Shine Early Learning Mission and Approach

Shine Early Learning partners with Head Start and Early Head Start programs across the country to accelerate child and family outcomes. Drawing on first-hand knowledge and experience from our sister organization Acelero Learning, a Head Start and Early Head Start grantee with centers in Region 9, we make accessible to partners the most innovative data-driven tools, systems, and insights for early education and we build capacity and expertise for individual providers.

Beyond making innovations accessible, we center care and respect in our partnerships and we value both a growth mindset and open communication. We also honor the aspirations and cultures of our early childhood partner programs and that of their communities. And while we are intentional in our relationships, we’re never more proud of our approach than when we hear from programs that our values have been central to their experience. 

In Region 9, we partner with Parents And Children Together (PACT), located in Hawaii, which recently reflected on their Shine Early Learning experience. Silvia Sharrar, PACT Assistant Director, shared, “The Shine team helped us be a better program the way we are right now. Rather than tell us how it is done in other places, they really respect the people, the culture, and what we [both] bring to Head Start and Early Head Start [and also] to the kids in Hawaii. I cannot underscore that enough.”   

Shine Early Learning’s Region 9 Partner: Parents And Children Together (PACT) 

Parents And Children Together (PACT) has been providing Hawaii’s most vulnerable residents with desperately needed social services since 1968. Based in Honolulu, PACT’s programs serve children and families on Hawaii’s two most populous islands, Oahu and Hawaii Island. PACT offers a broad range of educational programs and social services, serving over 17,000 residents each year, through their statewide programs in five areas of focus, including early childhood education. 

Ben Naki, EVP of Early Education Programs, oversees PACT’s Early Head Start and Head Start Program, which has a strong record of successfully transitioning children who meet and exceed school readiness expectations.  

PACT EHS/HS is entering its fifth year of Pyramid Model implementation: building, and now refining systematic processes that deliver consistent program-wide support to reduce challenging behaviors and promote social-emotional development for staff, families, and children. Upon beginning implementation in late 2018, PACT had only 10% of indicators fully in place, and nearly half were not in place at all. PACT now has all indicators in place, two-thirds of which are fully in place. Shine has supported PACT’s Pyramid Model implementation effort over the years through trainings with Chrissy Rosenblatt, Senior Director Education Family and Community Engagement, around addressing challenging behaviors, building relationships, and having sensitive conversations with families.

Shine Early Learning is honored to collaborate with PACT, a model Head Start and Early Head Start program in the early childhood landscape. 

Shine Early Learning’s Sister Organization Region 9 Story: Acelero Learning  

In the words of the venerable Rory Sipp, PhD, Senior Vice President Acelero Learning and Executive Board Member of Region 9 Head Start Association, “Our team is driven towards our newly stated mission: We design and deliver inclusive, anti-bias, and rigorous approaches to eliminate the gaps between young children’s inherent potential and their achievement in school and life.” 

Since 2008, Acelero Learning has been a community leader in Clark County, Nevada, serving children and families in Las Vegas and the surrounding area. In 2017, Acelero Learning Clark County expanded its program to include early childhood education for infants and toddlers, allowing for continuity of care and sibling enrollment. 

“It is not enough to have the best people, we have to maintain the relationships between them. We are driven towards establishing and sustaining working relationships among ourselves as a team as well as the relationships with our students and their families. We are also driven towards results,” said Dr. Sipp

Acelero Learning’s results have not gone unrecognized. In 2022, Acelero Learning’s Strong Start Academy at Lorenzi in Las Vegas received a visit from Representative Steven Horsford and then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who described Acelero as “a model to the nation, a great example of how to meet the needs of children in a way that’s culturally appropriate and gives them self-esteem as they go forward.”  

Today, Acelero Learning Clark County serves 984 children – 901 preschoolers in Head Start and 83 infants and toddlers in Early Head Start – across 13 centers.  Beyond serving as a leader in early childhood education, Acelero Learning is also a community leader; Acelero Learning engages in meaningful community partnerships that have led to incredible community initiatives (such as food drives and back to school fairs) that allow the organization to reach an even greater number of children and families. Delivering on its vision, Acelero Learning brings people together – both within and beyond the classroom walls – allowing children and families to know and feel their value so that they can go on to become champions of their own making.