members to shine a light on local public schools and tell the stories of the amazingly positive things happening in classrooms and school buildings nationwide. It’s a critical for all of us to work together to support public education and our students’ success. The Learning First Alliance and its members are proud to support a critical effort to help ensure a bright future for our children. As we know, when we support our public schools, we support our kids. Families, communities, and our nation’s future depends on the next generation. Let’s support one another and work together to prepare our kids for the opportunities that await them!

One in five.

That’s how many students—adolescents and elementary-age—are thought to be behind on routine vaccinations for dangerous diseases, such as MMR, meningitis, hepatitis, tetanus, etc. Traditionally, students get vaccines at wellness check-ups, public health clinics, or in the summer for camps or back to school, but Covid-19 prevented access for many of these students and their families.

April 4-8 is Adolescent Immunization Action Week. Join Unity Consortium and moderator Dr. Chelsea Clinton for a webinar April 4, on the importance of prioritizing adolescent health and immunizations. Learn more and register.

The Elements: Transforming Teaching through Curriculum-Based Professional Development, is a Challenge Paper from Carnegie Corporation of New York that explores how professional learning anchored in high-quality curriculum materials can allow teachers to experience instruction as their students will, change instructional practices, and lead to better student outcomes.

The Elements encompass actions big and small, from purposefully selecting a strong curriculum to planning efficient teacher meetings wholly focused on instruction. In this paper, we define each of the 10 Elements and show how school and district leaders, curriculum developers, and organizations that support teacher development can apply them in their roles and communities. Learn more and request a free print copy today.

Public Schools Week is a designated week for administrators, teachers, specialists, teacher educators, parents and school board members to host events for their communities and reach out to lawmakers, businesses, and other community members to discuss the importance of public education. Public Schools Week brings together LFA members, educators, parents and many others across the country to show the strength—and potential—of our nation’s public schools and our students’ futures. We celebrate public schools year-round with #PublicSchoolProud to show some of the exemplary work of our nation’s educators, particularly in these extraordinary times and circumstances.

Mark your calendars and save the dates for upcoming Public Schools Week celebrations: Feb. 27-March 3, 2023; Feb. 26-March 1, 2024; and Feb. 24-28, 2025.