Early Childhood Education
The state of childhood development in New Mexico
In New Mexico, 80 percent of children from low-income families are behind on the first day of school. By 2020, the Thornburg Foundation’s goal is 70 percent of the total student population entering kindergarten in New Mexico will be ready for school as measured by a statewide kindergarten readiness assessment.
Our Focus Areas
We seek to identify the root causes of New Mexico’s most challenging problems and work to advance non-partisan, evidence-based solutions.
Measurable outcomes for high quality early childhood care and education.
Some approaches to family support/home visiting, child care and prekindergarten are more successful than others. New Mexico needs to establish a framework that ensures these services are delivered according to research-based best practices to the short- and long-term benefit of all children. Grants include improving child care quality through shared services (NonProfit Back Office Resources and the Grant County Early Learning Network), supporting home-based child care providers (Partnership for Community Action) and increasing home visiting capacity (Santa Fe Community College).
A highly effective early childhood care and education workforce.
Across numerous fields, evidence shows practice improves by apprenticing to master teachers. Our grant making includes teacher training at multiple higher education institutions, creation of high school-to-career pathways and research to improve the teaching of social emotional skills.
A well-managed, fully funded early childhood care and education system.
Reform is needed to better coordinate early childhood programs and braid federal and state funding sources. Our areas of grant making have included estimating the economic benefits of investing in high quality early childhood programs, exploring various financing options and determining best practices in early childhood governance.
Highlighted Grantees
The New Mexico Early Childhood Development Partnership, researches, develops and advocates for policies and investments that support quality and accountability. Currently, the Partnership is working to improve early childhood outcomes by expanding access to voluntary, high quality NM PreK for three- and four-year olds.
To increase the number of children ready for kindergarten, the early childhood workforce will need better training and preparation. New Mexico State University’s second cohort of “Early Childhood Apprentices” are working on their early childhood degrees, while earning stipends to complete a 20-hour per week residency under the mentorship of a master teacher at NMSU’s early childhood center.
CNM recruited its second cohort of 32 mentor teachers and continues to support the first group of 26 mentors; the eventual goal is for all practicum students to be placed with a designated mentor. The mentors come from 33 different centers, including Deming, Bloomfield, and Jemez, leading to collaboration with other colleges.
To reduce unplanned, unintended pregnancies, UNM’s team is working to make long-acting, reversible contraception (LARCs) publicly available in the Espanola-area, the Las Cruces-area, and Hobbs. Focused on solving billing issues and training providers, this pilot project is off to a great start!
The goal of this project is to increase home visiting referrals from health care providers. After an initial research phase, the team is working with UNM’s medical residency program as well as preparing materials to educate providers and streamline the referral process.
Research
Michael Weinberg
Policy Officer
Michael Weinberg is the Early Childhood Education Policy Officer at the Thornburg Foundation. Previously, Michael was the program evaluation manager for New Mexico’s Legislative Finance Committee where he identified opportunities to improve outcomes across the birth to college continuum. Michael spent the first fourteen years of his career in the education trenches, as a teacher, literacy coach, and principal of a PreK-8 school. Michael earned his doctoral degree from the University of New Mexico in educational leadership, his master’s from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and his bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College. What excites Michael most about his current role is the ability to combine his experiences in policy-making with his passion for improving the lives of children. Michael lives with his wife, two daughters, and lots of pets in Placitas, New Mexico.