GEEARS Preschool to Third Grade Leaders Fellowship

GEEARS’ Preschool to 3rd Grade (P-3) Leaders Fellowship is a year-long fellowship for early learning program directors, elementary principals, and district leaders to learn together, build relationships, and collaborate to strengthen the P-3 system in their area.

In Atlanta, the P-3 Leaders Fellowship is conducted in partnership with PAACT: Promise All Atlanta Children Thrive, a citywide alliance convened by GEEARS that works to support high-quality early learning and the healthy development of Atlanta’s youngest children.

Decades of research and practice show just how important and interconnected children’s experiences are during their first 8 years of life, from birth through third grade. This period, which we refer to as “P-3” (Preschool to 3rd Grade), is critical because of the unparalleled pace of neurological, physiological, and social development in children.

To address this, GEEARS has designed the P-3 Leaders Fellowship program specifically for early learning programs and school leaders, with a specialized curriculum developed with input from early learning providers, K-12 partners, and the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL). Over the course of four intensive sessions from September to March, Atlanta-area leaders from across the P-3 continuum will convene to become leading P-3 voices committed to strengthening early childhood outcomes.

Four intensive in-person and/or virtual training sessions and intersession projects are designed to address key parts of the P-3 system, which include: networking and relationship-building across all P-3 settings; learning about P-3 operations, local resources, and partner organizations, and the experiences of other leaders; collaborative sessions to identify opportunities for alignment in core content areas like developmentally appropriate practices, data sharing, joint professional development, and other ways P-3 leaders can partner; designing collaborative action plans for cross-sector teams to put their learning into practice even after graduating from the fellowship.