Below are resources for early childhood professionals and those serving the early childhood community.
REL Webinar: Creating Caring and Culturally Responsive Classrooms for Students in Prekindergarten to Grade 3 Join Regional Educational Laboratory Northwest for a free webinar April 24, 2018 at 11:00 a.m.–12:15 p.m. PT exploring strategies to create culturally responsive and emotionally supportive pre-K–3 classrooms for children from diverse racial and cultural backgrounds. The early elementary years lay the foundation for school and life outcomes. In this webinar, Dr. Sharon Ritchie, national researcher and principal investigator for the FirstSchool initiative, will share practical advice for using data and evidence to improve early school experiences and set all students up for success. Dr. Ritchie will be joined by a panel of Oregon educators who will discuss how to help teachers incorporate these practices into their classrooms. Teachers, administrators, equity directors, state and local education agency staff members, and anyone else interested in optimizing the pre-K–3 experiences of children—particularly Black students, Hispanic students, and students from low-income families—are encouraged to attend.
Findings From the Fourth-Grade Round of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11 This report provides data on fourth-grade achievement of students who attended kindergarten for the first time in the 2010-11 school year and were in fourth grade in the 2013-14 school year. In reading, math, and science, white students, Asian students, and students of two or more races had higher average scores in the spring of fourth grade than did either black students or Hispanic students. In math, Hispanic students had higher average scores on the spring assessment than did black students. In math, males had higher average scores than females. In contrast, significant differences by sex were not detected in children’s reading and science knowledge and skills. Scores were lowest for students in households with incomes below the federal poverty level when the students were in kindergarten and highest for students in households with incomes at or above 200% of the federal poverty level when the students were in kindergarten. In reading, math, and science, assessment scores in the spring of fourth grade increased with parental education. Assessment scores in the spring of fourth grade varied by family type, with students who were living in two-parent households in kindergarten scoring higher in reading, math, and science than students who were living in single-parent and other parent-type households in kindergarten. Students with a primary home language of English in kindergarten scored higher in reading, math, and science in the spring of fourth grade than did students with a non-English primary home language and students living in a household with multiple home languages where no primary language was identified. (National Center for Education Statistics)
