Here are resources for early childhood professionals and those serving the early childhood community.
Dual language learners: The U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Education (ED) developed a joint policy statement to support early childhood programs and states in promoting the development and learning of young children, from birth to age 5, who are dual language learners (DLLs). National estimates indicate that there is a large and growing population of DLL children.
- ED/HHS Joint Policy Statement
- ED Factsheet
- White House Factsheet: Supporting Dual Language Learners in Early Learning Settings
- ED’s English Learner Toolkit
- HHS’ Language Learner Toolkit
Harvard Family Research Project is excited to introduce the New Directions in Family Engagement blog series. The blog posts in this series seek to engage readers with the latest research, policy, and practice trends that are shaping a new era of family engagement. The first blog, The Road Less Traveled: Engaging Families in Early Math, highlights how the foundation is making grants to build the knowledge base on the various ways that families influence children’s early math development while simultaneously raising awareness about the importance of math in the early years.
PNC Foundation grants: The PNC Foundation supports educational programs for children and youth, particularly early education initiatives that serve low-and moderate-income children (birth through age 5), their teachers and families. Priority is given to programs that focus in the areas of math, science, the arts or financial education and include one or some combination of the following:
- Direct services for children in their classroom or community
- Professional development for teachers
- Family engagement in the early education of children being served by grants
- Volunteer opportunities for PNC employees
Eligible counties include: Boone, Carroll, Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Jo Daviess, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, Ogle, Stephenson, Will, and Winnebago.
Sustainability: The interactive map includes case studies for local early childhood initiatives that have been successful in securing local public funding. It’s part of an early childhood financing toolkit.
How Much Can High-Quality Universal Pre-K Reduce Achievement Gaps? (Center for American Progress). This report considers how a universal publicly funded pre-kindergarten program in the United States could decrease both disparities in access to early learning and achievement gaps at kindergarten entry.
Positive racial identity development in early education: This 5-minute video on positive racial identity development in early care and education shows the importance in considering racial and cultural diversity in the approaches taken when building a high quality early learning system.
Systems Thinking for Social Change: Published in 2015, this book guides stakeholders on understanding what systems thinking is and how to incorporate it in problem solving, decision making and strategic planning for early childhood systems.
The Intersector Project: This comprehensive toolkit helps diagnose, design, implement and assess successful cross-sector collaborations to solve complex social challenges, such as building early childhood systems.
School Readiness Playbook for Community Partners: This resource is a collection of strategies communities have used while working together to increase school readiness for young children.
Tech for Tots and Teachers: Promoting STEM learning in preK-3 classrooms. Last week, representatives from 11 educational institutions from across the country came together to tackle this challenge: promoting active STEM learning in the early education years, from preschool to third grade. (Hechinger Report, June 29).
