CI Guest, Author at Children's Institute

Strengthening Early Literacy Practices with Evidence-Based Resources

by CI Guest | Jul 30, 2024 | News, Preschool, Successful Students

This article, co-authored by Herbert Turner at Regional Educational Laboratory Northwest (REL Northwest) and Marina Merrill at Children’s Institute, is republished with permission. It highlights a compilation of evidence-based resources to support and strengthen early literacy resources for young children.

In 2023, the Oregon Legislature launched the Early Literacy Success Initiative to help all students learn to read — as currently only 46 percent of students read proficiently by the end of grade 3.¹ To support the initiative, Children’s Institute (CI) partnered with the Regional Educational Laboratory Northwest (REL Northwest) to compile accessible, evidence-based resources to support this effort and strengthen literacy practices for young children.

Why early literacy matters

Why focus on birth to grade 3? Early experiences shape the foundation for all future learning, with critical brain development occurring before age five.² When young children develop strong language skills early on, they are better equipped to engage in learning and succeed academically. Children who fail to achieve reading proficiency by grade 3 are four times more likely to drop out of high school.³ Thus, early literacy is an educational priority and an equity issue, as it can help mitigate the effects of poverty and systemic inequities.

How parents and families support early Literacy (1)

Evidence-based early literacy resources

REL Northwest compiled vetted resources to support early literacy from ages 0–3 and preschool to grade 3. For children ages 0–3, these resources include interactive reading apps, early literacy games, and parent-child reading guides. Educators and parents can integrate these strategies into home visiting programs, early intervention services, and community-based programs. For older children in preschool and elementary school settings, the resources include guided reading materials, phonics-based learning tools, and literacy assessment guides.

For example, How Parents and Families Support Oral Language and Vocabulary provides research-based strategies, example texts, and real-life vignettes that parents and families can use to develop oral language skills in infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, including those from diverse linguistic backgrounds. Another resource, A Kindergarten Teacher’s Guide to Supporting Family Involvement in Foundational Reading Skills, helps teachers support families in practicing foundational reading skills at home as a companion to the recommendations for classroom instruction. These resources address the unique needs and challenges faced by students, including students from low-income families, English learner students, and students with disabilities.

Children’s Institute published these resources on a custom web page designed for families, caregivers, practitioners, and policymakers to access and use practices linked to improving student outcomes. The resources are presented in a user-friendly format, with clear instructions and explanations.

Policy context and future directions

The shift toward identifying literacy skills on the zero-to-grade-3 continuum reflects a growing recognition of the importance of early childhood education. This approach aligns with national trends and funding opportunities, emphasizing the need for comprehensive early literacy strategies. By thinking beyond the traditional preK–3 continuum, Oregon is positioning itself as a leader in early childhood education reform.

The infusion of state funding into early literacy initiatives, particularly the Early Literacy Success Initiative, opens new possibilities. By leveraging this funding, educators and policymakers can adopt and integrate these tools and strategies into their existing frameworks, ensuring that every child in Oregon can develop strong literacy skills from the earliest age.

By creating a more equitable education system that empowers all children to reach their full potential, this initiative aims to improve early literacy and foster a sense of shared responsibility and commitment to the future of our children and our communities.

The role of REL Northwest and Children’s Institute

REL Northwest plays a crucial role in building the capacity of education stakeholders across Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington and helping state and district leaders use data and evidence for informed decision-making. REL Northwest conducts applied research, and provides training, and technical support to state and local education agencies and community organization partners in the region.

Children’s Institute, a nonprofit organization, focuses on improving the lives of children from prenatal to fifth grade in Oregon, especially those facing systemic barriers like poverty, racial inequities, disabilities, or rural areas. CI’s work focuses on shaping state early childhood policy related to early learning and healthy development and working with schools and districts to strengthen teaching practices preschool through fifth grade with its Early School Success initiative. They collaborate with various stakeholders, including families, educators, regional leaders, policymakers, and health organizations, to ensure a comprehensive approach to early childhood education.

Additional Resources

Explore evidence-based early literacy resources through our Early Literacy Resources webpage

Learn how early learning partners are supporting Oregon’s early literacy efforts

See how liberation and literacy go hand-in-hand

¹ Oregon Department of Education. (2022). Oregon statewide report card 2021–2022.

² National Research Council & Institute of Medicine. (2000). From neurons to neighborhoods: The science of early childhood development. National Academy Press.

³ Hernandez, D. J. (2011). Double jeopardy: How third-grade reading skills and poverty influence high school graduation. Annie E. Casey Foundation.

States Have A Role To Play in Helping Kids Access Inclusive Pre-K

by CI Guest | Jul 25, 2024 | News, Preschool, Preschool Landscape

This article written by Aaron Loewenberg at New America and shared with permission highlights how collaboration between school districts and community partners can be improved by states.

A distinctive hallmark of publicly funded early education is the fact that it’s offered in a variety of settings. In order to preserve parental choice and increase capacity, many states have adopted mixed delivery systems in which pre-K is offered not only in public elementary schools but also in community-based settings, such as child care centers and Head Start. There are a variety of reasons why a parent might prefer one of these settings over a school setting, such as closer proximity to their home or place of work, full-day hours that better correspond with a parent’s working schedule, or because it’s where other family members already attend.

But while a mixed delivery system of pre-K has many advantages, it can present significant challenges for students with disabilities when it comes to accessing early childhood special education (ECSE) services, such as those provided by occupational therapists, physical therapists, and speech-language pathologists. A nationwide shortage of special education teachers can make the task even more difficult. Despite guidance from the federal government that emphasizes that the requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) apply to both school and non-school settings, in many districts these services are only provided in school-based settings, forcing families to make difficult decisions.

Families might be forced to choose between staying in a child care center and receiving no services or leaving the program to attend the school-based option that will offer ECSE services. Alternatively, families might be able to stay at their community-based setting but the learning day is disrupted by the need to take a bus in the middle of the day to receive services at the school district site. Neither of these options are optimal, and both go against a child’s right to be served in the “least restrictive environment,” a point recently emphasized in a 2023 federal policy statement. That statement makes clear that, “Families should not have to choose between remaining in their existing early childhood program and receiving early intervention or special education services after children are identified with a disability.” It also emphasizes the benefits of children with special needs learning in inclusive settings alongside typically developing children.

Since both Head Start rules and IDEA make clear that it’s the responsibility of local education agencies to conduct evaluations and deliver special education services, much of the work of delivering these services to young children in community-based settings happens at the local level and under the purview of the school district. And while there are several examples of communities across the country engaged in this work, there are fewer examples of state systems working across sectors to ensure that children are supported in accessing special education services across the mixed delivery system. However, there is an important role for the state to play here. In fact, the recent federal policy statement offers 10 recommendations for state actions to better serve children with disabilities in early childhood programs, ranging from establishing a cross-sector state leadership team to implement a shared vision to raising public awareness about the benefits and importance of inclusion.

Illinois is one state that has been engaged in this work for many years. “We really need to start from the presumption that the family has made a choice about where to enroll their child, and we need to think about how to keep them there and help that student thrive,” says Kayla Goldfarb, policy manager in Illinois policy at Start Early. To meet this goal, the state has established a cross-sector, interagency leadership team focused on increasing inclusive opportunities for young children with disabilities. The team’s work is guided by Indicators of High-Quality Inclusion that address inclusive policies and practices at multiple system levels: state, community, local programs, and the environments where children receive care. “Part of the reason it is so important is because the issue of inclusion for preschoolers is a cross-sector issue since there is no universally accessible pre-K system nationally. So, if we want to address inclusion, we have to not just have our school district and Illinois State Board of Education partners on board; it also has to include community-based providers, including child care and Head Start partners,” says Goldfarb.

The state has partnered with the Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center to provide technical assistance for implementing, sustaining, and scaling-up inclusive pre-K programs. District-based community inclusion teams consisting of community partners, education agencies, and parents meet monthly across the state to build awareness of the importance of early childhood inclusion. In Collinsville, a city located just east of St. Louis, the school district and a Head Start program were able to enter into a collaboration where an itinerant special education teacher from the district travels to the Head Start site to provide services that are embedded in the activities of the day. This arrangement means that children no longer have to take a bus in the middle of the day to the school to receive their services.

Illinois is also using funds from the federal Preschool Development Grant Birth through Five (PDG B-5) program to improve the availability of services in community-based settings. The funds have been used to pilot different service model options for providing special education services in community settings, such as one in which itinerant services are provided within a regional co-op to children who reside out-of-district and are enrolled in community-based organizations. Several community inclusion teams have been awarded funds to receive technical assistance, professional development, and help in implementing the itinerant service model in their communities.

Oregon has also been working to assist local communities in providing inclusive services for children in community-based settings through the work of the state’s Early Childhood Inclusion Initiative. “Oregon didn’t necessarily have a state strategy to move the needle on this, and so now we are getting technical assistance to build a state strategy for advancing inclusion,” says Dana Hepper, Director of Policy & Advocacy at Children’s Institute. Like Illinois, the state is using the Indicators of High-Quality Inclusion to guide work at the state and local levels and has organized cross-sector community inclusion teams that examine barriers to authentic communication between school districts and community-based settings.

In Lincoln County in Western Oregon, a community inclusion team made up of partners from across the early learning community has been using coaching to build staff capacity in three community sites, develop shared professional development, and identify interagency agreements with districts that will help sustain inclusive practices. Other community teams have focused on ensuring that all early education providers, regardless of setting, have access to high-quality training and coaching on practices that target the full inclusion of young children with disabilities.

For her part, Hepper sees a definite benefit to states stepping up to help lead this work around how to best provide services to young children regardless of whether they attend pre-K in an elementary school, Head Start classroom, or child care center. “It feels very inefficient for every community to have to figure these things out on their own. There are some common, proven practices grounded in research and experience that we should be sharing with each other and utilizing,” says Hepper.

Both Oregon and Illinois offer examples of the importance of states helping and funding local communities to do this often difficult, cross-sector work. It will take continued cooperation between local and state governments to ensure that children with disabilities receive the services to which they’re entitled in the setting that works best for their families.

This work is attributed to Aaron Loewenberg, senior policy analyst with the Education Policy program at New America.. The original version can be found here.

Oregon Prepares to Fund Early Literacy Efforts

by CI Guest | May 21, 2024 | News, Oregon Policy, Successful Students

Oregon is poised to distribute funds for early childhood learning and literacy. In 2023, lawmakers passed the Early Literacy Success Initiative, in part because only about half of the state’s students were proficient in reading through third grade. School districts have since applied for grants with the Oregon Department of Education and funds are expected soon.

Marina Merrill, director of research and strategy with the Children’s Institute, said the investments are exciting because brains develop faster in a person’s first eight years of life than at any other point.

“Those years are just so critical, especially that 90% of a child’s brain is developed by the age of five. Yet most of our investments in young children start at age five,” she said.

Grant applications from more than 200 districts and charter schools have focused on building capacity for early literacy through professional development and coaching. The Children’s Institute is holding a webinar tomorrow about the state’s investments and evidence-based early learning practices.

Herb Turner, founder of ANALYTICA, will participate in the Children’s Institute webinar. He said evidence-based practices are ones that have been studied and shown to improve students’ outcomes, meaning they can be used with confidence in the classroom.

“Oregon deserves a lot of credit for taking this on and for creating this emphasis on evidence-based practices and strategies, and getting behind evidence-based reading initiatives,” he explained.

Cesiah Vega-Lopez, a pre-k teacher at the bilingual school Echo Shaw Elementary in Cornelius, outside Hillsboro, said she’s used different practices to teach literacy, such as highlighting each letter of the alphabet with an animal that starts with that letter, and added that this is a critical time for kids.

“For them to be able to have this knowledge early on really helps support their learning as they move on through their trajectory of school, especially as they move on to kindergarten. So I think the focus on them learning or being aware of language is very important in their overall development,” Vega-Lopez explained.

Disclosure: Children’s Institute contributes to Public News Service’s fund for reporting on Children’s Issues, Early Childhood Education, Education, and Health Issues.

This article was written by Eric Tegethoff and originally shared through Public News Service on May 21, 2024. The link can be found here.

Oregon School’s Learning Labs Showcase the Power of Early Learning

by CI Guest | May 20, 2024 | Preschool, News, Early School Success

The Beaverton School District is blazing a trail in early education through bilingual learning labs, which emphasize playful inquiry and habits of mind.

School officials said the Early School Success initiative is designed to showcase the power of early learning and help make the case for expanded public investment in preschool.

Monique Singleton, principal at Vose Elementary in Beaverton, said the program helps children, many from immigrant families, successfully adjust to their new surroundings.

“I think the important part about the inquiry work that we’re doing with Children’s Institute, and I’ve talked about this with other principals and teachers, is that I think it’s really important just to be exploring and listening to your community and be able to explore it,” Singleton explained.

Vose Elementary hosted a learning lab earlier this week, showing participants in the district the transformative work the school is doing to improve outcomes for students and the community. The goals for the event were to hold space to nurture cross-district relationships and collaboration.

Singleton noted the emphasis is on teaching children life skills to help them cope with complex emotions and situations they either face at school, at home or both.

“The goal is to help them feel honored with a sense of belonging and a sense of safety around our emotions and a sense of identity,” Singleton pointed out. “So they don’t feel like they have to shut down a part of themselves in order to be successful at school.”

Vose’s faculty and staff are hands-on leaders who model empathy, learn alongside their staff, and consistently message the need for playful inquiry as an equity stance, Singleton added. They aim to provide children at Vose the same kind of learning experiences one might expect at an elite private school.

Disclosure: Children’s Institute contributes to Public News Service’s fund for reporting on Children’s Issues, Early Childhood Education, Education, and Health Issues.

This article was written by Mark Richardson and originally shared through Public News Service on May 16, 2024. The link can be found here.

Oregon’s Regional ‘Primeros Pasos’ Brings Together Sectors to Build Child Care for Latino Communities

by CI Guest | Jan 2, 2024 | Child Care, News, Parents and Families, Equity

We often talk about the critical nature of the early child care workforce. Child care serves as a community asset that not only benefits a single child or family unit, but also promotes the well-being of entire communities. A sufficient supply of quality child care promotes economic development by 1) Enabling parents, especially mothers, to fully engage in the workforce, 2) Promoting employee productivity generally, 3) Preparing children for kindergarten and beyond, where they gain skills to become contributors to the state economy, and 4) Interrupting cycles of poverty and inequities created and upheld by injust systems. Maria Weer, executive director at Building Healthy Families in Enterprise, said that “the business community is stating clearly that they can’t recruit staff because people don’t have child care.” Increasing support for early childhood education is the most effective and cost-efficient way of increasing equitable outcomes on a wide range of factors, from high school graduation and incarceration rates to issues of homelessness and health.

This article written by Liz Bell at EdNC and shared with permission highlights an incredible example of how sectors can unite to bring greater child care opportunities for underserved communities across Oregon.

In 2021, Mike McNally found himself on an unexpected mission.

As owner of Fairsing Vineyard & Winery an hour outside Portland, Oregon, and then chair of the Willamette Valley Wineries Association, McNally was researching how child care works.

He had spent the last couple of years figuring out how the association could do more than “enhance the prestige of Willamette Valley wines,” he said. The association set up a philanthropic arm to invest in employees of the region’s wineries, and in their communities.

When asked what needs were most pressing, vineyard stewards pointed first to housing, and then to child care.

A senior white man wearing a suit shows a spiral shaped vineyard on a cloudy day.

Mike McNally gives a tour of Fairsing Vineyard & Winery. Liz Bell/EducationNC

“My wife would like to be out here working with me, but she’s got to take care of the kids,” McNally recalled hearing in conversations with workers.

Employers across the country are hearing similar sentiments. Some businesses are opening on-site child care programs or subsidizing the cost of employees’ child care.

In North Carolina, an estimated 400,000 working parents are constrained by child care needs, according to a 2022 report from the NC Early Childhood Foundation. Insufficient child care is costing the state $3.5 billion annually, and the country $122 billion, according to a 2023 ReadyNation report. Local and statewide chambers of commerce are speaking about the need for child care.

But McNally’s journey did not end at acknowledging the need, holding a news conference, or even connecting his business’s own employees to child care. After two years, Primeros Pasos, “first steps,” is just getting started in building a child care system that serves Latino communities across the region.

‘An ideal partnership’

McNally was introduced to Jaime Arredondo, executive director of Capaces Leadership Institute, a nonprofit serving Latino communities in the Willamette Valley. The organization has been rooted in labor organizing and immigration raid resistance starting in the 1970s.

“My father was one of thousands of folks that came into that place in the ’80s to get immigration assistance,” Arredondo said.

He’s been involved in community-building efforts for many years. He described himself and McNally as “an ideal partnership” in some ways: a grandfather “trying to pay it forward,” and “a younger guy who’s got kids in pre-K.”

A group of young people gather together in a vineyard on a sunny day.

Photo Courtesy of Capaces Leadership Institute

“I’ve been in the movement, and I’ve been taught from an early age, take the long view,” Arredondo said.

He located an available lot and asked whether McNally could find funds to build a child care program. He then went on paternity leave.

Though he didn’t know how this partnership would evolve, his experience as a father to young children made him interested from the jump.

“There’s a time and a place for everything, and I wonder if he would have caught me at a younger age if I would have seen the potential in this,” he said.

An Aha Moment

During Arredondo’s time off, McNally got to work. He took a self-built crash course in early care and education.

He learned about Oregon’s system: Child Care Resource & Referral agencies, the early childhood workforce registry run by Portland State University, Early Learning Hubs, child care subsidies and public preschool programs and quality rating scales.

Then he turned to experts. McNally took a trip to visit his niece, Amy Schmidtke, director of program development at the Buffet Early Childhood Institute at the University of Nebraska, to learn more about the systemic issues leading to a broken child care market. There, he had an aha moment.

He left with a shift in his thinking. “It’s not about the building, it’s about the workforce,” he said.

By the time Arredondo was back from paternity leave, McNally knew he had to persuade him to think bigger than one building or one program.

“Until we build the workforce, we don’t have anything,” McNally said. “… I sat down and I said, ‘Hey, man, I think we need to turn this thing upside down.’”

In the last two years, that’s what Primeros Pasos, a consortium working to “create best-in-class early childhood education and care for Latina communities in Marion, Polk, and Yamhill counties,” has been doing.

McNally and Arredondo knew there were several organizations doing important work already that needed support and coordination.

A man with brown skin and a warm smile is wearing a white shirt and smiling at the camera. He has dark hair and a beard.

Jaime Arredondo

“(We were) two dudes coming together with no experience in the subject other than what they’ve read and what they’ve studied, and so we knew that we needed to bring people together that know how to do this work,” Arredondo said.

Primeros Pasos

McNally and Arredondo formed the group of regional early childhood organizations, agencies, and partner institutions. Capaces Leadership Institute sits at the top — with the closest proximity to Latino communities.

Instead of individual organizations deciding what to work on and then looking for funding, the community is at the center of those decisions.

“It’s the Latino organization, the Latino community, driving it, not state and county agencies,” McNally said.

The group conducted a needs assessment, located the existing resources, and created a strategy with measurable goals along the way.

That assessment found:

“Approximately 7,000 preschool Latino children (0-4-year-old) reside in this area. Early learning programs are available to serve only 1-in-8 infant and toddlers and 1-in-4 preschoolers. Only 33% of the available programs have conducted quality assessments, and only 15% have achieved a 3- 4- or 5-Star rating with the Spark Quality Rating & Improvement System.”

Primeros Pasos plans to serve 1,500 more children, enroll 300 new teachers in college and community-based training, open 150 new family child care homes, and create a culturally specific curriculum in the next five years.

A woman with brown skin and a black dress sits by a senior white man in a blue shirt at a table, where they use a tablet to describe their plan.

Lucy Escobar and Mike McNally explain the strategy behind Primeros Pasos. Katie Dukes/EducationNC

The consortium has already secured $300,000 from the Child Care Alliance to train providers, $300,000 from the state Department of Early Care and Learning to create a scholarship cohort of 25 students studying early childhood education at Clackamas Community College, and $1.5 million from the state to build capacity in organizations in the consortium to focus on the project.

The five-year project is going to cost about $70 million, which includes state funds going directly to programs serving children from established channels such as the state’s Employment-Related Day Care and Preschool Promise programs.

The program’s manager, Lucy Escobar, has been at the head of Primeros Pasos for less than two months. But she’s been working as a coach with child care providers for seven years.

“This is a legacy project,” Escobar said. She’s worked with providers like Herlin Alvarez, who just opened a Early Start Preschool and Child Care Center in Salem, Oregon, but operated a family child care home for seven years beforehand.

Escobar started working with Alvarez at her dining room table, helping her navigate the complex systems and rules of child care licensing.

“Our vision was that one day, she would get to open her center, Escobar said. “And last year, we cut the ribbon.”

Primeros Pasos is now surveying the needs of a new cohort of in-home providers to support them with training and mentoring all in Spanish, in the coming year.

The project has four main strategic pillars: early childhood workforce and development, Latino-specific curriculum and learning plans, existing provider development, and recruitment of new educators and providers.

“By recruiting and supporting Latinx educators and providing them research-based resources and tools that are culturally relevant and developmentally appropriate, we can create an environment that doesn’t just acknowledge diversity but celebrates it as an essential component, alongside developing healthy mental and emotional relationships and stimulating brain development for our future generations,” Escobar said in an email.

A woman with brown skin, dark hair in a ponytail, and a teal shirt stands in front of a festive child care wall display.

Herlin Alvarez, owner of Early Start Preschool & Child Care Center. Liz Bell/EducationNC

The project’s consortium has a steering committee with a member from each of the consortium’s organizations: Capaces Leadership Institute, Child Care Resource & Referral, The Marion-Polk and Yamhill Early Learning Hub, Oregon Child Development Coalition, and the Willamette Valley Wineries’ Association.

“Each individual has brought their resources and perspective to the table, fostering the sharing of ideas, experiences, and a genuine care for the future of Oregon,” Escobar said. “I don’t see egos or private agendas; instead, I see a community willing to unite and collaboratively create a better Oregon for both the present and future generations.”

The project just brought on a public relations manager and outreach coordinator, is in the middle of launching a website, and is gearing up to welcome the in-home provider cohort.

Investing Early and Holistically

Even though the project in its first phases, Arredondo is not losing the long-term vision.

“When we invest at an early age, and when we invest holistically, I just can’t wait to see what kind of leaders this is going to produce in our community,” he said.

There are lessons outside of the region, and outside of Oregon, on cross-sector leadership going beyond immediate needs and solutions, he said. For Arredondo, the project is a full-circle moment. His father worked in the vineyards just like the ones that have spearheaded Primeros Pasos. He’s now headed toward another paternity leave to welcome his fourth child into the world in two weeks.

“It’s like growing a superpower, because you see things you didn’t see before,” he said. “I really believe it does take a village, whether that’s a village, or a big community, like our big region, to make this work.”

This work is attributed to Liz Bell, early childhood reporter for EducationNC. The original version can be found here.

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