Understanding and Advancing Equity
From ECEI Director Diane Horm -

In our Summer 2019 Newsletter, I provided an overview of our updated Strategic Plan, noting our new plan is broader in scope and more ambitious. We revised ECEI’s vision and mission statements to reflect our new goals. Specifically, we have extended our aspirations from our previous mission of enhancing quality in early childhood education to promoting equity for young children. 
As our strategic planning continued, we learned we need to be clear about what we mean by equity. We developed the following definition:  Early Childhood Equity means that all children have opportunities to realize their developmental potential . In our applied research, the ECEI plans to document and understand four mechanisms underlying inequity in early childhood: preventing adverse childhood experiences; buffering of consequences resulting from experienced adversity; promoting opportunities that support resilience, growth, and healthy development; and eliminating inequitable educational experiences. 

The ECEI recognizes that disparities in well-being persist across numerous subgroups, often due in part, to inequitable experiences and opportunities in early childhood. Through our discussions, we realized we need to be overt about our focus given our location and institutional capacities. We decided that through 2024, the ECEI will examine disparities and inequity that occur across five categories: race, immigrant status/dual language learners, income level, geography, and disability status.

We intend to use this definition of early childhood equity and our identified subgroups to guide our future research and activities. In future editions of this newsletter, I will describe the ECEI’s new research agenda and the four foci that the ECEI will investigate through 2024. In brief, these four content areas are:
  1. Early childhood services and quality of care
  2. Early childhood workforce characteristics and well-being
  3. The intersection of early childhood care and health
  4.  Expanding and developing measurement tools in early childhood research

In the next newsletter, I will address the first research area of early childhood services and quality of care. I plan to summarize our past work in this area and to note how our body of past work will serve as a foundation to launch new studies.

Our excitement grows as our plans become more concrete and take more definite shape. We welcome your input and interest in collaborating if your work intersects with our broader scope and vision. I want to close by thanking our Advisory Board who pushed our thinking in our recent June meeting. I also want to thank my ECEI colleagues who are excited to pursue our updated mission to advance and support equity in early childhood by generating and disseminating high-quality, meaningful research.
Recent Events
FALL 2019 KICK-OFF
Child Assessment Research Partnership (CARP)
A data retreat for the CARP study was held July 22 at CAP-Tulsa. Sherri Castle, Diane Horm, Shinyoung Jeon, and Lisa Eshenour from the ECEI attended, along with Deborah Phillips from Georgetown University, Kim Boller with the Nicholson Foundation, and numerous CAP-Tulsa staff. The day-long retreat was spent looking over results from the first year of the study, as well as making plans for the upcoming year.
Pictured from left: Steven Dow, former Executive Director of CAP-Tulsa; Sherri Castle, ECEI Assistant Director of Research; ECEI Director Diane Horm; Deborah Phillips, research partner from Georgetown University; and ECEI Advisory Board Chair Kim Boller.
Tulsa Public Schools Partnership
Project Leadership Retreat
The first ECEI Project Leadership Retreat was July 23 at 36 Degrees North in downtown Tulsa. Project Leadership is made up of ECEI Leadership, Project Directors, and the Training Director. The day was spent discussing what is currently happening in the ECEI, preparing for the upcoming year, and sharing strategies with one another that help make all projects run smoothly. Meg Myers Morgan, OU-Tulsa MPA Program Coordinator, also provided professional development for our staff. The day was wrapped up with a Happy Hour at Chimera Café.
Educare Implementation Study
The Educare team from left: Holly Neveu, Melissa Ruiz, Karen Vega, Irving Martinez, Jennifer Petty, Kim Kurin, Marsha Barnes, Leah Miranda, Blanca Gonzalez, and Brittany Swain
The Educare Team is happy to kick off the fall data collection season with some exciting additions and transitions. Holly Neveu has been named Project Director of the Educare Implementation Study. Holly has been on the Educare team for over five years, first as a Site Coordinator, then as Assistant Project Director. Brittany Swain has been promoted to Assistant Project Director. Irving Martinez Hernandez has re-joined the ECEI as a full-time Research Associate. Karen Vega and Kim Kurin are the newest part-time Research Associates. We would like to congratulate everyone on their new positions. The team is looking forward to working with Tulsa Educare in the coming year.
School Experiences in Early Development (SEED)
Pictured from left: Owen Schochet, Georgetown University Graduate Research Assistant (GRA); Elena Schmidt, Director of Research and Evaluation, Tulsa Public Schools; Jane Hutchison, Georgetown University GRA; Annie Partika, Georgetown University GRA; Anna Johnson, Associate Professor, Georgetown University, Principal Investigator on SEED Study; and Sherri Castle and Diane Horm with the ECEI.
SEED Project Director April Dericks, along with bilingual Research Associates Denise Vega Ruvalcaba and Paloma Badinelli, organize the school supplies to be donated to Tulsa Public Schools first-grade classrooms.
To kick off the fourth year of the SEED Study, some of our partners from Georgetown University came to Tulsa to help spread the word about the importance of this longitudinal pre-K study to all the first-grade teachers at Tulsa Public Schools. Teachers who participate in our SEED study are invaluable contributors and assist us throughout the year by completing social-emotional surveys about their students and a survey about their own experiences and the supports they receive as teachers. On August 16, our team visited all 48 elementary schools in TPS to discuss the essential role of teachers to this project and to our future understanding of developmental gains for early learners. We are very grateful to have received the teachers’ enthusiastic support.
What's New at the ECEI
Annual Staff Advance
Once a year in late August, the ECEI staff spends the day away from campus, not to retreat, but to Advance. This year's annual staff Advance was held at the Hilton Garden Inn in Broken Arrow. The morning meeting featured remarks from ECEI Director Dr. Diane Horm, Assistant Vice President of Research Dr. Kent Teague, and Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Tulsa Graduate College Dr. Jim Sluss. Jeff Wilkie (HoganTaylor) then presented ECEI’s new Strategic Plan and led a dialogue about our growth, and opportunities for innovation. 

In the afternoon, the group enjoyed an interactive murder mystery show, presented by The Dinner Detective. Staff followed the clues and interrogated each other to solve the murder of Training Director Cristy Roberts.
  ABCD Award Winner
The ECEI gives out a quarterly employee recognition award to employees who go "Above and Beyond the Call of Duty" (ABCD). We are happy to announce the recipient for the 2019 second quarter (April-June) was Denise Vega Ruvalcaba. Here is what those who nominated Denise had to say:
  • “Denise swooped in at the 11th hour to help the Educare team finish data collection. Her contribution was invaluable and helped us get over the finish line! Thank you, Denise!!!”
  • “Denise has taken the initiative to learn new software skills and train other staff to use them as well. She is very thorough in checking data, tracking families and monitoring details. And she does it all with a positive attitude and enthusiasm.”

Denise demonstrated the core values of Integrity, Responsibility, Excellence, Learning, and Flexibility. Congratulations, Denise!
The ECEI Keeps Growing!
It’s been a busy summer here at the ECEI, as we finalize our revamped Strategic Plan and as we continue to hone our identity and focus on the next five years of early childhood research. As part of that growth, we’ve hired some new positions to continue to build our infrastructure:

  • New Assistant Director of Research: Congratulations to Sherri Castle, Ph.D., on her promotion to the ADR position at the ECEI. Sherri will oversee all research initiatives within the Institute, including building multi-disciplinary partnerships to develop our research priorities. 
  • New Communications Director: Mike Averill, previously with the Tulsa World, was hired to help us disseminate our research, develop a Strategic Communications Plan, and get the message out about our work and its impact on the community. Mike will work closely with OU Marketing and Communications offices both in Norman and Tulsa.
  • New Data Specialist: Eden Hemming, previously with OU Pediatrics on the Tulsa campus, was hired to help manage the massive amounts of data our projects collect. We plan to grow this division of the ECEI, building a strong data core which might include additional Data Specialists within the next five years. 
  • New Post-Doctoral Fellow: While this position isn’t new to the ECEI, we are happy to have Liz Frechette, recent graduate of the University of Miami, step into the role. Her work focuses on self-regulation and dual language learners, a perfect fit for our work. We anticipate adding additional Post-Docs over the next few years to help develop the next generation of researchers and continue to disseminate our research through posters and publications. 
  • We plan to hire additional Senior Research Associates in the next year. Those new positions will continue to grow our research initiatives and take the lead on our new research priorities we’ve developed as part of our revamped Strategic Plan.
  • Finally, we hope to see some additional faculty hires who will affiliate with the ECEI and early childhood university-wide as part of the Early Childhood Research initiative Diane has been working on over the past two years.

We’re excited to move into this next chapter; stay tuned as we continue to grow!
Recent Publications
The Role of Teachers' Depressive Symptoms in Classroom Quality
and Child Developmental Outcomes in Early Head Start Programs
Kyong-Ah Kwon, Shinyoung Jeon, Lieny Jeon, and Sherri Castle
Learning and Individual Differences

This study examined whether teachers' depressive symptoms are directly and indirectly associated with children's social-emotional and language development in the context of Early Head Start (EHS) center-based programs. We used the EHS Family and Child Experiences Study (i.e., Baby FACES 2009) with a sample of 275 toddlers and 197 teachers in 72 programs. Among the current sample of EHS teachers, the prevalence of teachers' depressive symptoms was low. Teachers with higher levels of depressive symptoms tended to report that they have toddlers with more behavior problems in the classroom after controlling for several child, family, and teacher characteristics. We also found a significant association between teachers' depressive symptoms and observed levels of Emotional and Behavioral Support (EBS) in classrooms. EBS is significantly associated with teacher-rated child behavior problems. However, teachers' depressive symptoms are not significantly associated with Engaged Support for Learning (ESL). There is no mediational link for the association of teachers' depressive symptoms with any developmental outcomes via its association with EBS or ESL. Although incidence of clinical levels of depressive symptoms was low in this sample, overall depressive symptoms were associated with classroom quality and children's behavior problems, suggesting the importance of intervention and prevention strategies for practitioners and policy makers to improve teachers' mental health and classroom quality systematically in EHS.

To view the full article, click here
Infant-toddler Curriculum: Reconsider, Refresh, and Reinforce
Diane Horm , Kyong-Ah Kwon, and Debbie Laurin
Published in J.J. Mueller & N. File's Curriculum in Early Childhood Education: Re-examined, Reclaimed, Renewed. New York: Routledge

The title of Reconsider, Refresh, and Reinforce foreshadows the intent of this chapter. Key features, strengths and limitations, and similarities and differences of three widely-used curricula with infants and toddlers in group care—Resources for Infant Educarers (RIE), the Program for Infant-Toddler Care (PITC), and Creative Curriculum for Infants & Toddlers were reviewed in the 2012 edition of this book. In this 2018 revision, the meaning of curriculum in the context of infant-toddler care is reconsidered . Information on the three curricular approaches is refreshed through a discussion of recent additions or modifications. Repeatedly the persisting gaps in the research related to infant-toddler curriculum are noted. In addition to highlighting the need for additional research, we also reinforce the continued need to recognize the uniqueness of the infant-toddler period as we seek needed quality improvements.   
Featured Assessment
DREMA
Several mathematics assessments for young children have been developed in recent years. Although Applied Problems (Woodcock Johnson subtest 10) is still widely used, assessments that can better detect differences in early math development of young children are also being used by researchers.     

Early math skills of children in the SEED study at ECEI are assessed with several instruments, including this issue’s featured assessment - DREMA. This instrument is a short form of the REMA (developed by Clements, Sarama & Liu in 2008). Our assessors code verbal and object counting, as well as the children’s addition and multiplication skills with manipulatives. During the 2018–2019 school year, ECEI assessors administered approximately 975 DREMA’s to TPS kindergarten students in the SEED study .
Get to Know Our Advisory Board

Marty Zaslow, Ph.D.
Former Director for Policy, Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD)

ECEI Advisory Board member since 2011

Marty has had a long and distinguished career in our field. She is widely recognized for her insights and ability to synthesize research to guide practice and policy. Through her appointment at SRCD, she informed and influenced many audiences including researchers, policy makers, and a wide array of practitioners dedicated to improving the lives of young children.

Here are some of Marty's thoughts on the ECEI and its future:
What is unique about the ECEI and its research?
Those concerned with equity for children's development — opportunities for all children to develop and thrive — know that the earliest years present a critical time. Supporting development from the prenatal period through school entry holds promise for giving children's development a boost that is critical to how they enter and progress in school and to addressing the troubling gaps that exist in the development of children by socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity, immigration status, dual language learner status, and special needs. 

Nationally, there is concern about the limited extent and quality of early care and education programs for the youngest children. Yet recent public and philanthropic investments in early development are encouraging and important. It is critical to guide these investments with the most rigorous possible research. 

The ECEI is providing important leadership in this area, with a strong research agenda focusing on how best to support development in the youngest children and their families, and to do so in a way that fosters equity. It has a unique position, located in a community that has made exceptional commitments to supporting young children's development. The ECEI partners with these programs to both inform local efforts and to develop research collaborations that bring their own very talented and accomplished leadership together with other nationally-recognized leaders in early education research (such as Deborah Phillips and Anna Johnson of Georgetown University on the recently-funded NIH grant). 

Through these collaborations, the ECEI is able to address high priority research questions and to conduct rigorous research that is important not only to its own community but nationally. 

What are the biggest changes you have observed during your time on the Advisory Board?
There has been such exciting growth during my time on the Advisory Board! The ECEI has expanded dramatically in terms of staff, community connections, and research funding. It has won wonderful recognition within the university. It has taken steps to support the development of its own staff to create a caring work community, and to support the development of young scholars. It has worked (and with noteworthy success) to increase the communication of its research through journal publications, through non-technical distillations of the research for policymakers and practitioners, and through social media.  
 
But, to me, the most striking and important change over time has been the ECEI's increasing focus on developing and using a strategic plan for its own research to guide its efforts. The ECEI is thoughtfully deploying its resources to address specific high-priority areas of research. The strategic plan makes clear its very strong focus on research that can address issues of equity in the earliest years.

What do you hope to see in the ECEI’s future?
I hope that the ECEI will be able to continue its simultaneous focus inside, on creating a caring and supportive, as well as highly productive, work environment, and its focus outside on conducting and communicating research that is informative to those working in Tulsa as well as nationally on strengthening the youngest children and their families.  

Any other thoughts or advice?
It has been an honor witnessing and playing a small role in fostering the development of the ECEI! I look forward to diving deeper into all of the most recent research summarized in this newsletter and in future ones!

Thanks Marty! We look forward to your continued guidance in the future.

Next Issue: Quality of Care
Integrity   |   Excellence | Respect | Learning | Responsibility   |   Flexibility

We are a growing research institute focused on young children (birth to age 8) in early childhood programs. Read more about the history of the ECEI, view our most recent Annual Reports, download a copy of our Strategic Plan, or learn more about our staff.
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 Issue: Fall 2019                                       updated: 9/26/2019