Preschool
Highlights from the South Coast: Working Together for Kids and Families
CI staff and others visit the Lincoln School of Early Learning in Coquille, Oregon. On May 3 and 4, Miriam Calderon (director, Oregon Early Learning System), Martha Richards (executive director, James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation), and Ericka...
In Early Works, Data Empowers Parents to be Key Decision Makers
For our 23rd segment, we interviewed Dr. Marina Merrill from Children’s Institute (CI) and Dr. Beth Green from Portland State University (PSU). Dr. Merrill is the senior research and policy advisor for CI and leads the organization’s research on prenatal through...
In Yoncalla, Oregon, Community Comes Together to Build a New Preschool Playground
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...
Webinar: Creating Caring and Culturally Responsive PreK–3 Classrooms
“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...
The Impact of Early Childhood Education with Don Grotting
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...
Oregon’s Fastest Growing Population of Young Students: Dual Language and English Language Learners
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...
Advocacy in Action: Tips for Writing an Effective Letter to the Editor
We know that getting all kids off to a successful start in life requires a greater investment from the state; in a year when our lawmakers opted not to restore cuts made in 2017 to early childhood systems and programs, they need to hear from constituents that these...
Echo Shaw Prepares Children for Kindergarten in Two Languages
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...
Early Childhood Advocacy Day 2018
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...
A Vision for Early Learning in Oregon with Miriam Calderon
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...
