Early Learning as a Strategy for Achieving Equity

Early Learning as a Strategy for Achieving EquityThe United States is increasingly a nation of extremes with growing wealth and opportunity for some, and declining wealth and opportunity for many others. These stark social and economic inequalities are clearly reflected in how we educate our children.

Some students receive a world class education from preschool through college. But far too many children are receiving an outdated education, one that will leave them behind in a competitive world, and will continue to reinforce achievement and opportunity gaps for multiple generations.

Ruby Takanishi, senior research fellow at New America and author of the book First Things First! Creating the New American Primary School, calls our educational inequalities the “civil and human rights challenge of our time.” These differences in opportunity, learning, and school preparedness begin as early as birth and are firmly entrenched as children enter kindergarten. They are also particularly intractable because they are connected to socio-economic conditions that impact families and communities, especially low-income children and children of color.

In this context, it’s important to understand that learning begins at birth and children experience their most profound cognitive, social, and emotional growth during their first eight years. Decades of research demonstrates that experiences shape our brains, and the quality of early learning experiences establishes the foundation for all future learning.

It is also true that advantage and disadvantage accumulate over time, and that for those who begin their lives furthest from opportunity our educational institutions and systems have very little to offer to help them catch up with their more advantaged peers.

This reality is especially acute in a state like Oregon, where the high school graduation rate is among the worst in the country. At the same time, we know that third grade reading proficiency is an excellent predictor of high school completion — students who do not read proficiently by the end of third grade are four times less likely to graduate from high school than proficient readers. Fewer than 50 percent of all third graders in Oregon are proficient in reading.

While action is necessary in middle and high school to improve graduation rates, it simply isn’t enough. Directing energy and investments toward early childhood can give children the foundation they need to succeed academically, graduate from high school, and improve their economic stability and health outcomes down the road.

If we’re serious about equitable high-quality education for all children beginning in preschool, we need to address gaps and differences in early opportunities right now. This can include new or retooled state and federal investments, cross-sector partnerships, collaboration with long-standing programs such as Head Start, research-based planning, nonprofit advocacy and much more.

Five Early Learning Innovations in Oregon

The following examples reflect efforts to build an effective, high-quality early learning system that meets the needs of the state’s diverse communities:

  1. Early Learning Hubs: Created in 2013, Oregon’s Early Learning Hubs were created to establish an aligned, coordinated, and family-centered early childhood system to ensure children arrive at school ready to succeed. Using a collective impact model, the hubs engage early learning, health, human services, K-12 education, and private sector partners to work on common goals. Select hubs execute the state’s new preschool program, Preschool Promise.
  2. Kindergarten Partnership and Innovation Fund: Also created in 2013, this fund connects the early years to the early grades and provides community-level supports based on community needs and resource assessments. Funding allows for family engagement, kindergarten transition supports, and professional development programming. It also allows the Early Learning Hubs to work toward reaching all 3-5-year-olds in their service area with kindergarten preparedness curriculum focusing on math, literacy, and social emotional skill development. Importantly, it allows local teams to develop goals and strategies to meet specific needs in their community.
  3.  Early Works Initiative: Developed in partnership with school districts, philanthropists, researchers and a network of local nonprofit organizations, Early Works sites serve as learning laboratories for educators, administrators, policymakers and communities working to connect early learning with the primary grades. The multi-year initiative has helped build a system of supports for children and families from birth through third grade to strengthen community-based services and state policy. While services are publicly funded, the initiative relies on participation from parents and families, annual evaluation and data collection, and a broad network of community and school stakeholders to continually evolve services, address community needs, and improve outcomes.
  4.  P-3 Alignment: P-3 (prenatal through third grade) alignment efforts, funded by the Oregon Community Foundation in partnership with The Ford Family Foundation and the Lora L. and Martin N. Kelley Family Foundation Trust, are designed to improve kindergarten readiness and third grade reading with a long-term goal of improving high school graduation. The initiative funds 10 communities to change how schools interact with families to strengthen child development and better connect early learning providers with schools.
  5. Center Training Assistant (CTA) Program: Created by Portland-based Albina Head Start, the CTA program offers parents in the community training and classroom experience to help prepare them for careers in early childhood education. The program also supports the development of an ethnically and linguistically diverse workforce. A teaching workforce that reflects the cultural and ethnic diversity of the student population is an approach that improves early learning.

The evolution of primary education at the state level is essential. Federal investment in children and families is declining, and the most recent authorization of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) reinforces state roles. This means educational opportunities will vary from state to state, lack national norms or consistency and, in many cases, continue to reinforce societal inequalities that continue to plague our communities.

As states work to improve and strengthen early learning opportunities and investments, they should do so knowing their efforts promise to yield tremendous returns for our most vulnerable children and families. However, since early learning experiences such as child care and preschool are still largely private goods, accessing them depends on family economic resources. Public investment in such opportunities is essential.

It’s hard work sticking to a long-term vision that drives toward equitable opportunity and achievement. But states that invest time and resources in early learning can alleviate racial and socioeconomic inequities, empower families, schools and communities, and improve the lives of children by ensuring a strong beginning.

This article originally appeared on Getting Smart.

Yoncalla Strives for Long-Term Change

In the fourth installment of the Early Link Podcast, and the last one for 2016, I visited Yoncalla in Douglas County to learn more about the community, our Early Works initiative, and Yoncalla Elementary’s new preschool funded by Oregon’s Preschool Promise program.

I spoke with teachers Megan Barber and Cassie Reigard, as well as parents Crystal Sampson and Kevin Hoyt, all of whom have deep ties to the Yoncalla community.

Listen and enjoy!

Segment Highlights

0:19 Yoncalla is a rural community and less than one square mile

0:30 Yoncalla High School and Yoncalla Elementary School

1:02 Going outside with the class

1:19 Megan Barber discusses the High Scope curriculum

2:49 Working on transitions throughout the day                                  

3:36 Cassie Reigard on the Early Works initiative

3:58 Megan and Cassie describe their kids as problem solvers

5:38 Crystal Sampson and Kevin Hoyt describe why they love the school

6:33 Kevin discusses his plans for a group for fathers

7:54 Megan sees the work as transformative

 

Preschool Promise Update: Mixed Delivery Reaches 1,300 Children

Preschool Promise Update: Mixed Delivery Reaches 1,300 ChildrenPreschool 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 ChildrenChildren’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.

Related Content

Preschool Promise update from the Early Learning Division

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

Discussing Oregon’s Preschool Landscape with Swati Adarkar

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!
 

Yoncalla Elementary Offers High-Quality Preschool for 20 Children

Yoncalla Elementary Offers High-Quality Preschool for 20 ChildrenYoncalla Elementary School begins offering high-quality preschool on Sept. 19 for 20 children, giving Yoncalla Early Works a big leap forward in its mission to prepare the district’s young children for school success.

“It is going to be a game changer,” says Erin Helgren, Yoncalla Early Works site liaison for Children’s Institute. Yoncalla Early Works is a partnership initiated by Yoncalla School District, and The Ford Family Foundation and Children’s Institute that now includes a network of local and regional partners.

It is a game changer because high-quality preschool effectively prepares children for kindergarten and school achievement and is a key component of early childhood education.

It is also a game changer because when Yoncalla Early Works began four years ago, parents said in a survey that they did not want preschool. Yet after a series of meetings this spring, it was Yoncalla parents who pushed the district to open a preschool for 4-year-olds with money from the new state program, Preschool Promise.

The growth in parent involvement, leadership, and trust in the school district has been Early Works’ most significant development and led directly to parents’ quest for a preschool, says Jan Zarate, superintendent of Yoncalla School District.

Parents “initiated the desire” for preschool after studying what it meant to be ready for kindergarten, she says. “They started looking at what does it look like to have social readiness and to be math ready and reading ready.”

Parents and educators hope and expect the preschool will help prepare all Yoncalla 4-year-olds for kindergarten and school success so teachers no longer have to play “catch up” in kindergarten and the early grades, Zarate says.

Kelli Stevens, 27, of Yoncalla, who serves on the preschool committee, says she hopes the class will help her 4-year-old daughter, Adriana Grable, interact socially with other children and learn numbers, letters and other fundamental skills that will prepare her for kindergarten.

“It is an amazing opportunity for children in the area,” she says.

The preschool opens in a classroom of what Yoncalla Elementary calls its birth-to-four or B-4 Building, where there are also rooms for the federal Early Head Start program and for Early Works family engagement efforts such as play groups for young children. The building this year has added a community engagement room, where Early Works partners such as the North Douglas Family Relief Nursery or the Douglas County Early Childhood Planning Coalition can offer parenting classes and other services.

To pay for the preschool, Yoncalla along with neighboring school districts applied through the South-Central Oregon Early Learning Hub for money from the Preschool Promise initiative, a program passed by the 2015 Legislature after a strong push from Children’s Institute and its partners, including the Oregon Early Learning Division, Oregon Health Authority, and Oregon Head Start Association. The state program, operated by the Oregon Early Learning Division, gave Yoncalla $12,500 for each of 16 preschool students, and the school is paying to add four more students with money from other Early Works partners, grants and federal sources.

The preschool must meet state standards for quality, which require one adult for every ten children and lead teachers with a bachelor’s degree (or a plan to attain one) in early childhood education or related field. The preschool will provide a bus, offer children breakfast and lunch and operate six hours a day, Monday through Thursday. Yoncalla hired two preschool teachers and will also provide a classroom assistant.

One teacher will be Cassie Reigard, a lifelong Yoncalla resident who has been operating a private preschool in Yoncalla that was started by her grandmother and later run by her mother. Reigard charged only $60 a month for the preschool, but many parents couldn’t afford even that. Now she will earn a regular teacher’s salary, and parents can send their children to the public preschool for free.

Also teaching will be Megan Barber, who grew up in Yoncalla, has two young children, has degrees in early childhood education and has worked recently as program manager and preschool teacher for North Douglas Family Relief Nursery. Barber hopes the school becomes a model that draws educators from across the state.

“I really want to make this the very best preschool in Oregon,” she says.

Christina Mast, 32, a lifelong Yoncalla resident, knows as a third- and fourth-grade teacher at Yoncalla Elementary how valuable preschool will be for its students, who will include her twin daughters. She also expects the preschool will mean that more students will eventually be reaching her classroom better prepared.

“It will be a huge, positive effect,” she says.

Early Works’ focus on engaging parents in their children’s education has had “a positive influence and ripple effect” in the neighboring school districts of Elkton and North Douglas in Drain, says Zarate. The three districts, for example, are collaborating on a program sponsored by The Oregon Community Foundation and other foundations called P-3 (prenatal through grade three) Alignment, to help connect families and early childhood providers to schools.

Similarly, the three districts worked together to apply for funding for Preschool Promise. So Elkton and Drain schools also will each be offering a preschool class this fall for nine students.

Public preschools are rare in Oregon, particularly in low-income rural areas like North Douglas, where 44 percent of the 5,000 residents live below 200 percent of the federal poverty level and half of the children qualify for government subsidized free and reduced-price meals.

But what seemed impossible and not even a goal four years ago has become a reality for Yoncalla and its neighbors. Parents and educators already are raising their sights for next year.

“There may be a chance to grow here,” says Zarate, “We could look at a 3-year-old class.”