Preschool Promise Update: Mixed Delivery Reaches 1,300 Children

by Rafael Otto | Nov 2, 2016 | Featured Programs, Oregon Policy, Preschool, Preschool Landscape

Preschool Promise Update: Mixed Delivery Reaches 1,300 Children Preschool Promise, enacted by Oregon’s State Legislature in 2015, began serving approximately 1,300 children across the state in September. In its inaugural year, the program is designed to deliver high-quality early learning opportunities to families with incomes up to 200 percent of the Federal poverty threshold.

The goal of Preschool Promise is to reach all low-income children with high-quality preschool programs to close the achievement gap and improve school and life outcomes. When children are prepared for kindergarten with high-quality early education, they are more likely to be able to read at grade level at the end of third grade. Reading proficiency at the end of third grade is a key predictor of high school graduation.

When the Preschool Promise model was developed, Children’s Institute collaborated with a range of advocates to build a program based on national research, lessons learned from other states, and several quality indicators. These partners included the Oregon Head Start Association and the Oregon Early Learning Division. Today, Preschool Promise is an ambitious preschool model that gives Oregon a strong framework to build and deliver quality early learning that will change academic outcomes and close achievement gaps.

As the program launches, many questions remain about implementation, developing and sustaining quality, the role of mixed delivery, the role of the bachelor’s degree for lead teachers, and continued funding. Challenges in the first year of Preschool Promise are to be expected. But as Oregon pushes its early learning system to excel and reach more children and families, it can continue to learn from other states and its own communities about how to build and sustain a high-quality preschool system with an eye on tangible results.

Preschool Promise Update: Mixed Delivery Reaches 1,300 Children Children’s Institute is closely tracking Preschool Promise implementation and will explore a range of issues related to building high-quality preschool programs in Oregon. Over the coming months, stay tuned for articles examining pay equity for the preschool workforce, strengthening workforce diversity, implementation through mixed delivery, and the impact on families and communities.

The Early Link Podcast: Discussing Oregon’s Preschool Landscape with Swati Adarkar

Yoncalla Elementary Offers High-Quality Preschool for 20 Children

Preschool Promise: High-Quality Preschool for More Kids in Oregon

Suggestions, comments, or questions? Email communications@childinst.org

First Things First: An Interview with Ruby Takanishi

by Rafael Otto | Oct 31, 2016 | Oregon Policy, Podcast, Preschool Landscape, School Readiness

In this installment of the Early Link Podcast, we speak with Ruby Takanishi about her new book First Things First: Creating the New American Primary School. In the interview, Takanishi says, “primary education today reflects the social and economic divides in our country.” While some children in the United States are getting an outstanding world class education, many more children are in danger of being left behind. She describes early education efforts as essential to closing opportunity gaps, “the civil and human rights challenge of our times.”

Transcript (PDF)

Takanishi also describes a new model for American primary school: it starts at age three, it’s voluntary and universally available regardless of family resources, and is offered for a full school day. Compulsory full-day education would begin at age five, a shift for most states. That realignment would mean changes in school culture, principal leadership, curriculum, and continuous learning.

In addition to sharing insights about reimagining public education, Takanishi discusses inequalities in education based on a variety of interconnected factors: varied state investments and strategies, declining federal investments in children and families, and the changing roles of parents, families, and communities in the public school system. She also provides advice for Oregon in building a stronger early learning system, and much more.

First Things First: Creating the New American Primary School also highlights Children’s Institute’s Early Works initiative as a community-driven, data-informed approach that brings partners to the table, especially families. A core principle of Early Works is to connect practice to policy while working to evolve early learning programs.

About Ruby Takanishi

Ruby Takanishi is senior research fellow in the Early and Elementary Education Policy division at New America in Washington, DC. She received her PhD from Stanford University and taught at UCLA, Teachers College at Columbia University, Yale University, and Bank Street College. Takanishi was the was the president and CEO of the Foundation for Child Development, a grantmaking philanthropy that launched the pre-K-3rd movement in 2003, and executive director of the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development of Carnegie Corporation of New York, which issued landmark reports on middle school reform, youth development in out-of-school settings, and adolescent health. She chaired the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine consensus committee on the education of dual-language learners from birth to age 18. She has received awards from the American Psychological Association, the American Sociological Association (Division of Children and Families), and the Society for Research in Child Development in recognition of her contribution to connecting research with public policies. The American Education Research Association honored her with its 2014 Distinguished Public Service Award.

To see more interviews and panel conversations featuring Ruby and her new book, visit the New America website.

Discussing Oregon’s Preschool Landscape with Swati Adarkar

by Rafael Otto | Oct 12, 2016 | Oregon Policy, Podcast, Preschool Landscape, School Readiness

Children’s Institute is excited to introduce the first installment of the Early Link Podcast, featuring an interview with our president and CEO, Swati Adarkar. Focused on Oregon’s early learning system and the state’s new preschool program called Preschool Promise, this segment explores what’s happening as the program launches.

Preschool Promise is part of an effort to help Oregon change the trajectory for vulnerable children and families by offering free, full-day, high-quality preschool to families at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty threshold. Programs just came online last month, and Oregon now has 93 sites serving 1,300 children in 14 counties.

Children’s Institute, along with its partners, played a key role in passing the legislation in 2015 and is actively involved in looking at issues of implementation.

Swati Adarkar, president and CEO of Children’s Institute, has played a pivotal role in creating meaningful change for Oregon’s most vulnerable children. She has helped bring together public and private partners to create a groundswell of momentum around increasing investments in programs and systems spanning the prenatal through third-grade early learning continuum (P-3). Learn more about Swati.

Interview Highlights

1:09 Introducing Oregon’s preschool landscape

2:40 More than 30,000 low-income kids don’t have access to high-quality preschool

3:43 What does high-quality preschool mean?

5:35 The ongoing debate about the bachelor’s degree requirement in Preschool Promise

8:30 Alternate pathways to the BA

10:16 Professional development that links preschool and K-3

12:11 Creating continuity and quality using mixed delivery and ensuring parent choice

12:55 The role of the Kindergarten Partnership and Innovation Fund

14:47 Kindergarten classrooms have students with a wide range of skills

16:40 The need for a different approach to family engagement

17:25 The Early Works community

20:00 Preschool Promise legislation is designed to stabilize the early learning field

22:02 The long-term vision for Preschool Promise

25:00 Third grade as a predictor for high school graduation

25:20 What can early learning advocates do?

27:22 A challenging legislative year ahead whether or not Measure 97 passes

In our next segment, we’ll be talking with Ruby Takanishi about her new book, First Things First! Creating the New American Primary School.

Stay tuned!

Earl Boyles Builds Literacy with Multnomah County Library Partnership

by Rafael Otto | Sep 19, 2016 | 3rd Grade Reading, Early Works, Grade Level Reading, School Readiness, Successful Students

Earl Boyles Builds Literacy with Multnomah County Library Partnership Access to books and time to read are essential for kids who want to explore, learn, and build their literacy skills. That’s why the Multnomah County Library (MCL) established a Lending Library at Earl Boyles Elementary in Southeast Portland — to provide a free resource for young readers and their families that removes barriers to books and reading.

Considered a demonstration site, the Lending Library began three years ago with a grant from The Library Foundation and 2,500 hundred books. MCL moved forward with the initiative after learning about Early Works, an initiative launched by Children’s Institute with key partners including the David Douglas School District, Mt. Hood Community College Head Start, and Multnomah Early Childhood Program. MCL recognized an opportunity to serve the community with a unique public school partnership, impact early literacy in a high-needs community, and bring books directly to students and families.

Increasing the number of books in the home is associated with improved literacy rates, and reaching 26 books or more in a household correlates with higher academic achievement in later years. Evaluations of the Earl Boyles community beginning in 2011 indicated a lack of books in the homes of kindergarteners. Today, the number of kindergarteners’ homes with more than 26 books has increased from 47 percent in 2011 to 74 percent in 2014.

While the Lending Library now offers books for students of all ages and includes some parent resources, the collection focuses on books for children ages 0-5 and is meant to get more adults reading with young learners. This activity — adults reading with children every day — increases language and literacy development, particularly during the crucial years of brain development prior to kindergarten.

Earl Boyles Builds Literacy with Multnomah County Library Partnership “This kind of effort is more than providing access to books, it’s about what can happen with access,” says Katie O’Dell, the youth services director at Multnomah County Library. “Improving knowledge about school, culture, and health, building literacy and creativity, establishing relationships with trusted teachers… these are all results of immersing kids with lots of quality books.”

MCL chose the first supply of books carefully and worked to represent the families served by Early Works and Earl Boyles. With diverse, multicultural themes, the books portray a range of cultures, languages, and stories to strengthen the connection between the school, library, and community.

Ranked as one of the top libraries in the U.S., MCL has a strong track record of supporting efforts to stimulate reading and embraces the five principles of early literacy: read, talk, sing, play, and write. These provided the framework for a family breakfast series last year hosted by Children’s Institute that explored ways for parents and families to build literacy using each of the principles.

Parents and families, in fact, are essential to the success of the Lending Library. A handful of parents from the Parents United Group at Earl Boyles maintain the library and help coordinate activities with AmeriCorps volunteers and Schools Uniting Neighborhoods (SUN) staff. Last year, they scheduled weekly story times in both English and Spanish.

Renea Arnold, Every Child initiative supervisor at MCL, says the Lending Library has increased parent involvement in the school. “Placed right in the lobby of the school, it serves as a living room, a welcoming family space. Parents can come and support their child’s learning right at school.”

Earl Boyles Builds Literacy with Multnomah County Library Partnership Students and families can take books home whenever they wish; no library card is needed and there is no due date. The collection is well-used and continues to grow, thanks to ongoing support from the Library Foundation and MCL’s supply of books that exit the library system.

“Kids are always taking books home,” says Youn Sun Han, the SUN coordinator for the school. “They often bring them back and take new ones. But if we see the supply dwindling we get more.”

O’Dell says reading will come to kids if they are surrounded by great materials. “We can always get more books, and we’re committed to providing a plethora of high-quality choices.”

But what makes the Lending Library special is the network of supporters working to establish a culture of literacy at the school, one that depends on deep collaboration and collective efforts to address learning gaps in the early years for a high-needs community such as Earl Boyles.

“We’re along for the ride,” says O’Dell. “We like to reinvent how MCL reaches our audiences, and this is a great example of how to surround people with books and help open doors for people to explore and learn.”

Summer Reading at Earl Boyles Strengthens Literacy in Young Learners

by Rafael Otto | Aug 15, 2016 | 3rd Grade Reading, Early Works, Featured Programs, Parents and Families, School Readiness, Successful Students

Second graders improve their literacy skills with the four-week Summer Bookworm program each summer at Earl Boyles.

The Summer Bookworm collaborative reading program at Earl Boyles Elementary in southeast Portland just finished its fifth summer as a skill-building resource for some of the school’s earliest readers. It’s become a key component of the growing culture of literacy at the school, which supports a variety of language-rich activities and programming throughout the school year.

Having served nearly 120 students since 2012, Summer Bookworm engages kids entering second grade and helps them return to school with stronger literacy and comprehension skills. This targeted intervention is especially important for low-income children who are at greater risk of falling behind in skill growth over the summer — what researcher’s call the “summer slide.”

Skill gaps that develop at the rate of two to four months per year result in significant achievement gaps over time compared to middle- and upper-income students, who typically continue to gain skills during summer breaks.

Poor reading skills, when combined with other factors like poverty or housing insecurity, negatively impact academic achievement. The Summer Bookworm program helps young learners meet crucial third-grade reading targets that are strong indicators for future academic success. Third-graders who don’t read at grade level are four times more likely to exit high school without graduating.

Summer Bookworm began five years ago as an Early Works collaboration to bring in programming and other contributions from entities and groups outside the school and the David Douglas School District. The Schools Uniting Neighborhoods (SUN) program coordinates the summer reading activities at Earl Boyles (among a host of other summer enrichment opportunities) and connects families to the program based on teacher referrals. Reading Results, extending their year-round reading intervention program, provides skill assessments, Common Core-aligned curriculum, and paid tutors from the school and community. Start Making a Reader Today (SMART) contributes volunteer tutors who offer one-on-one instruction and support for students. The Children’s Book Bank donates books.

Jennifer Samuels from Reading Results says participating students typically make four to five months of reading gains in a program like Summer Bookworm. “They come back to school stronger than when they left and they don’t experience the summer slide.”

Improving language and literacy: “Thumbs up if you know the word!”

Beyond gains in reading skills, the program builds reading confidence and comprehension, increases positive engagement with the school, tutors, and teachers, results in improved reading at home, and helps build the foundation for continued lifelong learning.

“It’s also an opportunity to offer parents information about the summer slide,” says Michelle Gilmore from SMART, “and encourages their participation in improving literacy.” Gilmore says there is great enthusiasm for the program; students and SMART’s volunteer tutors really enjoy the experience.

Ericka Guynes, principal at Earl Boyles Elementary, says the partnerships with other organizations focused on reading and literacy have been essential. “A coordinated vision for improving literacy before third grade and unity around this effort has had a tremendous impact on the school. Summer Bookworm is building skills for individual students and improving how our school community views literacy.”

Other schools have noticed the culture shift at Earl Boyles and recognize the importance of summer literacy efforts to improve grade-level reading. These efforts also require resources, partnerships, and a continuous commitment to keeping literacy activities central to school culture.

Guynes reminds that intensive interventions like Summer Bookworm are effective, require hard work, and still don’t reach all the kids in need. “It’s important to stay energized about reading and keep families and students engaged in literacy efforts throughout the year. I would love to see summer reading programs engage more kids in more schools to keep us moving forward on literacy gains.”

FURTHER READING FROM CHILDREN'S INSTITUTE

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