Dr. Carlos Crespo on COVID-19 and Community Impact

by Rafael Otto | Mar 23, 2020 | Podcast, Health and Development, Oregon Policy, COVID-19

In this week’s episode, host Rafael Otto talks with Dr. Carlos Crespo about COVID-19 and the impact on families and communities.

Note: This is a developing story and some things may have changed since the date of recording. Check the CDC’s website for updates and best practices on how to stay healthy.

Dr. Carlos Crespo is a community health professor at the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health. His main area of research involves the epidemiology of physical activity in the prevention of chronic diseases and research on minority health issues.

Student Success Act: A Look Ahead to 2020

by Rafael Otto | Feb 10, 2020 | Podcast, Policy Trends, Preschool, Successful Students

In this week’s episode, we discuss the Student Success Act implementation with Scott Nine from the Oregon Department of Education; Parasa Chanramy, Policy and Implementation Director at Stand for Children; and our own Dana Hepper, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Children’s Institute.

Nine, assistant superintendent at ODE’s Office of Education Innovation and Improvement, leads the stewardship of funds from the Student Investment Account (SIA) under the Student Success Act.

Chanramy shares her thoughts on the SSA in the context of another major funding win for education, passage of Measure 98 in 2016. The measure, championed by Stand for Children, has been credited for helping boost Oregon’s graduation rate to an all time high last year.

Hepper gives listeners a preview of the Early Learning Account’s impact on existing programs and program expansion.

Soobin Oh Discusses Anti-Bias Education in Early Childhood

by Rafael Otto | Jan 30, 2020 | Podcast, Professional Learning, Research and Evaluation, Equity

In this week’s episode, we speak with Soobin Oh about the importance of anti-bias education in early childhood. Soobin Oh is the senior education advisor at Children’s Institute. He is a committed social justice educator and is well-versed in anti-bias education, culturally sustaining pedagogy, and critical pedagogy. Soobin holds a master’s in early childhood inclusive curriculum and instruction from Portland State University (PSU) and is working towards his Ed.D. in curriculum and instruction at PSU with a research focus on social justice in early childhood education.

Definitions:

Institutional Bias is the tendency of institutions to advantage and favor certain groups of people while other groups are disadvantaged or devalued.

Explicit Bias is attitudes and beliefs of individuals about other people or groups of people on a conscious level.

Implicit Bias is attitudes and beliefs of individuals about other people or groups of people on an unconscious level. Implicit bias is a problem for educators because it can come into play in a classroom without intent.

A Tourist Curriculum is a superficial educational approach that does not make diversity a routine part of the ongoing, daily learning environment. Instead, it is curriculum that “drops in” on strange, exotic people to see their holidays and taste their foods, and then returns to the “real” world of “regular” life. Essentially it treats non-western cultures as “other.”

Rob Grunewald on the Economic Impact of Early Childhood Investments

by Rafael Otto | Jan 13, 2020 | Podcast, Federal Policy, National Research

In this episode of The Early Link Podcast, we speak with Rob Grunewald, an economist who advocates for investments in early childhood programs and services.

Rob Grunewald is an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. He conducts research on community development and regional economic issues and co-authored a report called “Early Childhood Development: Economic Development with a High Public Return.”

Background

There are 12 Federal Reserve banks in the US, and the Minneapolis Federal Reserve serves Minnesota, northern WI and MI, Dakotas, and Montana. The mission of the Federal Reserve banks is to provide the nation with stable monetary policy and a safe and flexible financial system. This includes deciding which investments will have the most positive effect on the local economy.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis’ interest in supporting early childhood development programs is important because these programs are rarely portrayed as economic development initiatives. If such programs exist they are usually at the bottom of the economic development lists for state and local governments. However, research has shown that is a mistake. Early childhood development programs should be at the top of the list. Most of the numerous projects and initiatives that state and local governments fund in the name of creating new private businesses and new jobs result in few public benefits. In contrast, studies liked the ones cited in Grunewald’s report find that well-focused investments in early childhood development yield high public as well as private returns.

2019 Year in Review

by Rafael Otto | Dec 23, 2019 | Podcast, News, Preschool

2019 has been an incredible year for early childhood. We recorded 13 episodes of The Early Link podcast this year. For this, our 14th show, we review some of the common themes shared by our many esteemed guests, and share what’s on our minds as we move into 2020. This is our final Early Link podcast of the year, a 2019 year in review and look ahead to 2020.