Blog

Presentation Title Sllide

Where do we go from here?

I was honored to be asked to present to education students enrolled at Maricopa County Community Colleges Mesa Campus in October via Zoom. Below is a link to that presentation about A Stepping Stone Foundation. Link to MCCCD Presentation This presentation gives an overview of A Stepping Stone Foundation, how COVID has changed what we…Continued

Holiday Angel’s Program

A Stepping Stone Foundation (SSF) once again warmly presents the Holiday Angel Program for disadvantaged preschool children and their families. Due to COVID restrictions, we can only serve 20 families (about 55 children), so our Angel tags are going quickly. Since the Shadow Rock campus is limited due to ongoing COVID mitigation, there will be…Continued

Planet Money Article

They Talk About it; We DO it!

“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…Continued

Thank you Season for Sharing

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!

Post Secondary Impact

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…Continued

Congratulations to Our Newest Winners!

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.…Continued

After a Story Interactions

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…Continued

Watch Our Preschoolers

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. …Continued

Our Scholars and COVID

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…Continued

They Talk About It-We DO it!

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…Continued