December is a time of celebration, but it's also a month of reflection. As we near the end of the year, we find ourselves looking back over the past 12 months to see what we've accomplished, and, more important, what we want to achieve in the new year. It's been a busy year at R2LP and we hope you'll join us in revisiting some of the highlights.

In January, classes got under way for the 30 teachers and teaching assistants in our current Early Reading First program. In August, after completing HeadsUp! Reading, the first of four credit-bearing courses, participants displayed and described their final projects at an event held at the Community College of Rhode Island.

With the state's intensified focus on quality in the classroom and the preparation of early-care providers, our Professional Development Committee is more engaged than ever. Key stakeholders in the early-care community meet monthly to discuss the shifting landscape of early-childhood credentialing, and the professional development needs of providers. In April the committee invited Education Commissioner Deborah Gist to join the conversation and discuss some of the challenges facing the field.

R2LP took the lead in preparing a comprehensive report detailing existing professional development opportunities in Rhode Island, which was released in August. "To know where we want to go in the future, we first had to know where we are now," explained R2LP Director Leslie Gell.

In a related initiative, R2LP became the Rhode Island home this year of T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood®. T.E.A.C.H., which is in nearly two dozen states, increases access to higher education for early-care educators by providing them with scholarships. Having raised initial funds this fall, T.E.A.C.H. RI will begin awarding scholarships this month to home- and center-based teachers and teaching assistants who are pursuing degrees in early childhood education and are taking courses at the Community College of Rhode Island.

For the first time, thanks to a partnership with Meeting Street and East Bay Community Action, R2LP is bringing its professional development to Newport, Middletown and East Providence to mentor staff in infant and toddler classrooms. And with federal funds from the ACF Office of Head Start, Children's Friend has subcontracted with R2LP to mentor educators in Head Start classrooms in Providence, Pawtucket and Central Falls. These two programs will begin in earnest in the new year.

In yet another PD initiative, R2LP is partnering with the Rhode Island Association for the Education of Young Children and the Education Development Center to develop the R.I. Child Care Resource and Referral Center. This will ultimately function as the epicenter for early-care professional development in the state. R2LP will deliver college-level, credit-bearing courses in early literacy.

Our ECEPD program, which was funded through 2009, found a national audience in June when Leslie and members of our PD and data departments presented and interpreted initial findings at the biennial National Head Start Research Conference in Washington DC.

In October we were delighted to learn that BrightStars had awarded our Pre-kindergarten Classroom at CCRI its highest ranking -- five stars. The classroom, with 18 children chosen by lottery, is now in its second year in the state's Pre-K Demonstration Project. Last March a delegation of state officials visited the setting, and in June The Providence Journal featured it in an article on bridging the learning gap.

With funding from several sources, R2LP has been working closely this year with home- and center-based programs in the BrightStars network to help them address identified needs with targeted training and guidance.

The energy and passion of our remarkable AmeriCorps members continue to leave us breathless.  Those who graduated in June performed more than 54,568 hours of service at early-care settings, libraries, pediatric clinics and the R2LP offices.  Equally gratifying is seeing our AmeriCorps graduates move up the early-care career ladder after leaving the program. Vielka Batista (at right) was one of ten members to take advantage of a seminar we offered last year on how to put together the extensive portfolio required for the Child Development Associate credential, and she was the first of that group to receive her CDA this fall. Seven members of the 2009/2010 team have jobs in the early-care field, and nine have returned to R2LP to complete an additional year of service.

Our sixth team of 35 members joined us in August and after three weeks of training began their work in the field in September. They, too, are making their mark in settings throughout Providence, Pawtucket and Central Falls.  This year we're intensifying our efforts to enhance use of the libraries by home-care providers in the BrightStars network. AmeriCorps members assigned to the libraries have been paired with providers in their neighborhoods and are delivering books and other resources to their settings several times a month.

For the first time this year, R2LP brought its Fun Family Activities for Preschoolers class to soon-to-be-released fathers at the Adult Correctional Institute. "They became quite excited when they realized how much they can teach their children on a simple walk around the neighborhood, or with inexpensive materials found in the home," says Tania Quezada, one of the two R2LP facilitators for the course.

Our active El Club de Proveedoras now numbers 289 members. Monthly workshops at R2LP allow these Spanish-speaking home child-care providers to strengthen their skills and earn hours toward the renewal of their licensing. Equally important, they say, is the professional camaraderie they find at these meetings.

While the many activities listed here clearly demonstrate that our work and community are expanding, we remind ourselves daily that our vision remains the same: All children will enter school healthy and ready to learn. We are grateful to be working with so many passionate educators, parents and partners who share that goal, and we wish you all a very happy holiday season.