According to Eric Gustafson, “schools are the heart of rural communities,” providing a place for all members of the town to come together. Eric should know. He lives in Yoncalla, a town of just over a thousand people in Douglas County and serves on the school...
Principal Kelly Soter of Jackson Elementary in Medford, Oregon continually looks for ways to promote reading for her community’s youngest learners. This year, she pulled together a team of volunteers to participate in the annual Pear Blossom Parade held on April 14...
“To change the outcomes, we have to change the experiences.” – Dr. Sharon Ritchie Join us for a free webinar exploring strategies to create culturally responsive and emotionally supportive preK–grade 3 classrooms for children from diverse racial and...
Don Grotting is the superintendent of the Beaverton School District. For more than 20 years, he has led school districts in rural and urban communities across Oregon. Grotting has received several awards and accolades for his work and leadership, including 2014...
Over the past few weeks, we have examined on our blog and podcast the challenges and opportunities of educating dual language and English language learners and highlighted the dual language Preschool Promise classes offered at Echo Shaw Elementary...
In our 20th podcast, we sat down with Ruby Takanishi, co-editor of the NASEM report Promising Futures: Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth Learning English; Maria Adams, language development specialist for the David...
According to the Migration Policy Institute, 28 percent of children under the age of 5 in Oregon are dual language learners (DLLs). Since 2000, Oregon’s young DLL population has increased by 32 percent, compared with 24 percent nationally. A recent report by the...
Echo Shaw’s full-day preschool teacher, Cesiah Vega Lopez, gets her students organized in the gym. Five years ago, educators at Echo Shaw Elementary School, 24 miles west of Portland, worried their students would be overwhelmed by the state’s new, more...
Kelli Stevens speaks with House Speaker Kotek about Preschool Promise. Kelli Stevens, a mother with three children ages 5, 3, and 1, made the two-hour trip from her home in Yoncalla to the state capitol in Salem on Monday to join a coalition of early childhood...
Miriam Calderon is the early learning system director of the Early Learning Division in the Oregon Department of Education. Before returning to Oregon in 2017 to lead the division, she helped build a birth-to-three system and universal preschool for the District of...
