In 2022-2023, Children’s Institute (CI) worked with Promise Venture Studio to explore how to scale the Early Learning Academy, CI's training platform for strengthening early learning in school districts in Oregon. Through an 18-week Promising Ventures Fellowship, this opportunity supported growth-stage equity-driven ventures focused on making a difference in the lives of children prenatal to age 5, and their families and caregivers.
Creating excellent early care and learning opportunities for children begins by supporting the skilled educators and caregivers behind the work. Too often, inadequate working environments and poor compensation cause significant difficulties for those trying to offer the best quality education and care. These conditions have been overlooked in the past despite their direct impact on skill development, teaching effectiveness, and well-being of providers and children. But with sustainable support strategies and in-depth analysis of areas in need of improvement, Oregon can transform the working environments of early educators for the better.
“I think we need to change our view of parents from being 'extra work for teachers' to 'assets to the classroom community'," said one attendee of last week's Early Learning Academy, which brought together district teams from around the state to examine their...
As Oregon schools prepare to move into the fall of 2021, the Early School Success team at CI is planning its first ever Early Learning Academy, inviting district teams from around the state to examine educational transitions through an anti-bias lens, with a focus...
Despite ample research showing that high-quality inclusive settings support children's learning and development, children with disabilities are still not reliably included in many preschool programs. In fact, there has been virtually no improvement in this area...
In this week’s episode, host Rafael Otto speaks with Hadiyah Miller, president of the Oregon Association for the Education of Young Children (ORAEYC) and chairperson of Black Child Development PDX, about combating the expulsion and suspension of Black children in...
Karen Twain is the director of programs at Children’s Institute, overseeing our Early Works initiative in Yoncalla, Oregon and Southeast Portland, and CI’s newly launched Early School Success program. A career educator, Twain was most recently the assistant...
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,...
Deborah Leong is professor emerita of psychology at Metropolitan State University of Denver where she taught for 37 years. She is co-founder and executive director of Tools of the Mind, a curriculum and professional development program that was developed more that...
Photo of the Snake River near Ontario, Oregon, in Malheur County. Photo credit: Ken Lund For the last three years, educators from Malheur County and the surrounding communities have attended the Malheur Summer Institute for professional development. The Institute...
