The Early Childhood Program (formerly Step by Step) is an education reform program that introduces child-centered teaching methods and supports community and family involvement in preschool and primary school. The aim is to engender democratic principles and practices in young children and their families. The program's method encourages children to make choices, take responsibility for their decisions, express their ideas with creativity, help one another, develop critical thinking skills, and practice independent thinking. The Early Childhood Program promotes the right of all children to a quality education and provides materials and training to ensure equal access for children of minority families, children with disabilities, Roma, refugees, and families living in poverty.

The program provides an innovative and comprehensive five-year approach to institutional reform of early childhood education by training teachers and administrators at model schools, training university faculty in new pedagogy, and cooperating with education and health ministries to promote development of child-friendly policies. The program has also worked with parents, teachers, and faculty to create national associations to advocate for early childhood education reform and an international forum to promote open society values in education.

The International Step by Step Association, established by the national Step by Step programs, links over 150,000 early childhood professionals into a wide network and advocacy organization, promoting Step by Step’s philosophy, training, and technical assistance internationally. By the end of each five-year program cycle, national Step by Step programs are expected to become independent from Soros foundations, either as newly established NGOs or by joining an existing education NGO.

Network Children and Youth priority programs are the Early Childhood Program (formerly Step by Step), the Network Debate Program, and Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking, which all emphasize democratic principles and promote the development of the individual child’s full potential.

Read more about their recent accomplishments in Children and Youth Programs 2007 activities.