Children’s Institute: 10 Years of Championing Early Education
Video by Kate Raphael / Studio Kate
Is Oregon Ready to Learn?
Assessments of school readiness, when done correctly, are useful planning tools. Assessing children as they enter kindergarten allows policy-makers to identify and respond to achievement gaps and communities to determine whether children are prepared for success in school. Well-designed assessments help public officials direct resources effectively and efficiently. On the other hand, poorly designed or poorly administered assessments – even if inexpensive – are not a good use of public resources.
As Oregon and the nation move toward comprehensive data systems that track the education of children from birth through college, now is the time to re-engineer Oregon’s kindergarten readiness survey to provide Oregonians – policy-makers in particular – a useful tool for measuring school readiness.
Click here to view the appendices.
From Risk to Resilience
The report, “From Risk to Resilience: Building the Social and Emotional Health of Oregon’s Most Vulnerable Young Children,” highlights why and how the social, emotional and behavioral health of young children provides the foundation for success in school and beyond.
Children who are engaged, able to focus, cooperate with peers, accept supervision from adults and regulate their emotions are much more likely to do well in school than those who are not. Children who are routinely distracted or disengaged, constantly fighting with their classmates and teachers, or too often swept away by their emotions will struggle, and many will fail.
The report highlights the good work being done in Oregon to promote positive social and emotional health of at-risk children. Regrettably, far too few of the young children whose social, emotional and behavioral health is at risk have access to these and other prevention strategies that can change the trajectory of their lives.
Parent Perspectives on the First Five Years
To ensure the perspective of low-income parents is reflected in its public policy agenda, the Children’s Institute commissioned Davis, Hibbitts & Midghall to conduct four focus groups. The research has been designed to assess parents’ understanding of and attitudes toward the first five years of their child’s life, covering topics such as school readiness, child care, and preschool. Participants also discussed what barriers they face in getting what they need to make sure their children have a healthy start during their first five years of life.
Click here to view the appendices.
Investing in Young Kids = Investing in Their Teachers
Building Oregon’s Early Education Workforce.
Early childhood education is capturing the attention of policymakers and the public like never before. A growing body of research proves that quality early childhood education is crucial from birth to age five, when brain development is most dramatic. We know that the stimulation and security a child receives during these years has everything to do with cognitive, linguistic, and socio-emotional development — in short: the ability to learn, engage, and be prepared for school success. As we increase our investments in early education, we must grow and strengthen our workforce of teachers and caregivers.
Better training, compensation, and support are essential for those who work in varied early childhood settings — from the Head Start classroom teacher with a degree to the 18-year-old working as a teaching assistant in a local child care center to the mature caregiver who has raised two generations of healthy kids in a home-based program. When we give all of these teachers the tools to be better at what they do, we serve our children and build a stronger workforce for Oregon.