Policymaking Academy

Policymaking Academy

The Zaentz Policymaking Academy offers innovative tools, interactive resources, and collaborative programs to help state and local policy teams strengthen their early education and care systems.

Supporting Collaboration, Action, and Impact in Early Education Policy

 

The Zaentz Initiative applies findings from our groundbreaking longitudinal study, our Professional Learning Academy, and our other work to support national, state, and local policymaking teams. We highlight innovative early education policy efforts and create tailored resources to help leaders promote high-quality early learning for all children.

 

Our work in this area includes the Zaentz Navigator, the Zaentz Action Planning for Effective Early Education Systems and Policy institute, and other action-oriented programs and tools that help policy leaders build stronger, more equitable early education and care systems.

Key Initiatives

The Zaentz Navigator

The Zaentz Navigator is a user-friendly, interactive, and innovative digital tool where you can learn about — and act on — structuring, financing, expanding, and improving early education and care. We built it to help policymakers and leaders understand how states, counties, and cities across the country are tackling the same issues they face. The Navigator shares state, county, and city policy strategies and innovations across five key categories: Infrastructure to Support Early Childhood Systems, Dedicated Funding Streams and Financing, Cost Estimation and Subsidy Rates, Expansion, and Workforce. It also describes the contexts in which these policy strategies and innovations have been implemented and links them to findings from a groundbreaking statewide study of early education and care. To learn how others are using the Navigator and to find the strategy category that best fits your needs, visit the Zaentz Navigator Pathway.

Action Planning Institute

Since 2023, the Zaentz Initiative has hosted two annual institutes for state, city and local early education policymaking teams. Teams apply for an all-expenses paid program, taught by esteemed Harvard faculty. Accepted teams from across the country are invited to Harvard’s campus to analyze their policy landscape, connect with others who are advancing early education and care, and develop action plans for a high-priority systems-building issue. Institute sessions include analyzing an early education teaching case, key insights to drive systems-building and policymaking, and facilitated team action planning using comprehensive workbooks and resources. Together, teams have tackled issues ranging from developing dedicated funding streams to creating early childhood integrated data systems to expanding rural access to infant and toddler care. If you are interested in applying or learning more about these institutes, sign up for email updates to receive news about upcoming events and opportunities.

Action-Oriented Programs and Tools

The Zaentz Initiative develops other programs and tools to help policy leaders build stronger, more equitable early education and care systems. Past programs have included the hybrid online and in-person Early Childhood Policy Academy, in partnership with the Hunt Institute, which supported diverse cohorts of leaders who shared a commitment to improving the lives of young children and their caregivers. Participants included leaders from across the political spectrum and in a variety of roles, including lieutenant governors, legislators, and agency heads, among others. Policy Academy coursework built on our Certificate in Early Education Leadership’s learning design and foundational content, including topics such as child and adult development, stress and resilience, and equity. It also introduced resources and tools related to early education financing, governance, and workforce development.

Early Childhood Policy Academy Voices

 

 

Early Childhood Policy Academy Voices

Early Childhood Policy Academy Participant Highlights

Juliana Stratton

Lieutenant Governor

Illinois

Juliana Stratton serves as the 48th lieutenant governor of the State of Illinois. Among other responsibilities, Stratton’s portfolio includes overseeing the administration’s Justice, Equity, and Opportunity Initiative; chairing the board of the Restore, Reinvest, and Renew Program; and leading efforts that address the needs of Illinoisans, including building a strong and diverse teacher pipeline, helping create pathways to economic empowerment for women, and establishing the Ag Connects Us All Agricultural Equity and Food Insecurity Initiative.

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Kristen Baesler

State Superintendent of Public Instruction

North Dakota

Kirsten Baesler is the state school superintendent and administrator of the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction. The superintendent and her 86-person team oversee the education of public and nonpublic school students in more than 480 sites across the state. First elected in November 2012, she was re-elected to a third four-year term in November 2020. Before taking office in January 2013, Superintendent Baesler had a 24-year career in the Bismarck Public School system—the state’s largest school district—as a vice principal, library media specialist, classroom teacher, and instructional assistant. Superintendent Baesler also spent nine years as an elected member of the Mandan School Board, serving as the board’s president for seven of those nine years, and she worked for a time as assistant director of the North Dakota School Boards Association.

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Dave Lent

State Senator

Idaho

Dave Lent has represented District 33 in the Idaho State Senate since 2018. He has served on a variety of committees, including as chair of the Senate Education Committee. Lent also served on the Idaho Falls School District 91 Board of Trustees beginning in 2006, where he played a key role in replacing four elementary schools and transitioning a junior high into a successful project-based high school, and was invited by Idaho Falls Mayor Rebecca Casper to participate in a committee that eventually recommended the creation of the College of Eastern Idaho. He is a graduate of Eastern Idaho Technical College and Idaho State University with a national credential in Radiation Protection.

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