Equitable early childhood education services require teaching in culturally responsive ways, implementing developmentally appropriate practices, and including families in decisions about policies. Many states are examining and evaluating their early childhood systems through an equity framework. This framework helps states reduce disparities by identifying and eliminating barriers, which helps improve services for families experiencing disadvantage. This resource page shares resources from the National Technical Assistance Center for Preschool Development Grants Birth Through Five about improving equity in state early childhood education policies, efforts, and systems.
Resources
The following resources share about equity in systems, equity in data collection, and policy choices to reduce disparities.
Systems Framework to Support Dual Language Learning in Early Care and Education Settings
These recently released new systems briefs to provide practical recommendations and highlight high-quality resources that will help states, territories, tribes, and local ECE programs better serve dual language learning. Briefs are available in English and Spanish.
Dismantling Systemic Racism in Early Care and Education
This webinar is part of a series on equity and shares concrete and measurable priorities states can use to advance equity in early childhood education systems.
Equity in Early Childhood Data Webinar
This webinar focuses on building state capacity to consider equity in data collection to improve equitable access and outcomes through data collection.
Research to Practice Brief: Delivering on the Promise Through Equitable Policies
This brief focuses on current research trends and implications for racial and ethnic disparities related to early childhood.
Additional Resources
A P-3 Framework Centering English Learners
This framework provides a vision and guidance for creating an aligned, appropriate P-3 system that centers English learners/dual language learners (EL/DLLs). It focuses on building aligned practices for EL/DLL success across the crucial developmental phase, ages 3-8, for language, literacy, learning, and identity, with a focus on supporting deep, joyful learning and development.
Operationalizing High-Quality Dual Language Programs
This report operationalizes high-quality dual language education for young emergent bilinguals using a seven-part comprehensive framework that includes programmatic structures, curriculum and assessment, language allocation, family leadership and engagement, and more.
How Can We Support Staff in Addressing Implicit Bias? One program's approach
This video focuses on the importance of addressing educators’ self-awareness, emotional intelligence, adverse childhood experiences, and personal implicit bias.
The First Step for Addressing Bias in Infant and Toddler Programs
This brief provides an overview of implicit bias, reflective questions, and recommendations to help mitigate the negative effects on learning and development.
Advancing Equity in Early Childhood Education
This brief provides recommendations for advancing equity, diversity, and inclusion in early childhood education into their own state policies and guidance for early childhood programs and for professional development trainings.
Promising Models for Preparing a Diverse, High-Quality, Early Childhood Workforce
This brief provides alternative pathways to becoming an early childhood care provider, noting that traditional pathways may be more difficult for minority individuals.
An Anti-Racist Approach to Supporting Child care through COVID-19 and Beyond
This brief provides background literature on the history and current state of racial disparities in child care quality and access, and how these disparities have worsened due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Supporting Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Children and Workers in Early Childhood Quality Rating and Improvement Systems
This brief presents ways in which statewide quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS) can take a more intentional approach to serving culturally and linguistically diverse early childhood providers and families.
How States Can Honor Families and Workers of Color in Subsidy Systems
This webinar discusses racial equity and the relationship between equity and child care policies and introduce information about ways in which policies can support equity efforts.
Racial Justice, Equity, and the Role of Child Care
This webinar focuses on relationships between racial equity and child care and provides recommendations to address equity in child care workforce development.
California's Gold: An Advocacy Framework for Young Dual Language Learners
This report describes a California framework that focuses on the state’s efforts to address workforce development, curriculum and instruction, assessment, and systems alignment for dual language learners and their families.
Supporting Early Learning in America: Policies for a New Decade
This report considers the successes, challenges, and failures of the last decade and builds on their previous vision for supporting early learning and offers new ideas on what policymakers and other stakeholders should prioritize in the 2020s.
Family Outreach Series—Strategies for Outreach to Families with Limited English
This brief presents key strategies for state leaders and local agencies and programs to enhance family outreach efforts, with a focus on families living in remote or rural areas, families experiencing homelessness, and culturally and linguistically diverse families.
Addressing Harsh Discipline and Disparities
This policy brief reviews the data, research, and policy landscapes related to harsh discipline including suspension, expulsion, corporal punishment, seclusion, and the inappropriate use of restraint.
Expanding Access to Bilingual Learning for Dual Language Learners
This brief provides recommendations for state leaders to think about best practices for dual language learners (DLLs) and ensure full access and effective participation in learning experiences.
Expanding Inclusive Learning for Children with Disabilities
This brief reviews the data, research, and policy landscapes related to the inclusion of children with disabilities in general learning settings.
Build It Back Better: Dialogue Resource Kit
This toolkit for hosting conversations to inform stakeholders how to rebuild a better, more equitable and comprehensive early childhood system in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Child Care and Early Education Equity: A State Action Agenda
This brief describes key state early education programs, significant challenges such as racial disparities and underinvestment, and recommendations for how state leaders can meaningfully improve policies and programs.
Equity Starts Early: Addressing Racial Inequities in Child Care and Early Education Policy
This brief explores racial equity in child care and early education, along with the historic circumstances that have shaped these policies and programs.
Overview of the Root Causes of Disparities in Child Outcomes, and the Role of Child Serving Systems
This webinar explores racism and other forms of bias on the ECE experiences of children and families from marginalized communities, and identifies ways to address equity, bias, and disparities through an IECMHC framework.
Increasing Qualifications, Centering Equity
This report explores recommendations from 50 early childhood educators in three states and provides their perspective on the impact of policy changes increasing educational requirements for early childhood educators in their states.
Policymakers Can Redesign the Early Childhood and Education System to Root Out Structural Racism
This blog post highlights the ways that structural racism has been embedded into characteristics of the ECE workforce and identifies efforts from federal agencies and states to redesign existing systems to support more equitable outcomes in the ECE workforce.
Promising Models for Preparing a Diverse, High-Quality Early Childhood Workforce
This brief highlights promising programs that recruit and prepare racially, ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse cohorts of educators to teach in programs serving children birth to age 5.
Race & Education: Racism in America' Child Care Industry
This webinar focuses on racism in the child care industry in the United States.
Race and Education Webinar Series
This webinar series from The Hunt Institute on race and education. This webinar series aims to lift up the voices of the people and organizations who have dedicated their time and resources to improving outcomes for children of color.
Racial Wage Gaps in Early Education Employment
This article that highlights the current early education system's racial inequities in terms of wage gaps. This article provides an analysis and actionable next steps for policymakers to address the inequities in the early education workforce.
Priorities to Dismantle Systemic Racism in Early Care and Education
This report outlines critical priorities and actionable policies that federal and state policymakers can immediately and concretely utilize to advance equity in the early care and education system.
Start with Equity: From the Early Years to the Early Grades
This report highlights the inequities of the education system that affect the lives of millions of children from historically marginalized communities.
The Equity Line
This blog highlights original analyses, commentary, and “on the ground” stories of students, parents, educators, and activists all over the nation striving to improve education.
Ensuring That Black and Latino Children Have Access to High-Quality State-Funded Preschool
This report describes the results from an analysis examining race and ethnicity in state-funded preschool programs across the country.