$35.5 million gift from Saul Zaentz initiative seeks new ideas to enhance children’s early experiences

The Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education announced the 2024 Zaentz Early Education Innovation Challenge. Now in its fifth year, the Innovation Challenge seeks individuals or teams to submit new ideas to drive transformative change in early education.

“High-quality early education is crucial for healthy child development, thriving families, and strong communities. And yet, across the country, our early education systems face persistent challenges,” said Nonie Lesaux, Roy Edward Larsen Professor of Education and Human Development and co-director of the Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative. “To deliver on early education’s promise and potential, we need to improve all levels of the system, from supporting the workforce, to finding new ways to promote children’s healthy development, to creating policy solutions that bring more and better early learning opportunities. Now is the time for creative, collaborative solutions that will drive positive outcomes for all children.”

Submissions to the Zaentz Early Education Innovation Challenge may target short-term or long-term change at any level of the early education system, including home, classroom, program, network, and/or policy. To support innovation at any stage, the Challenge has two submission tracks:

Envision Track is for applicants who have an idea and are seeking to try it out in the real world

Accelerate Track is for applicants who have already tried out their idea and are seeking to evaluate it, refine it, and/or expand its reach

Finalists in both tracks will be invited to present their solutions to a panel of expert judges and a live audience at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Winners will receive a cash prize.

The Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) promotes the knowledge, professional learning, and collective action necessary to cultivate optimal early learning environments and experiences. The Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative is supported by a $35.5 million gift from the Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation, one of the largest gifts ever given to a university for advancing early childhood education.

Zaentz’s exceptional body of work in film combined intuition and experimentation, a rich fund of knowledge, and a belief that film has the power to change our way of seeing the world — the very mix of elements needed to transform early education so that it meets its potential for all children.