After losing previous rounds of federal Race to the Top grant competitions, Wisconsin won a slice of funding Thursday: a $22.7 million grant that will help expand and improve services for young children in day care centers, preschools and kindergarten classrooms.
Wisconsin joined four other states – Colorado, Illinois, New Mexico and Oregon – that will receive a share of the $133 million Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge grant, the U.S. Department of Education announced Thursday.
Wisconsin’s grant will be spent over four years on strengthening and expanding the YoungStar child care rating system and also accelerating work on a data system that would track kids in early childhood and target more disadvantaged children for services.
A main goal is to help close the “readiness” gap between children who are white and from middle- to upper-income families and those who are of color and/or from low-income households. Children from disadvantaged backgrounds often enter the K-12 system behind their more affluent peers in terms of social development and academic exposure.