Honoring Culture and Language: Issues for Young Children

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EDUCATION LEADERSHIP
Middle States Regional Meeting
Ann Arbor, Michigan May 17-19, 2005
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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• Council of Chief State School Officers
• Middle States Regional Workshop
• May 17-19, 2005
• The Dahlmann Campus Inn
• Ann Arbor, Michigan
• Presentation by
• Lynson Moore Beaulieu
• Senior Program Director
• National Black Child Development Institute
• Washington, DC
• lbeaulieu_at_nbcdi.org

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• Children in Foster Care as of 9/30/02d

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• Poverty Trends
• 2004 Federal Poverty Levels (FPL)e
• 18,850 for a family of 4 (about 9.00 per hour)
• 15,670 for a family of 3 (about 7.50 per hour)
• 12,490 for a family of 2 (about 6.00 per hour)
• Research suggests that, on average, families need
  an income equal to about two times the federal
  poverty level to meet their most basic needs
• 27 million children live in low-income families
  11 million live in poor families

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• Poverty Trends
• Numbers of long-term employed increased from
  650,000 in 2000 to 1.89 million in 2003
• In 2003, poverty increases were largest among
  African Americans, from 22.7 in 2001 to 24 in
  2002, an increase of between 500,000 and 700,000
  individuals.
• Poor people are poorer. In 2002, the average
  amount by which people who were poor fell below
  the poverty line was greater than in any other
  years since 1979.

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• Poverty Trends
• Child Trends reports that 40 of poor
  single-parent working mothers who paid for child
  care in 2001 paid at least half of their income
  for child care.
• CDC reported in 2002 that 36.8 of poor adults
  18-64 were uninsured vs. 10.8 of adults with
  incomes above twice the poverty line. For
  children, it was 14.5 of poor children vs. 5.3
  of non-poor children.
• In 2001, 44.5 of poor households with children
  experienced either food insecurity or hunger
  during that year.

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System
2003 NAEP Reading Scores 4th Grade At
Proficient or Above
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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System
2003 NAEP Reading Scores 4th Grade At
Proficient or Above
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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System
2003 NAEP Mathematics Scores 4th Grade At or
Above Proficient
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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System
2003 NAEP Mathematics Scores 4th Grade At Or
Above Proficient
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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• How do we help African American and other
  children from diverse ethnic, cultural, language,
  and life experience backgrounds to rise to their
  greatest developmental and academic potential?
• What are the barriers that stand in their way and
  how do we surmount them?

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• The Main Ingredients
• Family and Community Connections authentic,
  respectful, meaningful relationships and
  partnerships
• Continuous Prekindergarten Program Quality
  Improvement
• Effective curriculum standards-based,
  developmentally appropriate, exciting,
  challenging, and accessible to all children
• Effective instruction supported by high quality
  professional development
• Enriched learning environments
• Ready Schools Quality Improvement in the
  Primary Grades
• Appropriate Management, Assessment, and
  Accountability Systems

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System
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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System
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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• Domains of Development
• Physical well-being and motor development
• Social and emotional development
• Early language and literacy development
• Cognition and general knowledge
• Approaches to learning
• Creativity and imaginative thinking

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• Physical Well-Being and Motor Development
• Issue Poor, young children and their families
  do not have regular access to well-baby care and
  early health screenings often the care that they
  do receive is of poor quality and does not
  identify early health issues that impact school
  readiness.
• Solution Early care and education system
  building must ensure that young children have
  access to high quality well-baby care, early
  health and developmental screenings, and a
  pediatric health-care system that is informed
  about your school readiness goals.

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• Physical Well-Being and Motor Development
• Issue Many poor, young children have limited
  opportunities for outdoor play in safe parks and
  playgrounds and with equipment that is needed for
  the development and coordination of their large
  muscles. They also have limited access to
  resources such as pencils, crayons, markers,
  paper, paint, paint brushes, scissors, lego-type
  toys, etc., that assist in small motor
  development.
• Solution Providing resources in communities for
  safe, outdoor play and resources for families and
  early care and education programs for the
  development of large and small motor skills.

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to
Support Successful Implementation of a
Universal Pre-Kindergarten System

• Social and Emotional Development
• Issue Communities broadly and early care and
  education programs specifically lack the
  resources they need to build capacity in both
  families and teachers to support African American
  childrens healthy social and emotional
  development in the early years.
• Solution Early care and education system
  building must ensure that young children and
  their families have access to culturally and
  linguistically relevant mental health care and
  services and that teachers have access to
  education and training that equips them to work
  effectively with parents and challenging
  behaviors in young children within the
  schooling context.

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• Early Language and Literacy Development
• Issue Low-income African American children have
  limited access to the standard English language
  literacy-building resources that lead to
  proficient reading, speaking, and writing skills
  in standard English by 3rd or 4th grade.

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• Early Language and Literacy Development
• Issue Most low-income African American children
  learn to speak African American Vernacular
  English from their families and extended
  families in many cases, their early care and
  education providers also speak African American
  Vernacular English. African American Vernacular
  English is their first language, much like
  Spanish is for children who grow up in Spanish
  speaking homes and communities.

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• Early Language and Literacy Development
• Issue Once children enter school, the language
  of the teacher, textbooks, and written work
  becomes standard English. Access to academic
  learning is through standard English and African
  American children lack standard English language
  skills.

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• Early Language and Literacy Development
• Solution African American children who are
  vernacular speakers must be provided with
  curriculum that acknowledges and accepts their
  home language but that teaches them standard
  English as second language. African American
  children must be provided with the educational
  resources that help them to become biliterate.

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• Additional Solutions
• Promote and support language and literacy rich
  home environments in the childs home language.
• Promote and support language and literacy rich
  early care and education environments that
  provide exposure to both the childs home
  language and standard English whenever possible.

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• Additional Solutions
• Provide an intentional program of standard
  English language development for children in
  their early years of schooling.
• Provide resources that enable young children and
  their families to have a variety of fun,
  exciting, and new experiences at home and in
  their communities that provide natural
  opportunities for increased adult-child
  communication and meaningful vocabulary
  development.

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• Early Language and Literacy Development for ELLs
• Bilingualism is an important and valuable skill
  multilingualism is the global norm and reality,
  monolingualism is the anomaly
• Support of home language in the early years
  fosters healthy social and emotional ties to
  family, culture, and heritage
• The development of a childs native language
  assists in the development of English language
  and literacy skills
• Spanish phonemic awareness, letter
  identification, and Spanish word reading were
  reliable predictors of English performance on
  parallel tasks at the end of 4th grade where
  children received formal instruction in
  Spanish reading.

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• Cognition and General Knowledge
• Issue Because of the physical and social
  isolation of poverty, the impact of multiple
  generations of undereducated adults within the
  family constellation, and a general lack of
  access to educationally-focused resources in the
  early years whether native born or immigrant,
  low-income children have significantly reduced
  opportunities in their years before school to
  develop the cognitive skills and general
  knowledge that are valued in the formal schooling
  environment.

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• Cognition and General Knowledge
• Solution Promote and support enriched learning
  environments at home, broadly in communities, and
  in early education settings that help children
  broaden and deepen their domains of knowledge and
  increase their cognition skills in the early
  years.

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• Cognition and General Knowledge
• Solution Identify and implement developmentally
  appropriate early childhood development and
  learning standards for what children will be
  expected to know and be able to do when they
  enter kindergarten and share them broadly with
  the early care and education community.

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• Approaches to Learning
• Issue Many young, low-income children do not
  have enough positive experiences in the course of
  their early development that result in the
  attitudes and behaviors that they will need to
  promote and support their own learning.
• Issue Some researchers find that African
  American children, especially boys, are active
  learners they have lots of energy, they use
  their bodies in very rhythmic ways, and often
  this energy is not respected or directed into
  positive development and learning activity.

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• Approaches to Learning
• Solution Families, schools, and early care and
  education programs must provide young children
  with the experiences they need to develop
  positive attitudes and behaviors towards their
  learning. Repeated and frequent opportunities
  for children to experience success in the
  learning process in the early years will provide
  them with tools that will help them to be
  successful in school.

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• Approaches to Learning
• Solution Creating opportunities for active
  learning will also promote positive attitudes and
  behaviors in the classroom. Programs must develop
  the capacity to work effectively with children
  that have various learning styles.
• For example, some children grow up in families
  where children learn by watching others, then
  doing, rather than being told and following
  instructions.

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• Approaches to Learning
• Solution Provide teachers and families with the
  professional support they need to manage and
  positively respond to childrens challenging
  behaviors and to create classrooms and routines
  that prevent childrens challenging behaviors

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• Creativity and Imaginative Thinking
• Key to developing critical thinking skills
• Arts, music, and movement (dance) contribute to
  academic achievement
• Helps children make sense of their world
• This is the domain of some childrens genius
• The meanings, traditions, and practices of many
  cultures are embedded in their arts

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• Effective Curriculum
• There are many different curricula that are
  available for early education programs. As in
  the myriad K-12 education curricula that are
  available, research has shown that most
  research-based curricula can be effective its
  effectiveness is in the completeness of its
  implementation and how well teachers are trained
  to use it.

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• Effective Curriculum
• Includes a focus on language and literacy
  development in the context of a childs native
  language and standard English language
  development needs
• Includes emergent mathematics
• Is aligned with kindergarten standards and
  assessments

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• Effective Curriculum
• Is taught using culturally-relevant contexts
• Provides options for meeting childrens differing
  learning styles and needs
• Provides developmentally appropriate learning
  opportunities

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• Effective Teaching
• What is effective teaching in the preschool
  years? There is much debate about what is and
  who is an effective early childhood educator.
• Degree mandates require resources to enable
  committed early childhood educators an equitable
  opportunity to acquire their degree in a
  reasonable amount of time.

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• Effective Teaching
• How do we ensure a continuum of effective
  teaching from prekindergarten through the primary
  grade years?
• How can we improve the primary grade learning
  experience?

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• Assessment
• Assessments should be appropriate for young
  children and used for the purposes for which they
  were designed.
• Assessments should be administered to children in
  their native language and from the cultural
  contexts to which they are familiar.

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• Assessment
• The results of child outcomes-based assessments
  should be used to develop educational plans for
  children and to improve educational programming
  and not result in punitive action against the
  child, teacher, or program it should result in
  additional resources - human, financial, material
  - dedicated to improving performances and
  outcomes.
• Early childhood assessments should gather
  information from multiple sources including
  family members and teachers.

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• Accountability
• Accountability strategies need to be carefully
  designed so that they are fair and effective in
  mixed-delivery systems.
• Accountability systems should include resources
  to support quality improvement in programs
  participating in a mixed-delivery system.

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• References
• National Center for Children in Poverty,
  http//nccp.org/printable/printable_state_detail_d
  emographic_DE.html
• http//nccp.org/printable/printable_state_detail_d
  emographic.DC.html
• http//nccp.org/printable/printable_state_detail_d
  emographic.MD.html
• http//hccp.org/printable/printable_state_detail_d
  emographic.NJ.html
• http//nccp.org/printable/printable_state_detail_d
  emographic.PA.html
• Kids Count Pocket Guide African American
  Children State Level Measures of Child
  Well-Being from the 2000 Census, The Annie E.
  Casey Foundation, 2003
• The AFCARS Report Preliminary FY2002 Estimates
  as of August 2004 (9), U.S. Department of Health
  and Human Services, Administration for Children
  and Families, Admiistration on Children, Youth
  and Families, Childrens Bureau,
  www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb
• Basic Facts About Low-Income Children in the
  United States (February 2005), National Center
  for Children in Poverty

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Technical Issues Quality Initiatives to Support
Successful Implementation of a Universal
Pre-Kindergarten System

• References Contd
• Poverty Increases and Median Income Declines for
  Second Consecutive Year Ranks of the Poor
  Increase by Three Million Since 2000, Center on
  Budget and Policy Priorities, News Release,
  September 29, 2003
• National Center for Education Statistics,
  http//nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/reading/resul
  ts2003/stateachieve-race-g4.asp
• National Center for Education Statistics,
  http//nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/mathematics/r
  esults2003/stateachieve-race-g4.asp
• Bilingual Acquisition, Fred Genessee,
  www.earlychildhood.com Articles
• In Focus Serving English Language Learners,
  February 16, 2005, preKnow
• Cultural Diversity and Early Education Report
  of a Workship, Deborah Phillips and Nancy A.
  Crowell, Editors, National Academy Press,
  Washington, DC 1994, www.nap.edu/readingroom/book
  s/earlyed
• Ebonic Need Not Be English, Ralph W. Fasold,
  Georgetown University, CAL Digest, 1999
  www.cal.org/resources/digest/ebonic-issue.html
• What Early Childhood Teachers Need to Know
  About Language, from commentary by Sue Bredekamp
  on What Teachers Need to Know About Language,
  by Lily Wong Fillmore and Catherine Snow,
  EDO-FL-00-07, November 2000, www.cal.org/resource
  s/digest/0007/bredekamp.html

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EDUCATION LEADERSHIP
Middle States Regional Meeting
Ann Arbor, Michigan May 17-19, 2005