Partnership strengthens preschool in Yoncalla

by CI Guest | May 4, 2016 | Educators and Workforce, Preschool, Teacher Voice

It’s late morning on a sunny Wednesday in Yoncalla, Oregon and 14 preschoolers are gathered on a colorful alphabet rug. Most are cross-legged, but several are wiggling, struggling to contain their excitement. All eyes are on Jill Cunningham, the Yoncalla library’s branch manager, who has come to visit their classroom at Yoncalla Elementary. They are singing This Old Man together, complete with hand motions.

“What rhymes with three?” Cunningham asks, holding three fingers high.

“Tree!” A girl in pink shouts.

“I like it,” says Cunningham.

“He played knick-knack on his tree,” they sing.

Cunningham is a frequent visitor to the preschool class, which is taught and operated by lifelong Yoncalla resident Cassie Reigard. Reigard is operating the preschool that was started decades ago by her grandmother – who just recently passed away. Reigard’s mother ran the preschool after her grandmother, and Cassie took over when her mother retired.

The Yoncalla school district provides space at the elementary school for Reigard to operate the program. And this year, the partners that are part of the Early Works initiative at Yoncalla have supported Reigard to receive professional development and assistance that will help her students be ready to succeed in kindergarten. Teaching preschool is in Reigard’s blood and she is a great person for Early Works to support. After all, she has dedicated her career to Yoncalla’s young children.

Partnership strengthens preschool in Yoncalla “I love the kids. I love watching them learn; I love teaching them,” Reigard says.

The professional development and help that the Yoncalla School District and other Early Works partners have provided Reigard has resulted in a new opportunity for her to serve more kids from low-income Yoncalla-area families. The South-Central Oregon Early Learning Hub – its service area includes Yoncalla – was one of nine early learning hubs in Oregon that last month was awarded some of the new state funding to support high-quality preschool for children from low-income Oregon families. Some of that funding now will be going to help kids in Yoncalla.

The Children’s Institute has worked closely with the state to ensure the passage and develop the program, called Preschool Promise. The program will support high-quality preschools in a mix of settings, including public schools, Head Start and private, community-based programs.

Jan Zarate, Yoncalla School District superintendent, said Reigard and the school district submitted a joint application for the Preschool Promise funding; the South Central early learning hub plans to fund their effort. “We are going to get the opportunity to pull more partners to the table and do more braiding of funds” says Jan Zarate, Yoncalla School District superintendent.

When she heard the news, Reigard says, she was ecstatic. “I feel very excited for the children in our community and the opportunities this will provide for them,” she says.

Zarate says that while the support from the school district and other Early Works partners was important in helping to secure the Preschool Promise funding, so was Reigard’s experience and foundation in the Yoncalla community.

“Cassie’s capacity to build relationships with people and make them comfortable is amazing. Parents trust her,” says Zarate. “There are also areas to grow and there is a personal commitment on Cassie’s part to know more and be even better prepared.”

Reigard says the Early Works support for her professional development is very helpful. “I’m always open to improving anything that I can,” she says.

Partnership strengthens preschool in Yoncalla At a recent conference at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, she learned some new strategies to help her students understand the reasons behind their feelings. “I’ve struggled with some students in class that don’t know how to handle their feelings and so I’ve really been able to take them aside and talk about their feelings and really just work on supporting them emotionally,” she says.

A very important new tool was added to Reigard’s teaching arsenal this spring: the Ages & Stages Questionnaire, or ASQ. A developmental screening survey that is simple for parents to complete, the ASQ pinpoints developmental progress in children up to age five, allowing teachers, caregivers, and service providers to understand what individual supports a child might need to be healthy and ready for school.

Almost all of the preschool parents agreed to participate, and Reigard loved conducting the screening survey. “It was one of the best things I could have done to develop a more personal relationship with parents and to understand their children better,” she says.

Partnership strengthens preschool in Yoncalla In addition to relationship-building, the screening survey helped Reigard tailor her instruction to her students’ needs and interests. “Not only did it show what I need to work on in specific areas with the students, but it clarified reasons why some students were more behind than others, not just academically.”

Finally, the screening survey led to Reigard being able to refer several students to additional programs and services that will help the students in their learning.

In the future, Reigard plans to conduct the ASQ screening in the fall, ideally even before school starts, to inform her teaching from the beginning. “My goal is to connect with families and work together with them to help prepare their children for kindergarten,” she says.

Early Works is focused on supporting Reigard, and other teachers and service providers in Yoncalla, to learn and hone new strategies to help students succeed. At the same time, the Children’s Institute is working hard at the state level to help advocate and secure funding for programs like Preschool Promise.

Collaboration in Wallowa connects health to early learning

by CI Guest | Mar 23, 2016 | Health and Development, Successful Students

Collaboration in Wallowa connects health to early learning

Maria Weer with children at the library.

At the time, Liz Powers and Maria Weer were both relative newcomers to Wallowa County.

Liz was a new family practice physician in Enterprise. Maria worked for a non-profit organization called Building Healthy Families. Their children were about the same age. And the two mothers were similar in another way: they had a passion for trying to make things better for the children of Wallowa County.

Then they got to know each other.

“As with most things in Wallowa County, collaboration often starts with a friendship,” Maria says. “And so, we met when she needed some books in Spanish for a family and she knew that we ran a reading program and that I had access to books. That was the first meeting. I remember sitting at my kitchen table while our two-year-olds were playing on the floor and we just kind of said – well, what if we could do this and what if we could do that? And how could we build this? And we’ve really just gone from there.”

That was six years ago. Today, the Winding Waters Medical Clinic, where Liz is a family physician, and Building Healthy Families, where Maria is the executive director, have an unusual and unusually effective partnership working to help Wallowa County children and families.

The collaboration, which does extraordinary work to connect early learning and healthy development for Wallowa County’s young children, will be honored with the Children’s Institute’s Alexander Award at this year’s annual Make It Your Business luncheon. The award is given annually to people or groups that are exemplary in making a difference in young children’s lives in Oregon.

“Wallowa County is intentionally connecting health and early learning, starting prenatally, to benefit families,” says Swati Adarkar, Children’s Institute President & CEO. “We’re thrilled to present them with the Alexander Award and hope that other communities across the state are inspired by their example.”

The collaboration that started at that kitchen table now encompasses a range of programs that the Winding Waters Medical Clinic and Building Healthy Families work on together, all intended to create a seamless connection between a child’s early health and development and their early learning.

Those programs include:

Well Baby Bags: Building Healthy Families assembles the bags, which include developmental information and milestones, an age-appropriate children’s book, and recommendations for early literacy strategies. Health providers at the Winding Waters Medical Clinic give these bags to families at each scheduled well-baby visit.

Developmental screenings and intervention: The development screenings were integrated into the workflow of the clinic so that medical providers had the time and training to administer the developmental questionnaire. Building Healthy Families staff assemble kits containing materials and instructions for developmentally appropriate and supportive activities for families to do at home; the clinic then hands out these kits to families during medical visits.

Reach out and Read: The collaboration has implemented this national early literacy model in Wallowa County. Winding Waters Clinic providers are helping to provide new books to children and advice to parents about the importance of reading aloud.

Parenting education: The clinic and Building Healthy Families work together to help provide parents and caregivers with a range of parenting education opportunities, including home visits through Healthy Families Oregon.
The results of the work and collaboration are often remarkable. For example, before the collaboration began, Liz says, about 30 percent of the clinic’s young patients were getting developmental screenings. Six months after the partnership began, that figure became 85 percent, she says.

Collaboration in Wallowa connects health to early learning

Liz Powers with a family in her clinic.

But the partnership is about much more than the programs. It is a continual mission of connecting healthy development with early learning. That means, for instance, Winding Waters Clinic often introduces a pregnant mother to Building Healthy Families staff before her child is born.

“In primary care, one of the things that we found to be most impactful in improving patient’s health is continuity and trust with the provider,” says Liz. “When we’re able to introduce our patients and families to Building Healthy Families during pregnancy, that gets them engaged in that young child’s life before they’re even born. It means that they’re willing to engage in programs as they grow up and develop.”

Six years later, many of the “what-if” goals Liz and Maria sketched out at that kitchen table have become reality.

“I think one of the most frustrating things about being a doctor is knowing and caring for a family and not being able to make things better for them,” Liz says. “One of the great joys of our partnership with Building Healthy Families is that we’re able to touch people in a way that’s outside of our traditional walls, outside of the standard medicine. And it’s such a reward to watch those families thrive.”

Thirty Million Words: A Conversation with Dr. Dana Suskind

by CI Guest | Mar 23, 2016 | Dual Language Learners, Parents and Families

We recently spoke with Dr. Dana Suskind, founder and director of the Thirty Million Words Initiative, about what inspired her to become an expert on early language development. She also shares some advice on how families can support young children to develop language skills.

Dr. Suskind will give the keynote address at our annual Make It Your Business lunch, on April 12. Register today to attend and hear more about her work with young children.

Dr. Suskind is professor of surgery and pediatrics at the University of Chicago Medicine and co-author of Thirty Million Words: Building a Child’s Brain. For nearly ten years, she has been committed to closing the opportunity gap by creating language programs for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

CI: Describe how the famous 1995 study by researchers Betty Hart and Todd Risley inspired the Thirty Million Words Initiative. Were its findings born out in your own pediatric work?

Dr. Suskind: I began my surgical career as a pediatric head and neck surgeon specializing in cochlear implantation. I soon discovered that even a successful cochlear implant didn’t always mean future success for the child in learning to speak or understand language. It was the same surgery, the same gift of hearing, but it had dramatically different results. My search to understand why led me to the concept of the 30-million-word gap. In their seminal research, Hart and Risley found that children of lower socioeconomic status heard about 30 million fewer words by their fourth birthday than their more affluent peers. This profound disparity has a negative impact on everything from literacy and spatial relations, school readiness and academic attainment, to self-regulation and grit. When I took the Hippocratic Oath as a pediatric surgeon, I understood that it meant my obligation to my patient didn’t end when I finished operating; it ended when my patient was well. I knew it was time for me to step out of the comfortable world of the operating room into the wider world of social science in order to truly effect a change for our nation’s children. That is what led to the Thirty Million Words Initiative.

CI: We know that parents are a child’s first teacher. Can you explain the role parents/families play in a child’s first few years?

Dr. Suskind: The most important thing any parent can do for their children is have conversations with them, starting the day they are born. Genetics supplies the blueprints for our potentials, but reaching that potential is largely determined by how much parents talk and interact with their children in the first three years of life. Parent responsiveness and the quantity and quality of parent-child interactions are critical for a child’s optimal brain development. Creating a rich early language environment involves using greater variation in vocabulary, more syntactic complexity, asking open-ended questions, and eliciting a child’s response.

CI: Your background and continued role as a physician while leading this initiative brings to light a focus for the Children’s Institute: the connection between health and learning for young children. From your perspective, do healthy development and education go hand in hand? If so, how?

Dr. Suskind: Absolutely. Language is a social determinant of both health and educational outcomes. Brain research reveals that 85 percent of physical brain development occurs in the first three years of life, but much of that brain development is caregiver dependent. Without sufficient social nutrition (i.e., rich language environments, parent-child attachment, caregiver responsiveness and adult-child exchange), the vast potential of the brain is diminished and the rate of learning and intellectual capacity severely curtailed. Brain research further reveals that the impact of early language environments and parent-child relationships are far-reaching, affecting social-emotional development and the development of regulatory and executive function skills that impact long-term well-being. Current research demonstrates long-term health benefits from early childhood interventions, including the significantly lower prevalence of risk factors for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, such as stroke and diabetes, in participants thirty years post-intervention. The stimulation, or lack thereof, that all children experience in their earliest years affects not only their educational trajectories, but their long-term health and well-being as well.

CI: How would you advise families who aren’t part of the initiative to learn from what you’re finding? What can they do on their own?

Dr. Suskind: The most important — and astoundingly simple — thing you can do for your child’s future success in life is to talk to him or her. We recommend using the following strategies, known as the 3Ts: Tune In, Talk More, and Take Turns. Tune In is about making a conscious effort to notice, focus, and respond to what your child is communicating. A child who receives constant Tuning In is likely to stay engaged longer, initiate communication, and ultimately, learn more easily. Talk More is focused on building your child’s vocabulary with descriptive words. Take Turns is the most valuable for a child’s developing brain. You want to engage your child in a conversational exchange. Using open-ended questions or asking a simple “how” or “why” allows your child to respond with a wide range of words, thoughts, and ideas.

CI: What role can schools and teachers, health care providers, and child care providers play in helping young children succeed?

Dr. Suskind: We all play an important role. Language impacts children’s social-emotional development as much as it shapes their intellectual capacity. When teachers and practitioners take turns talking with children, they model important social skills: listening, waiting for the response, expanding upon what was said, asking clarifying questions, among others. Research reveals that when learning a task happens in person — and not via a digital device — children are able to imitate the action with little or no difficulty. Children’s brains learn best from social interaction.

CI: What should the federal government or state governments be doing? Are there public policies that would help Thirty Million Words or similar interventions be replicable throughout the nation?

Dr. Suskind:National leaders need to understand that learning begins on the first day of life, not the first day of school. Far too often our efforts have focused on remediation rather than prevention, with only isolated pockets of success. We need to proactively intervene in the earliest years, beginning at birth, and ensure children’s optimal brain development as the foundation for future success in life. We need everyone to help spread this important message to more parents, educators, and policy makers.

Oregon Announces Preschool Promise Awardees

by CI Guest | Mar 23, 2016 | Early Works, Featured Programs, Grade Level Reading, Preschool

Oregon Announces Preschool Promise Awardees Last week, Oregon’s Early Learning Division announced their Preschool Promise award recommendations. The announcement marks an important step in the state’s process to increase publicly funded preschool opportunities for low-income children in Oregon. Preschool Promise, or House Bill 3380, was passed by the Oregon Legislature in 2015 with the goal of providing high-quality preschool in a variety of settings. Preschool Promise expands the types and number of providers that can receive funding for high-quality preschool programs in the state, and increases the number of families and children that are able to access the services. Early Learning Division staff estimate that the implementation of Preschool Promise will mean that approximately 1,300 more Oregon children will receive high-quality preschool in the 2016-2017 school year.

Gwyn Bachtle, an Early Learning Specialist in the Early Learning Division described the visionary goal of the new program as, “having children in programs that are quality-rated…and really working to increase the capacity of our communities.”

An award team, composed of state executive staff and three Early Learning Council members, reviewed applications from Early Learning hubs around the state. The hubs will be responsible for contracting with local providers and implementing the new preschool programming in their communities. Applications were evaluated based on demonstrated need; the capacity to support a mixed-delivery model; and the capacity to support high-quality preschool programs.

In total, ten hubs submitted a total of seven applications (one application was a joint application including multiple hubs) – with their combined requests reflecting the preschool needs of more than 2,600 children. Five of the seven applications were approved for funding, and these hubs will be working with the Early Learning Division closely in the upcoming weeks and months – gaining technical assistance and finalizing contracts with providers.

Awardees of 2016-17 Preschool Promise funding

Marion and Polk Early Learning Hub:
South-Central Oregon Early Learning Hub
Lane Early Learning Alliance
Southern Oregon Early Learning Hub
NW Regional Joint Application
NW Regional Early Learning Hub
Early Learning Washington County
Early Learning Multnomah
Clackamas Early Learning Hub

The Preschool Promise announcement is, as Molly Day, Early Learning Multnomah Director says, “a big deal. The state is deciding to invest in preschool, for its residents who are furthest from opportunity. Families in poverty, families that aren’t being served now…it is a lot of change all at once, and that makes it challenging, but it is a wonderful opportunity.”

“We hope this is just the beginning,” says Dana Hepper, Children’s Institute Director of Policy and Program. “There are many disadvantaged Oregon children who still lack access to high-quality preschool.” In fact, three-quarters of Oregon’s young children still don’t have access.

“The Children’s Institute is supporting the state to ensure successful implementation of Preschool Promise,” Hepper says. “We look forward to seeing the program grow.”

Three rural communities come together to create a vision for health

by CI Guest | Mar 3, 2016 | Health and Development

Andy Boe, Elkton School District Superintendent, and Scott Sublette, a leader in the Yoncalla community.

Dr. Beth Green, the researcher who leads the Portland State University team entrusted with the evaluation of the Early Works initiative, is walking down the street in rural Drain, Oregon when she is greeted by a stranger’s voice:

“Hey! Are you with that Ford Family project?”

Beth turns toward the voice; Dave Praeger gets out of his truck and introduces himself. They get to talking. In the back of his car, Dave has a large book named Yoncalla Yesterday. The book traces the history and genealogy of the small town which is the home of the Yoncalla Early Works initiative. Dave encourages Beth to keep the book, saying, “I know you’ll get it back to me somehow. And when you do, my number’s right inside.”

Beth recounts the story with a smile on her face – only here! Welcome to rural Oregon.

Fast forward one day to February 26th. Dave sat in the front row of the Drain Community Center, where the communities of Yoncalla, Drain, and Elkton came together to celebrate the kick-off of the region’s community health assessment. Over plates of lasagna, 50 community members reflected on what is known about the health of young children and their families in the region and to discuss can be done to improve the community’s health. The community health assessment is a first step to help the region understand it’s strengths, needs, resources and challenges when it comes to children’s health.

Conducting a community health assessment is a long-standing best practice in public health because it brings the voice of the community into visioning and planning. “Our goal is that the assessment findings will support the community to articulate a collective vision for health in the region,” says Elena Rivera, Children’s Institute’s Health Policy and Program Advisor. Along with members of the Yoncalla Early Works leadership team and researchers from Portland State University, Rivera is supporting the community health assessment process. “We know from research that the health of young children and their families has a huge impact on educational achievement,” she says, adding, “when a child grows up in a stable home and is connected to high quality health services, starting prenatally, they will be ready for success in school and life.” From this assessment, the Children’s Institute hopes to learn about the barriers communities face in meeting the health needs of families in rural communities. Our participation will inform our work with the legislature to strengthen the connection between early learning and health.

Erin Helgren, the Early Works Site Liaison in Yoncalla, opened the meeting by describing the tight-knit nature of the communities, and the common values that bind them together. “We are a community that holds children close to our hearts,” she said.

Although Drain, Elkton, and Yoncalla are in close proximity to each other geographically – and although they have a combined population of 5,000 – the three communities, as Yoncalla School District Superintendent Jan Zarate noted, “have never collaborated on something of this magnitude. A community health assessment to tell us about the wellness of our families is unprecedented.”

Attendees discuss why they care about the health of children in their community

Indeed, the attendance at the kick-off was broadly reflective of this new sense of collaboration. The room was filled with parents and family members, the three mayors of the communities, educational leaders from all three districts, and representatives from: North Douglas Family Relief Nursery, North Douglas Community Health Alliance, WIC, Healthy Families Oregon, Early Head Start, DHS Self-Sufficiency, South Central Early Learning Hub, and the Douglas County District Attorney’s office.

Representatives from the local school districts set the tone by emphasizing the connection between health in early childhood and later school success: “Finding kids sooner, capitalizing on what they need, and wrapping that service around them helps them succeed,” said Andy Boe, Elkton School District Superintendent.

An attendee adds her square to the health quilt.

As the meeting progressed, Callie Lambarth, a research associate for the Center for Improvement of Child & Family Services at PSU, underscored that the decision to undertake a community needs assessment will be just that – community-based. To this end, Callie led community members through a series of questions like, “Why do you care about the health of children 0-8 and their families in North Douglas County?” and “What does a healthy community look like to you?” As the table groups discussed these questions, they were encouraged to share their answers with the larger group and, in one exercise, were asked to visualize community health by drawing a picture on a square of paper. These squares were then placed together on a board to create a community health “quilt.” Themes that emerged included access to healthy food, health care, housing, safe outdoor spaces, and a caring, welcoming, and collaborative community.

The meeting ended with an interactive exploration (via bingo) of some existing health data for the region, and the identification of potential “gaps” in the data. Interested community members were then invited to participate in the design of a community health assessment – whether as a Steering Committee member, community meeting attendee, or simply to stay connected via email updates.

Following the community health assessment kick-off, Children’s Institute and PSU staff will reach out to community members who expressed an interest in serving on the community health assessment’s Steering Committee. The Steering Committee will then convene bi-monthly to determine the focus of the community health assessment. Members will review existing community health data, identify needs and gaps, determine research questions, and outline a research methodology and design. The second phase of the community health assessment will involve primary data collection conducted by community members to inform future health programming for the community.

No matter how community members choose to participate in the process moving forward, everyone who attended the February 26th kick off meeting left with a greater knowledge of health in the region, a budding vision for what a regional health collaboration could look like and – of course –a to-go box of full of delicious lasagna to share with their families.

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