Cross-Sector Governance of Early Learning: The Case of North Carolina's Birth Through Grade 3 Interagency Council

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: Advancing Educational Change at the State and Local Levels

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to understand how states may improve coordination across the diverse governmental agencies that have responsibility for early learning via the development of interagency councils. Through a case study of North Carolina’s Birth through Third Grade Interagency Council, we document the (1) goals of the Council, (2) the instruments the Council uses to improve coordination and alignment, and (3) the supports and barriers the Council experienced through this work. This research comes at a time when vast changes to the early childhood landscape have been proposed in President Biden’s American Families Plan and policymakers are looking for guidance on how to optimally design their state’s governance structures.

Authors

• Megan Kathryn Rauch Griffard, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Lora A. Cohen-Vogel, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Michael H. Little, North Carolina State University