Weekly Digest: February 5, 2009

Governor Rell's 2010-2011 Budget

Visit the State of Connecticut website to review Governor Rell's 2010-2011 proposed budget at http://www.ct.gov/governorrell/cwp/view.asp?a=1317&Q=433326&PM=1

Pre-K Now Video

Pre-K Now has produced a 10-minute video, capturing the journeys of real pre-k children in a high-quality classroom. The video follows five children and tracks their cognitive and socio-emotional development. The stories are accompanied by interviews with the teacher, who provides more background about her students' strengths and challenges and the progress she sees throughout the school year. There are also suggestions for using the video with different audiences, including policymakers, parents, and educators.


To view the video, visit the Pre-K Now website at http://www.preknow.org/resource/whatchildrenlearn.cfm

Free Help for Writing Press Releases

Nonprofit organizations seeking step-by-step guidance for writing effective news releases can now find help online on a web site created by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.  The Knight News Release Workshop deconstructs model news releases, compares well and poorly written headlines, and offers tips on drafting effective quotes.

The site also helps to reduce jargon, a common pitfall for nonprofits that deal with complex issues.  A checklist helps writers polish their drafts, and the site also encourages the use of Flesch Scores, a computerized tool to maximize a release's readability.  Flesch scores can also be calculated using Microsoft Word.

To use this tool, log on to the Knight website at www.newsreleaseworkshop.org