EDUCATIONAL FIRST STEPS
One Childhood, One Chance
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
High-quality early learning is needed now more than ever. The earliest years of childhood go by quickly, but their impact lasts forever. As much as 85 percent of critical human brain development occurs in a child’s first three years. Young children flourish when they are exposed to language, books, diverse experiences, developmentally appropriate learning, and professionally trained educators. However, in North Texas, many children from birth to age five do not have access to a high-quality early learning experience. Poverty, systemic racism, and a lack of community resources prevent many children from receiving the equal opportunity of high-quality early childhood education, and the impact can transform the trajectory of a child’s life socially, emotionally, economically, and intellectually.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Four Steps to Excellence
Since 1990, Educational First Steps has equipped early childhood educators with the tools and resources to create high-quality early learning environments where children are nurtured and thrive, ready for success in school and beyond.
EFS achieves extraordinary standards of age-appropriate quality for more than 100 child care center partners, and their classroom staff and directors throughout North Texas. By developing expert, credentialed teachers through regular one-on-one mentoring and professional development training, passive caregiving is transformed into active and intentional education. This, in turn, helps our partner centers achieve national accreditation and Texas’ highest ratings as superior early learning centers at no cost to the centers, teachers, or their families.
Today, EFS serves over 6,000 children throughout North Texas who attend independently owned and operated partner centers as well as licensed/registered early education home-based centers, which together serve over 20 school districts.
Where we work
External reviews
Photos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of child development centers and home-based providers participating in EFS programming
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Infants and toddlers
Related Program
Four Steps to Excellence
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of children impacted by EFS programming
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Infants and toddlers
Related Program
Four Steps to Excellence
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of educators/tearchers impacted by EFS programming
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Related Program
Four Steps to Excellence
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of professional development hours for early childhood educators/teachers
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Related Program
Four Steps to Excellence
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of mentoring hours provided to early child development educators/teachers
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Related Program
Four Steps to Excellence
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Educational First Steps (EFS) creates and supports high-quality early learning environments that ignite the minds of children from birth to age five. EFS transforms existing childcare centers into nationally accredited preschools in a period of 36 months at no cost to the centers or parents. By securing national accreditation, centers become true preschools, preparing children for kindergarten and beyond and placing them on a path to success.
Our signature program, Four Steps to Excellence 2.0, guides participating centers through an incremental four-step process working towards accreditation. The program promotes open dialogue and strong relationships between center directors, teachers, and Educational First Steps.
Through mentoring, formal training, and enrichment – both in centers’ own classrooms and in our leading-edge classrooms at our new headquarters facility – we provide centers with the proven tools and techniques needed to achieve accreditation.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Educational First Steps uses a two-pronged approach that consists of Education Specialists helping teachers develop the skills that they need, which include organization, planning, and most importantly, loving and nurturing interactions, while EFS' Marketing and Enrollment Services Department strategically works to increase center directors’ financial literacy and understanding of business best practices as well as the key marketing techniques that allow childcare centers to be economically successful.
In addition to this two-pronged approach embodied by the Four Steps to Excellence, the defining characteristic of Educational First Steps is that the organization makes a permanent commitment to its partner centers, by first mentoring childcare providers along the rigorous path towards national accreditation and afterward helping centers become fully enrolled and economically sustainable over time. In the process, EFS looks to create impactful, social change that helps empower communities that are most in need of opportunity.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Educational First Steps believes that investing in high-quality early childhood education is fundamental to empowering communities of color, reversing cycles of generational poverty, and dismantling the vestiges and structures of systemic racism. Children exposed to high-quality early learning programs are more likely to graduate high school on-time, attend and complete post-secondary education, be physically and emotionally healthy, and have a higher earning potential in future employment.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Educational First Steps presently serves over 8,271 children, 1,565 teachers, 155 directors, 531 classrooms, 105 independently owned-operated partner centers, and 59 licensed and/or registered home-based providers across 24 school districts in North Texas. The children we impact are 55% African American, 32% Latino, 20% Caucasian, and 2% Asian. EFS also provides professional development, onsite mentoring, and classroom instruction to over 1,500 center teachers and directors across 22 school districts in Dallas, Tarrant, Collin, Johnson, Denton, and Grayson Counties. These caregivers, almost exclusively women of color, live in the same neighborhoods as the children they teach, typically have a GED or high school diploma, and are paid minimum wage.
Educational First Steps focuses on the communities of greatest need across North Texas, including as examples the Oak Cliff, Fair Park, and Pleasant Grove in South Dallas and the Como, Historic Southside, and Stop Six neighborhoods of Fort Worth among others. Nearly 33% of families served by EFS receive state childcare subsidies, and over 76% of the children in our program qualify for subsidized food programs. Educational First Steps has devoted 30 years to serving people of color and neighborhoods in need, and we are requesting your support in building greater social equity across Dallas and Fort Worth.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We share the feedback we received with the people we serve, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback, We ask the people who gave us feedback how well they think we responded
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
EDUCATIONAL FIRST STEPS
Board of directorsas of 09/06/2023
Libby Manning
Barb Garton
Life Member
Beth Gold
David Munson
Co-Founder & Life Member
Jennifer Mosle
Alice Barnett
Julie Dolan Smith
Mudbath Productions
Norma Stone
Sandra Estess
Life Member
John Selzer
Septariate
Roy Johnson
Bank of Texas
Kathryn Lake
Marsha Brito
Audrey Decherd
Baylor Scott + White Health
Amy Nickell Jacobs
Michelle Lockhart
Bill Mattes
YPO
Gail Stoke
Bob Appel
Joyce & Linus Wright
Co-Founders & Life Members
Wasan Alfalahi
Loree Cullum
The Northern Trust Company
Paige Hendricks
Paige Hendricks Public Relations Inc.
Jennifer Massey
Baylor Scott + White Health
Celeste Moya
C3 Financial Partners
Patrick Reardon
PNC
Jeeti Kahlon
Margaret Spellings
Wendy Stanley
Mikki Van Cleave
JP Morgan Chase
Angela Hosseini
Lupe Mora
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 09/06/2023GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.