With the achievement gap beginning to manifest in children as young as nine months, and 90 percent of brain development occurring during the first five years of life, chiefs are committed to expanding and upgrading early childhood programs and strengthening early elementary teaching and learning to provide equal educational opportunities for every young child from birth through third grade. In 2009, chiefs publicly acknowledged the "quiet crisis" threatening the future of young children from families of need, and outlined an agenda to (1) build more coherent state early childhood education systems aligned with kindergarten through third grade (K-3) schooling; (2) increase access to high-quality early childhood education programs; and (3) craft a new state-federal partnership to advance early learning opportunities, particularly for those children most at risk. Important work has been accomplished on these recommendations. While state chiefs do not have full authority over all early childhood programs, they manage Pre-K programs in 37 states, services to preschool children with special needs in all 50 states, child care services in seven states, and Head Start State Collaboration Office projects in 19 states, totaling billions of dollars in public investment. Accordingly, chiefs have identified five action steps to leverage the value of early childhood education for their state's public education system: (1) Engage families and communities in early learning; (2) Connect early childhood programs and elementary schools; (3) Accelerate improvement and innovation in early childhood programs; (4) Build a high performing early childhood workforce; and (5) Increase investment to provide quality, voluntary early childhood education for all children. Taken together, these five strategies--when coupled with high-quality K-12 education--will contribute to closing the achievement gap and strengthening student outcomes through college and career.