One of the biggest supporters of PreK-3rd work in Washington state will join forces with one of the region’s more influential voice in education reform.

The New School Foundation and League of Education Voters will merge on July 31, the two groups announced today. Over the last 13 years, the foundation built a model program at South Shore Elementary in Seattle’s Rainier Beach neighborhood that integrates pre-kindergarten and the first four grades of elementary school. The league has a far broader agenda, working on issues ranging from college access to basic education reform.

For the early learning world, the merger gives The New School Foundation a bigger and more powerful engine to drive its efforts to spread PreK-3rd strategies in the Seattle School District and around Washington. It also potentially strengthens the league’s existing work in early learning, which includes its Early Learning Report Card.

“The League of Education Voters Foundation is ambitious for Washington’s children and impatient with status quo practices that we know are not serving kids,” The New School Foundation’s executive director Laura Kohn said in a statement. “This merger blends the New School Foundation’s on-the-ground expertise in early education with the League’s skill at spreading the best ideas for improving public education in our state.”

Months ago, Kohn announced she was stepping down as leader of the foundation because her family was relocating to California.

Over the last decade, The New School Foundation became one of the most vocal supporters of PreK-3rd strategies in the region. (Check out its video, one of the best I’ve seen on early education, in the lower right-hand corner of its website.) How will that voice change now that it’s part of a broader organization with more priorities and resources?

One of the new group’s priorities is to improve reading skills among third graders, a skill that students can start developing well before kindergarten, at home, in child care and in preschool.

"Reading by third grade is a key predictor of school success and is a shared goal of our organizations," Chris Korsmo, head of the League of Education Voters Foundation, said in the statement. "Together, we can make sure more kids meet that benchmark. The New School Foundation has been a leader in this work, and we share their commitment that all kids in Washington deserve the opportunity to succeed.”