Christina Weiland, co-director of the Education Policy Initiative and professor at the Ford School, delivered her inaugural lecture as the Karl and Martha Kohn Professor of Social Policy. Weiland, who is also a professor at the Marsal Family School of Education, is one of five named Kohn professorships at the Ford School as part of the Kohn Collaborative for Social Policy.
Weiland's lecture centered on “what smart from the start means to me." She discussed the “motivating facts” for her work and the “active ingredients” she has identified that improve early childhood education.
“Part of why I am personally motivated to do the work I do in education is because education really changed my life’s trajectory,” said Weiland. “My background is, I am a first-generation college student from rural West Virginia, from really generations of Appalachian poverty,” said Weiland with a picture of her kindergarten graduation. Then, pointing to an image of her younger sister in kindergarten, she said, “What our stories really have embodied is the way in which education can foster this kind of upward mobility. We’ve lived it. This really early start that you are seeing on this slide was really key to getting us off to a good start. But the problem is not enough kids in our country get this kind of strong start.”
Reflecting on her data, Weiland stated, "The kids that we're sending them [public K-12 schools], about half of them have low proficiency in math and literacy when they get in the door. And you can look at other ways to break this down by demographics. It's much larger for the lowest 20% family income. And we also have really troubling racial and ethnic gaps that get back to how we've marginalized folks from those communities. And you might say, 'Well, but we're spending all that money in K-12. We'll just catch them up. 'But we have other data that shows that when you look down the road at eighth-grade, high school, these gaps have gotten wider. But actually most of it was already in place. It was already baked in when they were five years old. So this is what we're trying to change. "
While there are many ways to show how important early childhood education is, she said, “I think we need to change how we think about the early years, because the kids are already smart from the start, right? It’s not the kids it's us, and a lot of this comes down to just not spending enough on our young children.”
Celeste M. Watkins-Hayes, the Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of Public Policy, thanked the Kohn Family for their transformative support of the Ford School’s top-ranked work in social policy and social justice.”
The collaborative consists of four pillars: the five Kohn Professors, two Kohn Scholars, support to turn research into lasting policy impact, and the newly announced Kohn Prize to honor and elevate individuals and organizations that make significant contributions to equity and inclusion across the United States.
Harold and Carol Kohn were in attendance with several of their family members, as well as Weiland's husband, son, and many of her life-long collaborators and mentors.
See the full event video here.
