In Porter County, You are Not Waiting for Change; You are Creating It

By: Geoffrey Nagle | Founder, Alliance Strategic Advising and Research

At our Lilly Endowment Grant announcement in April, Dr. Geoffrey Nagle, Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Tulane University and champion for First Things First Porter County, emphasized the importance of connections and collaboration to care for prenatal mothers and very young children.

We hope his remarks inspire you to keep your eyes open for "unlikely" partnerships to achieve our collective goal—wrapping our arms around Porter County babies to guarantee their strong start in life. We know it takes a village to raise a child, and we have an unprecedented opportunity to make our village strong.

“It is a thrill to be with all of you today to celebrate a remarkable milestone for your community. Thanks to the generous support you have received from the Lilly Endowment, you are poised to significantly enrich the lives of your youngest residents—the children of Porter County from birth to three years old. Today, as we celebrate this grant awarded to support First Things First (FTF), we also celebrate your commitment to a fundamental truth: that early experiences are the foundation for both educational success and long-term health.

FTF is not just an initiative; it is a visionary movement designed to reconfigure the fabric of early childhood development in your community. By focusing on the first 1,000 days of children's lives, you are setting a stage not just for academic success but for lifelong resilience, health and wellbeing.

Let’s reflect on the history of our education system so we can put this moment in proper context. Our modern education system took shape in the mid-1800s. That is, a universal, non-sectarian, free, both boys and girls, ages 5-14, tax-funded and compulsory, trained teachers, with an extended school year. Surprisingly, this is still our system today with some noted key updates starting with adding high school after the Civil war. Since then, we've seen other significant milestones— the provision of school lunches in the 1940s, desegregation in the 50s, and increased federal support to communities with less resources in the 60s, serving children with special needs in the 70s, revising the way we serve children with special needs in the 90s, testing children in the early 2000s, and revising the way we test children about 10 years ago.

For the past 50-70 years we have been aware of this system’s shortcomings. As a result, we have continually tried to tweak the system and patch its holes. Today, we have seen decades of reform fail to transform the system and achieve better universal outcomes. In addition, we have spent billions of dollars in educational innovation, but the research tells us that a substantial proportion of these efforts have failed to produce meaningful improvements in student outcomes. The most recent data from 2024 show that a staggering 74 percent of initiatives fell short of making a significant difference.

This 'dirty secret' of educational reform—that it is exceedingly difficult to enhance or accelerate student achievement on a large scale, underscores a vital truth. That the most effective way to influence educational outcomes is not to retrofit solutions onto problems as they arise but to prevent these challenges at their source. This begins with the foundational years of a child's life, the period First Things First is dedicated to enriching.

First Things First isn't just an initiative; it’s a beacon for our future. It represents a profound shift from traditional educational models, focusing not merely on formal schooling but on the comprehensive nurturing from prenatal to preschool. Your community recognizes that true change, meaningful and lasting change, begins not at kindergarten but from the moment of birth. First Things First is your commitment to a comprehensive approach, building from the ground up, not from K-12 down, to ensure that every child in Porter County is nurtured from prenatal stages through to their school years.

This grant will allow your community to innovate further, piloting new collaborative projects that enhance and connect services across the county, making it easier for families to get the support they need when they need it.

As we look forward with excitement and determination, let us remember that your efforts today will echo through generations. You are not merely altering the trajectory of individual lives but reshaping your community's future.

This is why First Things First is much more than just a community initiative, but a promise—a promise to your children that you will give them the very best start in life, a promise to your community that you will grow stronger together. It's about laying down the groundwork so profoundly necessary that it will come to serve as a blueprint for communities nationwide.

In Porter County, you are not waiting for change; you are creating it. You are ensuring that every child, no matter their background, gets the right start in life—that is the smartest investment you can ever make.

Thank you for embracing this vision, for supporting this transformative journey, and for ensuring that every child in Porter County can look forward to a future filled with immense potential. Together, you are reshaping the future, one child at a time. Together, you are setting the foundation for a lifetime of success.”