The Long Island Pre-K Initiative is proud to be part of Long Island's Regional Technical Assistance Center for Pre-K and Early Education. Visit its web page for links to all partner organizations. Many have important resources to offer:  www.nassauboces.org/rtac

Leonhardt outlines the supposed "negative results" first: the kids who won the Pre-K lottery didn't do significantly better on standardized tests in elementary school, middle school or high school.

But that's only part of this story.

When it came to "concrete measure of students' well-being," the Pre-K alumni turned out to be doing better--especially boys.They were less likely to be suspended in high school and more likely to graduate. They were more likely to enroll in college and to graduate (though evidence is incomplete because of students' age).

How could Pre-K do all this and still not increase test scores? "It seems to improve children's social and emotional skills," says Leonhardt, "and helps them mature more than it helps in a narrow academic sense." Read more.

Click here to download the study or a two-page brief outlining the results.

From sharing stories, songs and poems to talking with children about their day in the home language, there are many things families of English language learners (ELLs) can do to support literacy at home. That's the message of colorincolorado, a website for educators and families founded by WETA public broadcasting in Arlington VA.

They've created one-page tip sheets on how to "Help Your Child Learn to Read." They're in pdf format and offered in 16 languages, from English to Spanish to Arabic, Korean and Portuguese. Click here for the list and download one or as many as you need.

So says Claire Raffel writing for Early Leaning Nation. "The main thing is to get experience, see and engage with the growing process, and let go of the fact that some things you grow with kids won't necessarily produce," says an expert she interviewed.

So her tips for gardening with young children include "garden CSI," where students turn into bug detectives. "Kids have a surprisingly long attention span when it comes to bugs." Another suggestion is to build in fun transition activities while gardening, such as flapping like a butterfly or hopping like a grasshopper.

Raffel's article includes links to many helpful materials for gardening with kids, including a collection of resources from Head Start, How To's from KidsGardening.org and links to research from Cornell University.

Staffing is one of the biggest issues in early education right now--and that's why it's important to be strategic, according to Cristina Medellin of The Long Island Regional Early Education Career Development Center. "We're working to recruit individuals and to connect them with employers."

Medellin has about 200 employers in her database. "I've talked to each one and collected a lot of data," she says. Plus, she lets them know about the services offered to them by the Career Development Center. For one thing, they're trying to standardize job titles, since they found potential employers using different names for essentially the same position. And the Center, working with its sister Centers across the state, is creating a manual for employers that will serve as a guidebook for best practices, starting with how to craft a job posting.

To access the Center's resources--which are free--employers are asked to first fill out a simple application. Once that's received, Medellin personally contacts each one for an in-depth conversation about their needs.

Similarly, job seekers enter their information online, as the first step in being matched with employers who are actively hiring, as well as finding out about additional resources and training opportunities. Medellin has been actively working with higher ed, networking with other agencies and using social media to find individuals looking for available positions. "I tell them to 'send anyone interested in early education my way'," she says. "Plus, we are looking at planning some type of job fair to recruit individuals into the field."

The Long Island Regional Early Education Career Development Center is a collaborating partner in the Long Island Regional Technical Assistance Center for Pre-K and Early Childhood Education (RTAC). Click here for its Career Development Center website.

Date: Wednesday, May 26, 2021

Time: 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Date: Thursday, June 3, 2021

Time: 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Suffolk County Community College Kids' Cottage, Michael J. Grant Campus, Brentwood

Email calderv@sunysuffolk.edu or call 631-851-6516

Happy Montessori School of Port Washington, Port Washington

Email HappyMontessori@aol.com

Child's World Nursery School, Port Washington

Email CWNS@childsworldns.org

Email resume to humanresources@liheadstart.org or fax 631-758-2953

Long Island Head Start, Bridgehampton, North Fork, Southampton, Huntington

Long Island Head Start, Southampton

Long Island Head Start, various

Long Island Head Start, Southampton, North Fork, Riverhead

Long Island Head Start, Central Islip, Wyandanch

Long Island Head Start, Bellport, Southampton, Wyandanch

Long Island Head Start, Central Administration, Patchogue

The Long island Regional Early Childhood Career Development Center has services for both job seekers and employers. Click here to learn more.

The Long Island Pre-K Initiative is a collaborating partner in the state-funded Long Island Regional Technical Assistance Center for Pre-K and Early Childhood Education.