It is not easy to turn good ideas into good policies. This is especially true for issues affecting children and families, where cause and effect are often both complex and separated by decades. The blunt tools policymakers use -- channeling funding streams, specifying eligibility criteria, defining which services and benefits get support, and the like - are far less nuanced and far more contentious than general principles with no price tags attached.
Recognizing this, the IEL Policy Exchange held a February 1998 seminar, Achieving a Common Purpose in Early Childhood, that began by laying out broad strategies to improve social policies. But this seminar did not stop there. It went on to tutor an already sophisticated audience about specific tools they could use to implement these policies. The seminar concluded by providing participants with a hands-on opportunity to apply these strategies and tools to an important and timely issue -- early childhood development.
This publication is designed to share this powerful learning experience with a broader audience. First, Lisbeth Schorr, a well-known public policy commentator, outlines seven broad strategies she believes are essential to moving to the next stage -- sustaining and "scaling up" from small successes. These strategies are based on Schorr’s thoughtful 1997 book Common Purpose: Strengthening Families and Neighborhoods to Rebuild America, I in which she argues that our educational, welfare and family support systems have failed to improve the life prospects of disadvantaged children and families.
Next, Kathleen Sylvester, director of the Social Policy Action Network, discusses specific ways to implement these strategies in the real world of policies, programs and politics. Her practical tool box of ideas gives real-life examples of "what you can do on Monday" to translate inspiring ideas into programs and policies that produce the results you want.
Finally, I describe the process we used to help seminar participants move from the abstract to the concrete -- that is, to use Schorr’s strategies and Sylvester’s tools to design effective early childhood programs and policies. This small-group process, which challenged even the most savvy participants, is not unique to early childhood programs -- it can be used to help policymakers craft more sensible solutions to other social issues as well.
This report is aimed at the people who make and influence policies for children and families. In fact, seminar participants included Congressional staff, officials from several federal agencies, foundation program officers, representatives of associations and advocacy groups, and state and local policymakers and practitioners.
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