Early Works Families to Visit Umpqua Community Health Center

by Melissa Duclos | Jul 25, 2019 | CI in the News

News Radio 1240 KQEN reported today on an upcoming visit to the newly opened North Douglas County Family Medicine Clinic. Families participating in our Early Works initiative at Yoncalla Elementary School will visit the clinic on August 1.

Umpqua Community Health Center said the tours are designed to provide health and wellness education, dampen fears commonly associated with clinic visits, and create awareness in the community for services that are offered at the facility. That clinic opened up earlier this month to address unmet healthcare needs in the region, according to the release.

UCHC’s Outreach and Enrollment staff will also be on hand to serve as a resource for community members who do not currently have health insurance to assist them with sign up.

KC Bolton, CEO of UCHC said the opportunity to interact with families is “yet another chance for us to engage, educate and in many ways demystify the experience patients have when they walk through our doors”.

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.”

Connecting Health and Education: 2019 Policy Brief

by Rafael Otto | Dec 20, 2018 | CI Publications

Connecting Health and Education This policy brief explains the social determinants of health and the connections between health and education. Oregon needs public health, health care, and education systems that work together to create the best possible conditions for young children to thrive.

The state must make connections between the transformation efforts happening in its health and education systems, within its coordinated care organizations (CCOs), and at the community level with programs like Early Works.

Our 2019 policy recommendations for the state include ensuring CCOs target social determinants of health to change health and education outcomes.

Read and download the policy brief

Read our complete 2019 policy agenda

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Q&A: A Preschool Teacher in SE Portland, in Her Own Words

by Melissa Duclos | Jul 12, 2018 | Early Works, Featured Programs, School Readiness, Teacher Voice

This summer Children’s Institute is highlighting the important work of early childhood educators teaching preschool through third grade. In this series of profiles, teachers from across the state tell us why they teach young children, what they wish people knew about their work, and what they’ve learned in their jobs.

Andreina Velasco Reflects on the Value of Community and a Supportive Administration

Andreina Velasco is a preschool teacher at Earl Boyles Elementary School. The Earl Boyles preschool offers publicly funded preschool to all children in the school’s catchment area. As part of the Early Works initiative, the program provides families with children from birth to grade three with learning opportunities, health and housing supports, and other resources.

Why do you teach preschool?

I was working at Children’s Institute as the Early Works site liaison and before that the family engagement coordinator, so I had a strong connection with the Earl Boyles community, school, and program. What drew me to teach preschool here was that community—the families, the staff, the strong partnerships between them, and the positive learning environment they’ve created. Preschool is the first connection between children and families and the formal education system, at least here at Earl Boyles, because all kids have access to public preschool. That inspires me because it means that I can be the first positive connection between children and families and the school. I want to make sure that it’s a really affirming, validating, and positive experience for everyone, so that further on in their academic careers they have that as a baseline.

Preschool—at least the way it’s structured here—also allows time and space to partner with families a lot more, which is a part of the job that I really appreciate. We have time for home visits, and to develop curriculum that is responsive to the children’s and the families’ interests. All those factors really inspire me to teach preschool here. I don’t know if that’s the case in all settings, so that’s why I specify that it’s here at Earl Boyles that I’m really interested in teaching preschool, because of those strong partnerships and the time and space given to develop them.

What is one thing about your job you wish people knew?

I always say that it’s the best teaching job in the world. I have so much support in the classroom. I have two incredible assistants who are highly skilled educators, reflective of the community: one is a mom in the school and the other was a student in the school and has siblings here, and we’re all women of color. Having their support in the classroom is phenomenal, as well as the administrative support from [Principal] Ericka [Guynes], who is very responsive to our teaching needs. What I would really want people to know, then, is that teachers can be very happy in their roles if they are supported by their administration and their district. This support allows us to be a fully inclusive environment for kids with special needs, and to serve a highly diverse population in terms of cultural backgrounds, ethnicities, and socioeconomic status. We can have that kind of environment if teachers are really well-supported.

“What I would really want people to know, then, is that teachers can be very happy in their roles if they are supported by their administration and their district.”

Can you describe a learning experience you’ve had that has impacted your teaching?

This year we’ve been starting to think about equity and culturally responsive practices, and I read an article that Children’s Institute published about preschool expulsions. It was shocking for me that the rates of expulsion are so high, especially for African American boys. Learning that really impacted me, motivating me to do a lot of internal work and start leading work among our staff so that doesn’t happen here—to any of our kids, but specifically to African American boys. I want to make sure they come to school and have a very positive and affirming experience.

For more from teachers in their own words, check out our Q&A with Megan Barber, the lead teacher and director of the preschool at the Early Works site in Yoncalla, Oregon.

In Early Works, Data Empowers Parents to be Key Decision Makers

by Rafael Otto | May 21, 2018 | Benefits of Preschool, Early Works, Podcast, Program Evaluation

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 third-grade issues, evaluation, data collection, and analysis. Dr. Green is a research professor and the director of early childhood and family support research at the Center for the Improvement of Child and Family Services at PSU. Our discussion focused on the Early Works initiative, a 10-year initiative working in two Oregon communities: Yoncalla Elementary in Yoncalla which is in Douglas County and Earl Boyles Elementary in Portland in Multnomah County. The project was set up to explore and demonstrate a new approach to education and healthy development for young children and began in 2010.