The Story Behind Our Mission

The problem:

A compelling indicator of a healthy community is when all its children have the opportunity to become productive and healthy citizens. High quality early childhood education is an important part of that opportunity. In 2014, a small group of Orcas Island educators and citizens found there were young children in our community not attending pre-school; and there were students in our pre-schools not participating fully due to financial constraints. This group also found that almost half of students entering Kindergarten were “at risk” on a nationally recognized literacy assessment.

What was to be done?

The Early Childhood Education Initiative (ECEI) is a five-year collaboration of the three Orcas Island state-licensed Preschools, private funders, and expert advisors. ECEI has produced objective results: universal access to at least 12 hours per week of preschool education for all Orcas’ 3-5 year olds, additional hours for those student needing more than 12 hours to be successful, and significant gains in teaching quality and in student learning and development.

What is still left to be done?

Our mission is to strengthen and sustain these results by raising funds from public sources, private foundations and local community members and by advocating for public policies to ensure all young children – regardless of financial status -- receive the opportunities that high quality early childhood education provides..