On Effective Preschool with Dr. Christina Weiland

by Rafael Otto | Sep 16, 2019 | Podcast, Preschool Landscape

In this episode of The Early Link podcast, we speak with Dr. Christina Weiland, assistant professor at the School of Education at the University of Michigan. Dr. Weiland’s research focuses on the effects of early childhood interventions and public policies on children’s development, especially on children from low-income families. She is particularly interested in the active ingredients that drive children’s gains in successful, at-scale public preschool programs. Her work is also characterized by strong, long-standing research collaborations with practitioners, particularly the Boston Public Schools Department of Early Childhood. Dr. Weiland is also an author of book Cradle to Kindergarten: A New Plan to Combat Inequality.

In this conversation, we take a look at what it would mean for the U.S. to invest in a system that serves children under 5, with high-quality care and preschool programs available to parents who choose to access them. Thus far, Dr. Weiland points out, individual cities like Washington D.C. and Boston have been leading the way on effective preschool programming, but political will across the country is growing to ensure access to high-quality early education doesn’t depend on where you live.

We also discuss the features of high-quality preschool programs that are responsive to the way young children learn and aligned with elementary school. Finally, Dr. Weiland shares her views on the early childhood landscape here in Oregon.

Multnomah County Commissioner Discusses Preschool For All

by Rafael Otto | Aug 27, 2019 | Podcast, Oregon Research, Preschool Landscape

Oregon is the fourth least affordable state when it comes to preschool. State and federal funding provide preschool for only those families in deepest poverty, reaching only 15 percent of 3- and 4-year-olds in Multnomah County.

Last fall, Multnomah County Commissioner Jessica Vega Pederson convened a task force to develop a road map for overcoming the barriers to providing universal preschool in Multnomah County. The task Force met from September 2018 through July 2019. In this episode of our podcast, we speak with Commissioner Pederson about the Preschool For All task force report, released this summer. Tune in to learn more about the task force’s recommendations to expand preschool access across Multnomah County for the thousands of children who are not currently being served.

Read the Report

Community Efforts Deliver New Health Clinic to North Douglas County

by Rafael Otto | Aug 13, 2019 | Podcast, Health and Development, Parents and Families

The Early Link Podcast is moving to the radio! We’re excited to join the Podcast Co-Op hosted by the Portland Radio Project (PRP). We’ll be airing new episodes on the second and fourth Sundays of the month at 4:30pm.

In our first episode for PRP, we traveled to the city of Drain, Oregon in Douglas County, where a new health clinic has just opened, thanks to lots of community-based work involving schools, parents, and advocates in the region. The North County Health Clinic is operated by the Umpqua Community Health Center based in Roseburg.

We visited the clinic during their recent open house. We wanted to find out what it took to open the clinic, and why the community was motivated to do so. We spoke with several people from the Umpqua Community Health Center, also known as UCHC: Ruth Galster, the UCHC board chair, Mark Tsuchiya, the UCHC marketing and development director, and Kendra Bickham, a grant writer at UCHC and member of the Early Works leadership team at Yoncalla Elementary. I also spoke with Sara Ruiz Weight, a parent leader at Early Works, and Andy Boe, the superintendent for the Elkton School District.

2019 Legislative Recap

by Rafael Otto | Jul 3, 2019 | Podcast, Oregon Policy, Policy Trends

Dana Hepper from Children’s Institute and James Barta from Children First for Oregon provide a legislative recap to close out the 2019 session. In this segment, they discuss the final days that resulted in passage of nearly 150 bills, including all remaining bills from the Early Childhood Coalition legislative agenda. Among the highlights are bills that fund universally available voluntary home visiting and create a task force on child care. Oregon also passed HB 2005 which creates a paid family and medical leave insurance program by 2023.

While the 2019 legislative session resulted in historic investments in children and families, Dana and James reflect on the work ahead. That includes advocacy efforts to support the Student Success Act. The way in which this bill is funded will likely be referred to voters in January 2020. It also includes the work of implementing new programs, a focus on ensuring program quality, and continued advocacy in the months and years ahead.

Listen here:

Early School Success: Bridging the Early Years, Early Grades

by Rafael Otto | Jun 10, 2019 | Preschool, Successful Students, Early School Success

As Swati Adarkar, Children’s Institute’s (CI) president and CEO, reflected on her organization’s experience with Early Works—an initiative launched in 2010 that set out to improve the learning experiences for children before they enter kindergarten—she found that the work had fundamentally transformed CI.

“Early Works helped CI shift from a more traditional advocacy organization into one committed to better understanding the policies and strategies for which it was advocating,” Adarkar said. “That included building partnerships with schools, families, and communities to go deep in the work, to help us get clear on what works and what the field needs.”

Early Works helped CI discover the growing interest among elementary educators in strengthening the connection to early learning strategies like preschool and improving how they engaged with parents. This led to the development of Early School Success (ESS)—the next iteration of CI’s work to transform educational practice in the early years.

In 2010, CI introduced Early Works, a learning laboratory for innovative practices in early education. The first site, at Earl Boyles Elementary School in Southeast Portland, was created in partnership with Mt. Hood Community College Head Start, the Multnomah Early Childhood Program, and the David Douglas School District. In 2012, the Ford Family Foundation and CI partnered with the Yoncalla School District to launch a site in Douglas County. Early Works has helped to inspire new public and private funding, as well as drive policy changes in the care and education of young children in Oregon.

An Evolving Approach

“What we kept seeing and hearing from families was that once you’ve experienced a high-quality early learning environment, once you’ve been a part of a highly-engaged parent and school community, it’s really difficult to accept anything less,” says Dr. Marina Merrill, CI’s director of research and evaluation.

CI wanted to ensure that the social-emotional, academic, and other gains that students and families achieved in high-quality early learning environments from birth to 5 were preserved and built upon as they moved into the elementary school years.

“Right now, we have these different worlds—preschool and K–5—that typically don’t align or integrate. But the science of learning tells us children need seamless learning experiences from birth into the elementary years,” said Adarkar.

The number of school districts and communities working to strengthen early learning has been growing. This includes more parents and educators working together to address learning as children move into kindergarten and through school.

“It’s complex work,” Adarkar said. “It takes time, but it’s also helped us discover what’s needed for schools, districts, kids, and families.”

Among the needs: a common language to help define the need and importance of early learning, more professional learning, a focus on instruction, and concentrated efforts to connect the early years to the early grades.

Grounded in Research

True to its research-based origins, CI spent time drinking deeply from the well of existing knowledge about how best to support early learning across preschool and the early grades. In 2016, CI conducted an analysis of Oregon’s existing preschool landscape. In 2018, staff crisscrossed the country visiting school districts leading the way to align and integrate preschool with elementary education. Educators, parents, and community partners continued to inform and advise as the design for ESS began to take shape.

“Ultimately, we found no magic curriculum. No magic program,” said Soobin Oh, senior early education advisor at CI. “[Success] was always driven by a community coming together with a focus on instruction and classroom practices. A huge part of this work is about collaborating and problem solving with communities.”

In deciding to forge its own path, rather than simply adopting or applying an existing program, CI is creating a unique opportunity for school districts to learn, evolve, and contribute to improving education in Oregon and across the U.S.

Collaborative in Design

ESS challenges participants to engage in a conceptual re-imagining of the educational experience for young children, not just in preschool, but also as they move into and through their early elementary school years.

“The approach is really designed to foster a learning partnership between all the different stakeholders that affect and are affected by early years and early grades learning,” says Oh.

CI will bring professional development, coaching, and facilitation resources to work with districts on the issues they decide are most impactful to achieving a seamless and integrated early education experience for students and families.

The goal of ESS is to connect preschool and elementary as one continuous high-quality learning experience for district communities using these six components:

Two pilot districts chosen in May 2019—Beaverton and Forest Grove—will begin the initial phase of Early School Success. In year three of the five-year initiative, two additional Oregon school districts will be added.

Driven by Communities

This fall, a team of educators, administrators, parents, and other community partners in the two pilot districts will start to assess community needs and then develop a plan to address them.

In addition, the districts chosen will engage in cross-district professional learning as well as incorporate family and community engagement with the goal of continuous improvement over time.

Bridging two previously disconnected areas of instructional practice is something even veteran teachers and administrators may not have experience doing. It is especially challenging to explain that strategy to parents who are just entering the preschool and elementary education years. In some cases, families may have little to no experience in the U.S. education system at all.

The staff, parents, and partners of the Early Works sites, with nearly a decade of expertise in doing this work, will play a key advisory and participatory role. ESS aims to broaden its reach across the state and beyond so all children enjoy a smooth transition between preschool and the early grades.

“We have set up a structure that is grounded in values that are fundamental for transformational change,” says Dr. Merrill. “There is a real sense of openness and so many directions that districts can go in from there. We are so excited to begin this work.”