This post is part of a series on childhood poverty in the United States in partnership with Save the Children and Julianne Moore. Moore leads the organization's Valentine's Day campaign, through which cards are sold to support the fight against poverty in the U.S. To learn more or to purchase...

NBC News' Education Nation campaign launched this week with teachers, business pioneers, a former president and other leaders gathered in New York City to engage in a dialogue about education in America today. The event spans all of NBC's news programming and also convenes a three-day Summit on...

The conversation about education reform in America often takes place in the realm of 4th-grade reading aptitude, middle school math and science achievement and SAT scores. Last week, on Capitol Hill, we expanded the conversation to the place where all of a child's potential hinges: the first five years.

The...

When we think of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, the words "mushy," "maternal," or "big spender" usually don't come to mind. That's why it was downright amazing this week when Bernanke waded into an education issue that too often gets mischaracterized as an agenda item of the "mushy, maternal big...

If you have a child under six like each of us does, reading them Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See?, listening to Mozart or playing Candyland is probably as elemental to your daily child-rearing routine as feeding them carrots or changing their diapers.

Unfortunately, for millions of American...

In his speech to America's schoolchildren, President Obama said: "Every single one of you has something that you're good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is."

This was an inspiring message of empowerment and...

Imagine if the Department of Health and Human Services announced it wouldn't monitor or control the Swine Flu until millions of people were ill. Or if the Department of Homeland Security refused to track Al Qaeda until it launched multiple attacks inside the United States.

Needless to say, there'd...