By Nick Rocco Scalia | Film Threat March 16, 2022 "Rather miraculous . . . genuinely uplifting and inspiring in ways that even 'feel-good' fictional stories can’t often achieve. There’s compelling drama in the well-wrought contrasts between the harshness and of lower-income living in Chicago and the ambitions of Educare. Pulls at the heartstrings . . ."...
By Jason Whyte | Get Reel Movies March 16, 2022 In TOMORROW’S HOPE you’ll get to know real people making a real difference on the South Side of Chicago. This is an experience that leads you heart-first into some of our most talked-about issues today, including systemic racism and the importance of providing access to education. It’s a journey with passionate educators and kids and their families who are finding a way to carve out the future, despite a sea of intense...
By Richard Propes The Independent Critic "A passionate and inspiring film . . . there is always hope, though sometimes it doesn't look like what we expect. 'Tomorrow's Hope' definitely tells the kind of feel-good, inspirational story that audiences love."...
By Stephanie Jones and Nonie K. Lesaux March 15, 2022 To succeed in the classroom, children must be able to cooperate with other students and their teachers, focus their attention, control impulsive behaviors and manage their emotions so they can concentrate on the tasks at hand. They need to have a sense of belonging and purpose, be able to plan and set goals, and persevere through challenges....
By Eric Althoff March 13, 2022 "A touching documentary about the power of education not only to illuminate but to lift up." ...
Hosted by Lauren deLisa Coleman March 12, 2022 Tomorrow's Hope follows the journeys of three graduates from the Educare School to their graduation and afterward. Told from their perspective, we see how vital good early education is. How big of a difference it can make in a person's life....
By Luke Y. Thompson | Films Gone Wild March 11, 2022 Almost everyone says they want a better future and education for their children. But when it comes time to getting it done, other concerns often push the kids to the backburner, perhaps because children can’t lobby for themselves. Thankfully, they have advocates in companies like the Saul Zeantz Charitable Foundation, which funds documentaries focused on early childhood education. For their second feature, Tomorrow’s Hope, the foundation turned to producers Tamra Raven...
By Steve Kopian MARCH 11, 2022 This is a hopeful tale of a program that gives kids enough of a leg up that they have a good shot at succeeding. I was so impressed that I found myself investigating the program right after I finished the film. The portrait this film paints such a good picture that you will wonder how the hell the program hasn't spread all across the county. You need to see this film....
By Liz Whittemore MARCH 11, 2022 In the SXSW22 short film Tomorrow’s Hope, filmmaker Thomas Morgan examines the effect of two foundations for early childhood education on its first-ever class. Educare and The Ounce of Prevention Fund are sound arguments for universal Pre-K. I’m a former preschool teacher who can attest to the impact these years have on the lives of children and their families. Working in a school in the River City Building in downtown Chicago, I taught predominantly Head Start...
By Carey MARCH 8, 2022 Austin’s South by Southwest starts in just a couple of days on the 11th, but the SXSW Edu has already begun. A film that is part of it is Thomas Morgan’s documentary Tomorrow’s Hope. It is a short film at 44 minutes long but it says a lot. A film which follows the journeys of three graduates from the Educare School to their graduation and afterward....
This podcast originally aired on Lights Camera Austin on March 6, 2022 Interview by Robert Sims The documentary Tomorrow's Hope: The Promise of Early Childhood Education celebrates the early childhood education program developed and taught at Start Early’s (formerly Ounce of Prevention Fund’s) Educare Chicago. The school opened in January 2000 to provide high-quality education to children from birth to age 5 from low-income families living on Chicago's South Side. The documentary spotlights three members of Educare Chicago's first-ever class as they...
By Jeff Stein February 17, 2022 The White House was unable to extend an expansion in the Child Tax Credit amid pushback from Sen. Joe Manchin III The number of American children in poverty spiked dramatically in January after the expiration of President Biden’s expanded child benefit at the end of last year, according to new research released on Thursday....
We are thrilled to announce that "Tomorrow's Hope" is screening at SXSW EDU (followed by a Q&A) - March 7th in Austin, TX....
By Nora Delaney February 10, 2022 A new bipartisan report calls for "rewriting the generational contract" to increase investments in America’s children significantly by shifting funds from programs that now go toward supporting older, wealthier adults. In the report, "Rebalancing: Children First," leading scholars convened by two of the country’s most respected think tanks propose directing more national funds to help children. Currently, more than 40% of the federal budget flows to Americans over the age of 65, compared to only 7.4% spent...
By Anya Kamenetz February 10, 2022 Dale Farran has been studying early childhood education for half a century. Yet her most recent scientific publication has made her question everything she thought she knew. "It really has required a lot of soul-searching, a lot of reading of the literature to try to think of what were plausible reasons that might account for this."...
By Jessica Grose February 2, 2022 In January, parents of kids under 5 told me they were in a state of despair and semi-panic; emotionally, they were at the lowest I’d heard them since the pandemic’s beginning in March 2020. ...
By Naomi Martin and Jenna Russell January 17, 2022 BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Leighton Harris, 4, sat with her classmates on a rug before a whiteboard. One of her two teachers praised the little girl’s calm, attentive posture: “I love how Leighton is sitting.’’ A year before the start of kindergarten, Leighton is well-prepared, having already practiced not just her letters and numbers, but also subtle skills key for school success, such as breathing through stress and the art of sitting quietly and...
January 11, 2022 As the Omicron variant surges and U.S. schools deal with a substitute teacher shortage and related pandemic fallout, don't be surprised if a return to remote or hybrid learning leads your kids to act out, a new study warns....
January 10, 2022 Emily C. Hanno, PhD The COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted the education of more than 1 billion children worldwide, with many experiencing shifts between remote, hybrid, and in-person learning. As the COVID-19 pandemic and interruptions to learning continue, we need to understand their consequences for children’s behavioral health to inform response efforts. We used longitudinal data to examine how children’s behavioral well-being differed by learning format....
January 5, 2022 High rates of teacher turnover are among the greatest barriers to building high-quality early childhood education (ECE) systems. In the United States, teachers working with the youngest learners turn over at much higher rates than those in the K-12 education system....