Michael Gramling is a lifelong advocate for social justice who found his professional home in 1979 when he discovered Head Start and embraced its values and its goals working as a Head Start teacher. Currently he spends most of his time visiting early childhood programs all over the United States as a consultant and a trainer helping programs to elevate the level of discourse in classrooms and to meet the needs of individual children. In doing so he has gained a unique perspective and a thorough and intimate understanding of how early childhood education is practiced in the United States.

Michael earned his Masters Degree in Human Development at Pacific Oaks College in 2000 and has served as the coordinator and chief trainer for the Region IV Head Start Teaching Center at Western Kentucky University. In 2000 he developed the national training material used by the Head Start National Center for Family Literacy. He was a contributing author to the Zero to Three 2003 tome, Learning to Read the World, and has had tow articles published in Child Care Exchange. Today he joins us to discuss his book The Great Disconnect in Early Childhood Education: What We Know Vs What We Do.