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December 15, 2022 | EC-LINC Webpage

Building knowledge and sharing resources by and for local early childhood systems builders.
Ready Community, Ready Kindergarteners
Kindergarten readiness typically focuses on individual children. Do the children have the foundational math and language skills to be ready academically? Do they have the social and emotional skills to play well with others, express their feelings, pay attention, and complete simple tasks? Are they physically and mentally healthy?
 
In Alameda County, California—which includes the city of Oakland—early childhood leaders assess those traditional measures of readiness, but they center their assessment on the readiness of the community to help young children thrive.
 
“We are focusing on the conditions necessary for kids to be successful and intentionally moving away from labeling kids as being ready or not ready,” explains Laura Schroeder, senior administrator of data and evaluation at First 5 Alameda.
 
Lisa Forti, First 5 Alameda’s director of policy, planning, and evaluation, refers to it as “moving from portrait to landscape.”
 
“You’re not just looking at children, or even families, in isolation, but you’re looking at people within the context of the communities, structures, systems, policies, and conditions that would support children’s success.”
 
First 5 Alameda issues a Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA) every two years. The report lays out policy changes that would help communities, schools, and families ensure children are ready to thrive in kindergarten and beyond. There are approximately 25 policy recommendations covering a broad range of issues, including:
  • Expand access to quality affordable housing and utility assistance,
  • Invest in community-driven equitable economic development,
  • Invest in family resource centers and provide access to community resources and navigation support, and
  • Increase access to affordable, quality mental health and self-care resources for ECE professionals and educators.

Alameda County’s KRA has historically relied on the Kindergarten Observation Form (KOF), a research instrument used in many states and communities. Over the last several years, First 5 Alameda has incorporated more participatory and equity-based practices in the data collection, such as focus groups and surveys. In consultation with schools and other partners, the decision was made to not use the KOF at all for the most recent report, in part because of disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead, the data is from a survey of more than 3,000 local parents and caregivers, early care and education providers, and kindergarten teachers – the people with firsthand knowledge of children’s readiness, the obstacles they face, and the best opportunities to help all children thrive.
 
Forti says the responses show that “readiness really took a hit from Covid,” with only 34 percent saying children are ready for school, a drop from 44 percent in the last report.
 
“Some of it is academic, but a lot of it is social emotional from the impact of the isolation,” Forti points out. “Families’ access to community resources declined during Covid, including those things that are really important to children’s health, development, wellbeing, and socialization, and that are a financial support to families.”
 
A Research Advisory Group—made up of a diverse and representative group of parents, educators, and other stakeholders—guided all phases of the process.
 
“From the design of the research questions to our approach, the sampling, selecting the survey tools, interpreting the data when it is was crunched, and helping us think through recommendations and policy priorities, it was really important to have an advisory group that is reflective of the community,” Schroeder says.
 
Those involved with the KRA hope it is used a policy tool that guides the allocation of public resources.
 
“The ways that we, as a society, are setting people up are not supportive of kindergarten readiness. We think about structural racism, the impacts of poverty, and how all that stuff was exacerbated in Covid,” Forti says. “Now is a moment to double down on investments in those structural conditions and policies that are supportive of families, like universal basic income, supporting access to other basic needs, good housing policies, parks and playgrounds, living wages for ECE providers.”
New from CSSP
To support the effective communications of the Early Relational Health movement, CSSP, in collaboration with Health+ Studio, developed the messaging guide, How to Communicate Effectively About Early Relational Health: What It Is and Why It Matters. 

This guide is a tool to help the many voices supporting and working alongside young children and families speak the same language to spread awareness, spark interest, advocate holistically, and accelerate change to advance Early Relational Health for all families.
Featured Resources for System Building:
Social Determinants of Health
The conditions in which young children and their families live, work, and play have a big impact on their health and well-being – both in the near and long terms. Zero to Three and Child Trends issued a follow-up report to the annual State of Babies Yearbook that focuses specifically on the Social Determinants of Health (SODH). The report looks at five SDOH domains: health care access and quality, education access and quality, economic stability, neighborhood and built environment, and social and community context. It includes policy recommendations focused on eliminating disparities that negatively impact young children of color and those whose families face economic disadvantages.
An Action Guide for Policymakers developed by the Center for the Developing Child at Harvard University also focuses on the connection between the conditions in which young children live and their lifelong health. It explains how environments impact brain development, immune responses, and other body systems. It also emphasizes the importance of strong relationships in the earliest years of life and the consequences of growing up with chronic stress. The guide includes science-based messages to build support for policies and programs that will help children thrive.
Other Resources for Early Childhood Systems Builders
  • For child care advocates and policy makers: New Mexico became the first state in the country to create a permanent child care fund when voters approved it in the mid-term election. Coverage in The Washington Post provides information about the fund itself – which will invest about $150 million a year in early learning – and how the successful ballot measure could provide a road map to other states. 
 
  • For early learning system builders: A new report is providing a clear picture of the Child Care Landscape in Onondaga County, New York. Early Childhood Alliance and other partners completed the study to better understand current supply and demand and how families access early care and education. It focuses on how to improve affordability, accessibility, and quality to build a more equitable system.

  • More for child care advocates and early learning system builders: The BUILD Initiative has put together a series of videos to support its Improving Child Care Compensation project. The videos feature leaders from six states and the District of Columbia who are utilizing strategies identified in the project to stabilize the child care workforce by boosting pay and benefits and improving working conditions.
 
  • For state- and federal-level system builders: The Early Childhood Systems Collective Impact Project seeks to better align and coordinate federal programs and policies to improve the health and well-being of young children and their families. A series of key informant interviews led by CSSP and other partners is advancing that work. Those interviewed focused on four key areas to improve equitable outcomes and practices: simplified eligibility criteria, community-level needs assessments, metrics that measure well-being, and establishing consistent outcomes and performance measures.

  • For family-centered music lovers: Put on your dancing shoes! Participants at the Together for Families conference in October contributed to this playlist of songs that make them think about love, children, and family. Have fun with it!
Happy Holidays!
We hope that your 2023 is full of kindness, connection, and community.
 
We would love your continued support as we continue to do the crucial anti-racist, intersectional work that will support all children, youth, and families. You can make a secure donation toward our efforts here.
About EC-LINC

EC-LINC is a network of partners with a shared goal—to support families and improve results for young children in communities across the country.

There is much to be learned about what it takes for early childhood systems to address population level outcomes at scale. There are a variety of funding streams, programs, and approaches—from multiple sectors—flowing into communities with the expectation that an integrated early childhood system be established.

Yet there is no central resource that brings together innovative local communities with state and national leaders to intentionally collect existing and new knowledge, develop resources, and test new ideas. That’s why the Early Childhood Learning and Innovation Network for Communities Initiative is here.
Media Contact

Jessica Pika, Communications Director
Joshua Perrin, Communications Manager
Center for the Study of Social Policy
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Washington, DC 20005

202.371.1565