Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative – Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative

Driving Transformation in Early Education

Launched in 2016, the Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative promotes the knowledge, professional learning, and collective action necessary to cultivate optimal early learning environments and experiences. We conduct groundbreaking research to drive policy and practice, offer a new model of professional learning for leaders around the world, and train graduate students to spark change.

CEEL Community Webinar Series

Through these webinars, members of the CEEL community gather virtually and learn more about key leadership topics that are part of the core certificate curriculum. During these live events, CEEL participants and alumni can gain practical strategies, tools, and ways of thinking about challenges and opportunities for improvement in their own settings. We share recordings of select events with the broader early education community here.

Watch Now

2024 Policymaking Institute: Apply Today!

The Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative is hosting its second annual institute, Action Planning for Effective Early Education Systems and Policy, on Wednesday, December 11, 2024, at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, MA.

For more information and to apply

Our Approach

We pursue interlocking strategies for impact: conducting research to drive policy and practice, designing and spreading high-quality professional learning, and pioneering a fellows program to build a pipeline of new leaders.

Learn More

Strengthening the
field through
Professional Learning

Pioneering a
Fellows Program
to cultivate new
leadership

Generating
Research
that drives action

The Early Learning Study at Harvard: A Groundbreaking Approach to Informing Early Childhood Education at Scale

Learn more about how we are generating knowledge, strategies, and solutions for a high-quality system of early education and care.

SPOTLIGHT

Certificate in Early Education Leadership

Gain the core knowledge, management skills, and tools necessary to build and advance high-quality early education.

Learn More

Resource Hub

For Leaders & Educators

For Scholars

For Funders

Our History

In July 2016, the Harvard Graduate School of Education launched the Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative, with a generous gift from the Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation. The initiative expresses the commitment of Saul Zaentz, an acclaimed music and film producer, to education and social justice.

Zaentz’s exceptional body of work in film combined intuition and experimentation, a rich fund of knowledge, and a belief that film has the power to change our way of seeing the world — the very mix of elements needed to transform early education so that it meets its potential for all children.