“The most eye-popping effects the researchers find are on high school graduation and college enrollment rates. The kids who got accepted into preschool ended up having a high-school graduation rate of 70% — six percentage points higher than the kids who were denied preschool, who saw a graduation rate of only 64%. And 54% of…
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A Stepping Stone Foundation gratefully received a $15,000 grant from the Arizona Republic’s Season For Sharing campaign.  Enjoy our little thank you to them here. $15,000 provides 20 families with 30 hours of high quality preschool, adult education, parenting education or home visiting. THANK YOU!

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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