DEL's Racial Equity Initiative: Closing the Gap

(Soomaali, Español)

Race matters. During my time in the legislature I saw how government policies can dis-proportionally impact people of color. The way agencies make decisions and implement programs can have profound effects on the people they are trying to serve. Why does this matter for an agency like the Department of Early Learning? Because Washington is becoming increasingly diverse - 44 percent of the estimated 446,000 children under 5 years of age are from racial and ethnic backgrounds that are either American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black, Hispanic/Latino, multiracial, or Pacific Islander. Children of color are the fastest growing subgroup of all children under 5, and currently make up 60 percent of children under 5 years of age living in the lowest-income households.[1]

Race/Ethnicity of WA Young Children Under 5
by Household Income, 2015

While children of color currently account for 46% of the kindergarten population, they only make up 38.6% of the children who enter kindergarten ready for what lies ahead.[2] And we know that the opportunity gap doesn’t shrink in a child’s K-12 career.[3] When I put forth a goal for DEL to get 90% of kids ready for kindergarten by 2020, I very intentionally included in that goal that race and family income should no longer be predictors of readiness. With that in mind, I established a Racial Equity Initiative at the agency.

WA Opportunity & Achievement Gaps by Race/Ethnicity,
2015-16 School Year

Our focus for 2017 is to lay a strong foundation for ongoing efforts. This is not a quick fix with instant gratification. Making systemic change takes time and stamina. While I expect some short term results from my team, I am fully on board with a long-term commitment and strategy developed and implemented in partnership with families, communities of color and key partners.

Here’s what our plan looks like:

A. Develop and implement a comprehensive racial equity strategy. This strategy includes: 

• A racial equity framework or shared approach to leading for equity. This framework will include a vision for the early learning system, principles, and a shared understanding of the historical and current context, language/definitions, and key concepts. 
• A racial equity plan with specific goals, data, benchmarks, and priorities that lead to the greatest impact on closing opportunity gaps and removing barriers for children, families, and professionals of color. This plan will build on the Racial Equity Theory of Change for Early Learning. It will include both internal and external-facing strategies for DEL programs, policies, and practices with clear actions and accountability mechanisms. 

B. Develop and continually refine tools and processes (making time to gather input and consider impacts at planning and decision points) necessary to implement the racial equity strategy, including: 

• Tailored racial equity impact analysis tools for program, policy, grant application, initiatives, and budget development. 
• An agency-wide family, community, and stakeholder engagement protocol to ensure policies and decisions are meaningfully informed and influenced by those most impacted and marginalized. 
• Disaggregated data and metrics to track results and measure the impact of DEL’s actions at the child/family/community level and outcomes at the program/agency level. 

C. Train and support DEL staff to increase their knowledge, awareness, and capacity to lead for equity. 

• The first step is to convene and support a Racial Equity Team that will provide leadership in developing the racial equity strategy, tools, training, and processes. Team members will model culturally and linguistically responsive practices. They will play a critical role in setting the conditions and environment necessary to engage others in racial equity conversations and efforts.

Though DEL is at the forefront of many things, we are definitely not the first to undertake something like this. The City of Seattle, King County, the Puget Sound ESD, and a number of other governmental institutions have been implementing racial equity programs for several years. Lawmakers and bureaucrats are slowly coming to the realization that we cannot effect the change we’re seeking without making change internally and with the guidance and leadership of communities.

I’ll be personally participating in training sessions and will be guided in my decision making by the Racial Equity Team and its manager, Evette Jasper. As a white man from Microsoft and the Legislature, I’m doing my best to lead DEL as an ally to all of our providers, families, and children. My goal is to leverage the amazing opportunities we have to close the persistent and pernicious opportunity gap. I hope you join me in this critical and exciting work.

Thank you,


Ross Hunter

Director, Washington State Department of Early Learning

Read my statement on DEL’s support for inclusion and tolerance.

Want to learn more about the initiative and our progress at DEL in eliminating race as a predictor of kindergarten readiness? Visit this page.

[1] American Community Survey PUMS 2015 1-year data
[2] WaKIDS 6/6 readiness rates and kindergarten enrollment
[3] WaKIDS percent 6/6 and English Language Arts SBA percent met standard

WA Continues to Support Diversity, Inclusiveness in Early Ed

(Soomaali, Español)

Hello Partners in Early Learning,

Following the Governor’s recent remarks on President Donald Trump’s Executive Order on Immigration, the Washington State Department of Early Learning (DEL) would like to reinforce our state’s commitment to supporting diversity and inclusion, not only for the general population, but within Washington’s team of high-quality early educators, early intervention service providers and our state’s smallest learners.

I want to make clear what our responsibilities as an agency entail – ensuring the health and safety of children and supporting high-quality early learning and intervention services. At DEL we work to help children in Washington prepare for success in school and life. We help families build resilience and ensure they have high-quality choices for the care of their children, no matter their race, religion, or place of birth. For nearly all of our programs, we do not collect data on immigration status or religious affiliation of the children and their parents, and we will not begin doing so. 

We are committed to supporting providers who offer high-quality and culturally relevant care, who reflect the communities they serve, and who have a deep degree of understanding and empathy for the challenges faced by many of our children and families.

Taken at Tacoma Day ECEAP site in Tacoma, WA.

Washington is becoming increasingly diverse, with 44 percent of the estimated 446,000 children under 5 years of age from racial and ethnic backgrounds that are either American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black, Hispanic/Latino, multiracial, or Pacific Islander. These kids are the fastest growing subgroup of children under 5. Our state has a long legacy of inclusiveness and tolerance, and it’s our responsibility to keep it alive. The diversity of Washington families is crucial to our success and future. 

DEL will absolutely not discriminate or enact policy that discriminates based on nationality, race, or religion. As always, I welcome your feedback on this, and I encourage you to join me in supporting the potential of every child.

Sincerely,

Ross Hunter

Director, Washington State Department of Early Learning

Support for WA Dual Language Learners to Grow

This month, the Department of Early Learning and the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction convened nearly 30 dual language learning experts and advocates for a state-wide Brain Trust on Dual Language Learners (DLLs). 

The group included:

• educators, 
• parents, 
• administrators, 
• researchers, 
• academics, 
• state agency representatives, 
• representatives of the philanthropic community, and 
• early childhood advocates from some of Washington’s most diverse communities. 

The result was lively discussion about how best to recognize, support, and cultivate Washington’s rich language diversity in preschool through third grade settings.

Washington State is growing increasingly diverse: in May 2014, approximately 10.5% of children enrolled in Washington public schools were speaking English as a second language. By 2025, The National Education Association predicts that nearly one out of every four students will be an English language learner (OSPI, 2016).  

At DEL, we know that the brain science tells us that children learn language easily when they’re young, and dual language learners are an asset to our state. However, we recognize that our early learning system is not well equipped to support these young learners in the best way possible, and our early learning professionals don’t have the tools they need to ensure these children thrive.

The Brain Trust convening explored the need for a more culturally and linguistically responsive system at all levels, including family and community engagement, classroom practice, professional development, assessment, and administrative support. Joanne Knapp-Philo, Ph.D., the former director of the National Center on Cultural and Linguistic Responsiveness, facilitated the discussion and helped the group understand this work in the context of other promising efforts around the nation. This includes the recently released White House policy statement on Supporting Dual Language Learners in Early Learning Settings. We are excited to join the federal government in forging new ground to support all of our diverse students.

Attendees of the first DEL/OSPI-sponsored Brain Trust on Dual Language Learners pose together for a photo after two days of information sharing and deliberation.

While this meeting was a major step forward for prioritizing DLLs across our early childhood education systems we hope to continue getting input from the field before ultimately deciding on a shared vision for the state. We hope that, in gathering wisdom from such a wide range of stakeholders, we can honor the many complexities of this issue while promoting collaboration at every level.

As one of the most diverse states in the country, Washington is uniquely poised in the national movement in working to ensure the early childhood field has the resources and guidance they need to embrace the cultural and linguistic assets of this large and growing population of children. As we work to get 90% of kids ready for kindergarten by 2020 and eliminate race and income as a predictor of that success, celebrating and supporting the diverse linguistic talents among our children will be one of the keys to achieving that goal. 

Resources: 

Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (2016). A call for equity and excellence for English language learners in Washington. Olympia, WA: OSPI Bilingual Education Advisory Committee. Retrieved from, http://www.k12.wa.us/MigrantBilingual/pubdocs/2016CallToActionPaper.pdf

Equity Leaders Action Network (ELAN) Aims to Reduce Racial Disparities

Four Washingtonians have joined the Equity Leaders Action Network (ELAN) to advance racial equity in early childhood systems.

ELAN Group Photo.

ELAN is a focused effort across 20 states, the District of Columbia and Guam, composed of thirty-eight fellows who work at the state or county level in the areas of health, early learning and family support. Over the next three years, ELAN fellows will work together to identify, address and take action on inequities based on race, ethnicity, language and culture in our early childhood systems.

Washington’s ELAN fellows include Evette Jasper, Dr. Jill Sells, Heather Kawamoto and Bianca Bailey. Their participation will build on existing statewide commitments to advance racial equity.

“Racial equity is deeply embedded into the Department of Early Learning’s strategic goals,” said the Washington State Department of Early Learning (DEL) Director, Ross Hunter. “We are collaboratively working toward a future where all children have equitable opportunities for quality education and ELAN means progress for this work.”

One of DEL’s partners, Thrive Washington has been a leader in bringing race to the forefront of statewide conversations and convened partners and community stakeholders to develop a Racial Equity Theory of Change, a vision and pathway for making sure Washington’s early learning system ultimately closes the opportunity gap. 

“We view early learning as a social justice issue in Washington state,” said Thrive President & CEO Sam Whiting. “Intentional, focused efforts like ELAN will help us learn from national leaders to ensure we implement the best strategies locally to eliminate the opportunity gap.”

“From birth, language-rich ‘back and forth’ interactions between parent and child are critical for optimal development,” said Dr. Jill Sells, a pediatrician and Executive Director of Reach Out and Read Washington State. “By 9 months of age, skill differences are measurable between children, so we must start with parents and babies.”

To address this, Reach Out and Read works with more than 1,500 medical providers in diverse settings across Washington, including tribal and military clinics, community health centers, and other clinics reaching large numbers of low-income families, children of color, and families with a home language other than English, including immigrant, migrant, and refugee populations. Doctors prescribe new books as they help parents learn how to support their child’s early language and literacy development.

“Reach Out and Read is designed to level the playing field and reduce inequities, and it is embraced across diverse cultures,” said Dr. Sells. “I’m excited to work with my ELAN colleagues to build an early learning system that will help all children be ready for kindergarten.”

“The question we’re grappling with currently is how to design a birth to three system that provides culturally and linguistically responsive supports and meets each child’s needs in the context of their family and community,” said Evette Jasper, State/Local Coordination Administrator within the Partnerships and Collaboration Division at DEL.  “We can now tap into a network of leaders who can help us identify potential paths forward.”

Puget Sound Educational Service District (PSESD) serves about 5,000 children prenatal to 5 years of age in Early Head Start, Head Start, and Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program in King and Pierce Counties.  PSESD is striving to become an AntiRacist MultiCultural Organization with the goal of success for each child and elimination of the opportunity gap. 

“Through ELAN, I will have the opportunity to learn and collaborate with other ELAN fellows across the country to develop and implement a professional learning plan,” said Heather Kawamoto, PSESD Equity in Education Program Manager. “This plan aims to increase awareness and knowledge of how race, racism, privilege, and power impact outcomes for children. Our long-term goal is that children receive racially/culturally responsive services and instruction so that race is no longer a predictor of whether a child will or will not be ready to succeed in kindergarten.”

“It is not enough to have equality, we must have EQUITY! If we begin to meet others where they are and provide them with what they need to be successful, we all succeed,” said Bianca Bailey, Parent Ambassador Coordinator for the Washington State Association of Head Start and ECEAP. “Everyone deserves the chance to be great, so I am starting at the beginning with children and families in the early learning system. ELAN is providing me with a network to make the impact that much wider and to change the status quo in this country.”   

The ELAN is a strategy of the BUILD Initiative, which for years has promoted early childhood systems work that identifies and addresses the root causes of disparities and supports state remedies to address them.  

BUILD’s vision is of a comprehensive, racially equitable, high-quality early childhood system that ensures all children have an opportunity to develop and reach their full potential, without experiencing discrimination or bias.  ELAN fellows will take action to reduce disparities with the choices and decisions they make and their influence on state and local policy and practices. BUILD will learn from each of these actions and share the learning throughout the early childhood field.

Planning for the Future of Early Learning in WA: ELAC's Latest Meeting

Yesterday, DEL's Early Learning Advisory Council (ELAC) met in Lacey to discuss the future of early learning programs in Washington state. To learn more about ELAC, refer to June's blog post about their last meeting.

Agenda items included but were not limited to:

• The Parent Advisory Group (PAG)
• DEL is currently in the review process after receiving 87 applications following the July 15 deadline. More information will be released in the coming weeks regarding the final members of this group. For more information about PAG, click here: Parent Advisory Group.

• The Child Care Development Fund (CCDF)
• The Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) is a federal grant that supports low-income working families by providing access to affordable, high-quality early care and after-school programs. 
• As CCDF is a federal grant, the federal government updates and issues new requirements to it's recipients. Some of the requirements that DEL is currently working on with advisement from ELAC are:
• support family engagement in child care settings to promote healthy child development
• social/emotional development and preschool expulsion policies
• child care subsidy policies (e.g. allowing homeless families to receive subsidy before submitting required documentation such as immunization records).

• Advancing Racial Equity
• As stated in June's blog post, ELAC will advise DEL on early learning policies and incorporate the Racial Equity Theory of Change (link courtesy of Thrive Washington) into the Council's feedback when considering early learning programs.With that in mind, ELAC members discussed doing the following moving forward:
• develop an annual reflection on progress made in racial equity
• DEL collects data regarding the successes and barriers that people face in their communities
• promote specific training and/or presentations regarding racial equity around the state
• construct a Racial Equity Toolkit with data as a main component
• data includes indicators like "number of Washington children participating in home visiting and preschool dis-aggregated by race and ethnicity" or "number of early learning professionals that take training on culturally or linguistically responsive services."

• The Early Start Act



DEL staff presents about the Early Start Act at yesterday's ELAC meeting.

• DEL staff presented on their hope for implementation of the Early Start Act as it was signed into law on July 6. To read more about the Early Start Act, check out last week's post about the Early Start Act Q&A panel at Starting Strong.
• Early Start Act topics at this ELAC meeting included Early Achievers and standards alignment. For up-to-date information on the Act's requirements and supports, go here: DEL's Early Start Act pages. 

ELAC meetings are generally held six times per year and host a variety of early learning advocates (regional coalitions like Child Strive of Pierce County, the Inland Northwest Early Learning Alliance, Investing in Children: Coalition Central, North Central, Northwest, Olympic-Kitsap Peninsulas coalitions, SOAR of King County, Southeast and Southwest coalitions, and Visions for Early Learning of West Central Washington). ELAC also welcomes government agency representatives from the Department of Social and Health Services, the Department of Health, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and Thrive Washington. Legislators also attend regularly. For  more information about ELAC, check out DEL's page dedicated to this group.

Advancing Racial Equity and Engaging Parent Involvement: ELAC

This week, the Early Learning Advisory Council met in DuPont, Washington for 2015’s fourth meeting.

The Early Learning Advisory Council (ELAC) was created by Legislature in 2007. ELAC representatives from around the state gather to provide input and recommendations to the Department of Early Learning so strategies and actions are well-informed and broadly supported by: 

• parents,
• child care providers,
• health and safety experts,
• and interested members of the public.

This month, priority initiatives for the coming school year were addressed as well as a status update of the Healthiest Next Generation initiative.

Also at this meeting, ELAC discussed advancing racial equity in early learning which is a high priority for DEL as the government organization strives to ensure every child, regardless of their social, racial or economic situation has access to quality early learning opportunities.

Members of ELAC gather in DuPont WA.

Organizers of this quarter’s meeting brought forth questions that each ELAC member should ask as they advise on DEL policies and programs:

• Is it good for kids, families and providers?
•  Do some kids and families benefit more than others?
•  Which kids and families do not have access and why?
•  What data and information is missing?
• Might there be any unintended consequences?

DEL’s hope is that ELAC will help advise and advance programs in place that might not have been created with a racial equity lens, and also inform new programs and initiatives that will better serve every child in Washington.

One of the initiatives is the Parent Advisory Group (PAG). DEL recently began a recruitment campaign, seeking parents and family caregivers of children from birth to nine years of age to become a sounding board for decisions, ideas and questions that shape the future of early learning.

DEL has had a similar group in the past, but is attempting to bring it back as parent and caregiver input is vital to the development of effective early learning programs. 

For more information about PAG, visit DEL’s website here. If you would like more information about the application process, please contact pag@del.wa.gov. Applications to be considered for PAG membership are due by July 15, 2015.

For more information about ELAC and past and upcoming meetings, visit DEL’s Early Learning Advisory Council page.