eNotes
July 18, 2024Updates from the ECTA Center
Join the Early Childhood Personnel Solutions Learning Community
If you're concerned about keeping the staff that you have and recruiting staff that you'll need to best serve your diverse children and families, the Early Childhood Technical Assistance (ECTA) Center invites you to join the Early Childhood Personnel Solutions Learning Community. The next meeting is August 13. This group explores effective and innovative strategies that states and local communities are using to prepare, attract, and retain personnel who serve young children with disabilities and their families. ECTA's National Synthesis of Innovative Practices in Recruitment and Retention of EI/ECSE Personnel informs meeting content. You must register to join meetings. They are on the second Tuesday of even-numbered months, 3:00 - 4:00 PM ET. For questions or more information, contact Paula Grubbs: paula.grubbs@unc.edu
A Journey to More Inclusive Classrooms: ECTA's Partnership with Illinois
The Illinois State Board of Education accepted an invitation from ECTA in 2019. The Board, along with the preschool inclusion initiative, Early CHOICES, would receive two-years of intensive technical assistance (TA) to establish inclusive classrooms. The TA process helped build their capacity to implement, scale up, and sustain high-quality inclusive policies and practices for children ages 3-5, with or at-risk for disabilities.
Inclusion depends on a shared purpose upheld by strong collaborative, cross-sector relationships and a strong organizational commitment to implement high quality, evidence-based practices. Here are some lessons that Illinois learned.
- Illinois' established commitment to inclusion helped build their successes upon existing work in the three community sites: Collinsville, Mannheim, and Springfield.
- Technical and financial support are critical to long-term success; it would be difficult without these resources.
- Strong leaders willing to use their decision-making power is necessary for inclusion to work.
- Inclusion is individualized. State and local supports must be generic enough to help all districts engage, yet customized to meet each district's needs.
News from the Field
The Youngest Pandemic Children Are Now in School, and Struggling
The pandemic's babies, toddlers and preschoolers are now school-age, and the impact on them is becoming increasingly clear: many are showing signs of being academically and developmentally behind.
Interviews with more than two dozen teachers, pediatricians and early childhood experts depicted a generation less likely to have age-appropriate skills: to be able to hold a pencil, communicate their needs, identify shapes and letters, manage their emotions or solve problems with peers.
Research
Doctoral Dissertation Takes Deep Dive into Dolly Parton's Imagination Library
Reading Power With and Through Dolly Parton's Imagination Library: A Critical Content Analysis, by Jennifer Stone, MS, CCC-SLP, examined the 60 books provided by Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library (DPIL) to the children who entered kindergarten in 2022. These are some of the findings that she shared with leadership at the Dollywood Foundation.- The books often conflate race and gender.
- The five families in the books who do not live in single-family homes are all families of color.
- Some of their apartments are depicted as places from which children needed to or wanted to escape.
- The books do not represent diversity of ability, since all the characters are portrayed as fit and able.
Stone says that while her research was well received, she does not know if it will impact DPIL's book selection process.
Collaborative Care Could Help Reduce Disparities in Mental Health Treatment
A new study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health marks a step toward reducing disparities in mental health care. It found that a collaborative care intervention delivered in real-world settings significantly reduced PTSD symptoms among patients from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds. Other findings from this large, randomized clinical trial support comprehensive care delivered by clinicians as effective for treating mental disorders, including PTSD. The study also suggests that this comprehensive form of care is beneficial for people from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds, who often face disparities in medical settings. Among the factors the researchers attribute to the intervention's success for a diverse group of trauma survivors are its patient-centered focus, flexible nature tailored to individual needs, and emphasis on shared decision-making.