Each year, we invite former preschoolers who were in one of our Stepping Stone-funded LEAF programs for six months or more to apply for the Billie Gannaway Memorial Scholarship.  Over the years, two additional scholarship offerings have been added; Ivey Stepping Higher and the William O. Smith awards. $44,300 is the total of all 2021…
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Please welcome the newest A Stepping Stone Foundation scholars! Each year, we invite former preschoolers who were in one of our Stepping Stone-funded LEAF programs for six months or more to apply for the Billie Gannaway Memorial Scholarship.  Over the years, two additional scholarship offerings have been added; Ivey Stepping Higher and the William O.…
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Our last post showed our children and teachers saying goodbye to one another in song.  Today, we give you a little more detail about every-day, long-distance learning with our LEAF preschool children.  Let’s begin with saying good morning:   Later that same morning, Teacher Janet read the group a story about a wayward dinosaur named…
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This week’s blog theme has been about how the pandemic has shifted how we live our lives and how those shifts have impacted A Stepping Stone’s enrolled families and scholars.  How has COVID19 effected how we deliver our award-winning LEAF (Literacy Elevates Arizona Families) program to young children and their families? That is today’s subject. …
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COVID19 has taken a dramatic toll on our lives.  I hope we always remember the almost half million people who have already succumbed to its effects and all the families who have been touched by that loss of life.  Just as important to those of us remaining behind them, are the secondary effects: the heroic…
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From NIEER’s policy research project coordinator, Kate Hodges: students enrolled in state-funded pre-K programs in New Jersey face a woeful shortage of devices and connectivity related to preschool distance learning.  “Ninety-two percent of these low-income school districts are providing remote pre-K instruction, but half of these districts report having students who don’t have access to…
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DL is Distance Learning.  Our children and parents have been learning together through DL for four months now. DL has given A Stepping Stone Foundation families the opportunity to participate in our LEAF (Literacy Elevates Arizona Families) program at almost the same level as if they were in person.     The preschool children still…
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A Stepping Stone has engaged in two-generation family literacy for 30 years now. While others talk about it, we do it!!  Check out this link to a recent paper posted on Archbridge Institute’s website September 2020 from James J. Heckman (see HeckmanEquation.org). Of special interest is Key Takeaway #2 two: “Families are the primary producers…
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We are so very proud of all our Billie Gannaway Memorial Scholarship winners!  This past award year, we also gave five Ivey Stepping Higher (ISHS) scholarships and for the first time two William O. Smith (WOSS) scholarships.  Due to COVID19, we could not present awards in person like we usually do, but had a slide…
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