How Can We Put the Whole Child at the Center of Education Reform Policy? | Policy [M]atters, Episode 3

McCormick Institute for Early Childhood

BY Teri Talan and Susan Ochshorn  | February 9, 2016

In this episode, Susan shares heartening insights on New York City’s progress in taking a holistic approach to early care and education. Teri reflects on how the communication strategy urging the use of the term “early education” instead of “early care and education” may have had unintended consequences. Susan urges early childhood professionals to voice their expertise about the social-emotional and cognitive development of young children to policymakers and others outside the early childhood field. She then outlines next steps for broadening the education reform conversation to encompass the whole child.


To expand the conversation beyond the video chat, below are links to more resources authored by Susan. Please note that Susan’s views are not necessarily a reflection of the McCormick Center’s opinions or beliefs.

Dr. Teri Talan is Director of Policy Initiatives at the McCormick Center and Professor of Early Childhood Education at National Louis University. She promotes action by state and national policymakers on early childhood workforce and program administration issues.


Susan Ochshorn is the founder ECE PolicyWorks and author of Squandering America’s Future: Why ECE Policy Matters for Equality, Our Economy, and Our Children. She works in a broad range of settings to bridge research, policy, and practice, to integrate ECE into the larger education reform conversation, and to catalyze social change.

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Leadership Connections Testimonial From Jamie Fishman

By Jamie Fishman • September 18, 2026
This conference definitely helps our business. Like I said, it's really an opportunity for us to highlight all the products that we have that are new and exciting. I try to bring and highlight things that are new this year. Pretty much everything on this table are new products for 2026. And what makes this conference different? I think it's just really there's a lot of decision makers here, which is really good for us as a business to be talking to childcare owners, to actually, the providers that are in the classroom, and connect with even larger centers that have multiple locations. And it gives us that time to really have that in-person connection that we don't often get to have. So it's kind of like a bang for your buck you get to see lots of different customers over a short course of time because the conference is only a day and so it gives us a chance to connect with a lot of customers and get our products out there. 
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