Marla Dean, Ed.D
Executive Director/CEO, Bright Beginnings
Bright Beginnings (BB) seeks to strengthen the school readiness of homeless children through employing a two-generation approach that: 1) increases the children’s exposure to language and opportunities for verbal interaction; and 2) increases their parents’ fluency and self-image as their child’s first and best teacher. BB, which will reach 400 homeless children, will track progress in its goal to improve school readiness by exposing children to 45 million words by age 5 using a Language Tracker. The tracker holds software that records and captures language usage and vocal interactions and provides cloud-based data to guide parents, caregivers, teachers, and home visitors. The technology and resulting data have the potential to personalize interventions for students and families and support a data-driven and evidence-based organization.