E.g., 04/23/2024
E.g., 04/23/2024
NCIIP: Early Childhood and K-12 Education

NCIIP: Early Childhood and K-12 Education

Young girl talks to a child psychologist
iStock.com/Lacheev

Infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH) services can offer vital support for young children’s healthy development. Yet, young children in immigrant and refugee families often do not benefit, due in part to lower levels of health-care coverage and limited cultural responsiveness in the field. This issue brief explores the benefits and barriers to supporting these children via IECMH services, and some ways to close key gaps.

A high school student answers a math problem on a whiteboard
Allison Shelley/EDUimages

State accountability systems are designed to identify and close student achievement gaps. Yet most do not report and interpret English Learner (EL) outcomes in a way that paints a full picture of how different instructional services have contributed to academic development. This report sketches a vision for reimagined accountability systems that can support better understanding of ELs’ learning and inform school improvement strategies.

A third grader raises her hand in class
Allison Shelley/EDUimages

A significant increase in the number of immigrant children in U.S. schools over the last decade has challenged K-12 educators to expand their capacity to serve students with different backgrounds and educational needs. This fact sheet sketches a profile of recently arrived immigrant children, presenting data on top states of residence, national origins, household characteristics, and more.

4th and 5th grade students working on posters
Allison Shelley/EDUimages

The pandemic and move to remote learning affected students across the United States, and certain groups—including the nation’s 5 million English Learners (ELs)—were hit particularly hard. At the same time, the federal government made unprecedented investments in public K-12 education to counter the pandemic’s adverse impacts. This issue brief explores the ways school districts have invested these funds to support ELs.

Three students in a digital filmmaking class set up a camera
Allison Shelley/EDUimages

Increasing equitable access to educational opportunities is a major focus for U.S. educators and others. For English Learners, the hands-on courses offered through career and technical education (CTE) programs can play an important role in helping them stay engaged in school, graduate, and get on a path to a career providing a family-sustaining wage. This report explores policies and practices to support their participation in CTE, as well as persistent barriers.

Photo of a preschool teacher reading to students.
Allison Shelley/EDUimages

Shortages of workers continue to plague early childhood education and care (ECEC) systems across the United States. With the field already struggling to effectively serve young children in families that speak languages other than English, apprenticeship programs offer a promising solution to bring more—and more multilingual—workers into early childhood careers.

Recent Activity

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flickr 21st Century Classroom 4571643113_f2e840ee38_z
Video, Audio
June 27, 2018

Marking the release of an MPI brief, experts on this webinar examine the key features of English Learner (EL) instructional models and discuss state- and district-level approaches to supporting schools in implementing effective EL program models, with a particular focus on what is being done in New York and M

flick EU ECHO refugee children
Video, Audio
April 12, 2018

On this webinar, authors discuss their findings, highlighting promising policies and practices for serving young children of refugees and asylum seekers in nine key host countries, as well as key areas in which ECEC services need to be strengthened.

Flickr Alliance for Education 36502961545_c01bbbca2c_z Courtesy of Allison Shelley The Verbatim Agency for American Education Images of Teachers and Students in Action
Video, Audio
March 21, 2018

This webinar focuses on patterns of home language use across different early childhood education and care (ECEC) program types, and the potential of the Sobrato Early Academic Language model to improve instruction and outcomes for DLLs in superdiverse settings. 

2018.2.28 Immigration Enforcement and Education Wilson Center co sponsor
Video
February 28, 2018

In an era of stepped-up immigration enforcement, speakers at this event present their research on the impact of enforcement policies on children from immigrant families and U.S. public schools. 

Preschool girl and boy hammering 35668258654_46de9bf058_z
Video, Audio
February 22, 2018

As the number and share of Dual Language Learners (DLLs) continues to grow across the United States, diversity within this population is also increasing. This webinar marks the release of a report providing analysis of the diversity within the DLL population nationwide and at the state and local levels. Speakers discuss data on the three rapidly growing subgroups within the DLL population: Black and Asian American and Pacific Islander DLLs and young children of refugees, and the implications for the early education and care field and K-12 education systems. 

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Recent Activity

Commentaries
November 2022

Shortages of workers continue to plague early childhood education and care (ECEC) systems across the United States. With the field already struggling to effectively serve young children in families that speak languages other than English, apprenticeship programs offer a promising solution to bring more—and more multilingual—workers into early childhood careers.

Video, Audio, Webinars
October 12, 2022

Language access policies and services are critical to promoting the equitable participation of Dual Language Learners and their families in early childhood programs, yet there are persisting participation gaps. This webinar outlines federal and state efforts to implement language access policies in the early childhood field, along with opportunities to improve language services.

Fact Sheets
October 2022

How many Dual Language Learner (DLL) children live in your state, and what share do they comprise of all children under age 5? What languages are most commonly spoken in their households? Answers to these and other questions that are critical to the design and implementation of early childhood programs that reach all children equitably are presented in a series of state-level data fact sheets.

Policy Briefs
October 2022

Dual Language Learners (DLLs)—young children with a parent who speaks a language other than English at home—benefit greatly from early childhood programs, but they also enroll at lower rates than their peers. This policy brief looks at federal and state language access policies that aim to make such programs more accessible to DLLs’ families. It also examines persistent gaps in participation and ways to address them.

Commentaries
June 2022

While the pandemic has given a boost to efforts to water down or limit end-of-year state assessments of students in K-12, this commentary notes the importance of testing to drive equity for the nation's 5 million English Learners and ensure that they are not overlooked or that resources and support services are misdirected from where they are needed.

Video, Audio, Webinars
May 17, 2022

Marking the release of a report examining the assessment of English Learner (EL) students after pandemic-induced disruptions, this webinar examines ELs’ learning experiences during the 2020-21 academic year and their performance and participation in statewide testing, and how schools are using data to inform interventions and instruction this year. 

Reports
May 2022

In addition to upending daily life in the classroom, the pandemic has affected how states administer annual assessments to their students—disrupting a key means of collecting data on new or growing learning gaps that demand attention. This report explores how states have approached testing English Learners during the COVID-19 pandemic, and what 2020-21 assessment data can and cannot tell us.

Commentaries
May 2022

As school districts across the United States move to allocate their federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds, it is essential that they engage with multilingual and diverse community stakeholders, in part given English Learners have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. The track record suggests many districts are struggling to effectively engage these communities.

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