Panel members discuss the policies and practices that can ensure high-quality early childhood education and care for all children. They also discuss five main policy levers, focusing particularly on curriculum and pedagogy, and workforce development. The webinar took place in conjunction with the release of a new OECD report on meaningful interactions in early childhood education and care.
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Oakland International High School is a sanctuary for recently arrived immigrant students, preparing them academically and linguistically for their new lives in the United States. Through its community school infrastructure, commitment to supporting the whole child, and explicit focus on English language acquisition and preparation for college, the school is raising expectations and expanding opportunities for its students.
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Through an innovative learning initiative that includes in-person school site visits and virtual learning sessions, engaged community leaders, parents, students, advocates, and others are building their capacity to advance evidence-based and equitable practices that promote authentic learning, foster relationships of trust and respect, and chip away at structural inequities that undermine opportunities for historically marginalized students.
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Quietly—and at times with little attention of the public, policymakers, and the media—schools have been resegregating at rates that rival those preceding Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down legal segregation in public schools. As it did following resistance to Brown, the federal government can help to foster integrated schools through increased funding and evidence-based policies.
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While many education stakeholders have called for intensive remediation for students to address this year of disrupted schooling and potential learning loss, a new report argues that intensive remediation alone will not meet students’ needs and—if conducted in a way that is segregating, stigmatizing, and separated from children’s real-life concerns—could even deepen inequalities and exacerbate trauma.
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High-quality early childhood experiences depend upon ongoing formative assessments. High-quality assessments enable teachers to monitor each student’s changing skills and competencies and to tailor instruction to reinforce children’s strengths and support individualized growth. Aggregated assessment data can also be used to identify system-level patterns, strengths, and gaps that can inform equitable resource allocation and investments in early childhood and elementary programs and initiatives.
How can school districts advance equity and opportunity in partnership with students, teachers, and families? In the final webinar of a five-part series, panelists discussed strategies for how to evaluate existing district work on diversity, equity, and inclusion through intentional conversations and strategies. Strategies discussed include allocating resources equitably, providing students access to deeper learning, and supporting social and emotional learning.
How can districts assess students’ experiences and needs and provide targeted supports for accelerating learning? In the fourth of a five-part series, panelists discussed strategies to assess students’ social and emotional well-being, as well as to illuminate student growth and learning through authentic diagnostic and formative assessments. Panelists also explored best practices to avoid separating students into tracks and to foster heterogeneous groups.
Between historic bipartisan investments to stabilize and expand access to child care in 2020 and new proposals from Congress and the Biden Administration, the nation is poised to significantly increase access to quality early childhood education. To do this, we need a vision for a new and better system. In this webinar, experts discussed long-term federal policy solutions to build a comprehensive, equitable, and integrated early learning system.
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The guilty verdicts for George Floyd’s killer are a moment of hope on a backdrop of persistent race-based violence. And while we celebrate this moment as a major event in bending the arc of history toward justice, there is enormous work to be done to achieve racial justice and reconciliation for all, and each of us has a role to play in that work.
