Alignment. Quality. Access.
OECD leads the state's initiatives to create an integrated system of quality, early learning and development programs to help give all Illinois children a strong educational foundation before they begin kindergarten.
Learn more.
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10/19/2016 Healthy Families Illinois Summit and Home Visitor Celebration Dinner 2016
11/1/2016
Home Visiting Task Force Meeting
11/3/2016 HVTF Sustainability Workgroup Meeting
11/9/2016 Community Systems Development Subcommittee Meeting
11/17/2016 Integration and Alignment Committee
See
calendar for more events and details.
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Greetings!
We hope you're enjoying this wonderful fall weather and can sit back with your pumpkin spice latte as you read our October issue of Early Learning Insights. In this newsletter, we'll share some OECD staff changes, discuss our Federal site visit, and provide more exciting updates.
Best,
The Governor's Office of Early Childhood Development
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In September, federal
program
officers
from the Dept. of Education and the Dept. of Health and Human Services conducted a site visit for the Illinois' Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) and Preschool Expansion Grants. Our program officers had the chance to meet and speak with more than fifty key partners from across Illinois who are actively leading initiatives and implementing incredible systematic reforms through RTT-ELC and Preschool Expansion.
Our program
officers
were impressed by the work that is being done, and emphasized the need to document
these amazing stories of transformation and the impact they have on children and families, to allow more people and communities to learn from our experiences. We are looking forward to putting these stories together in partnership with sub-grantees.
We are thankful to everyone who participated in the planning and hosting of this visit and we are excited to continue working together across sectors in continual pursuit of improving Illinois' early childhood system.
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OECD Undergoes Staff Changes
The OECD is in the process of undergoing several staff changes. In August, the OECD was happy to welcome our new policy intern from the Erikson Institute, Diane Carasig, and our new Grant Manager, David Brown, and this month we are excited to have Dr. Cynthia Tate joining our team as Executive Director. Additionally, Penny Segura, our OECD Policy Fellow, has finished her time in our office and is leaving in October.
Coming to us from the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), Dr. Cynthia L. Tate holds a Bachelor's degree from Fisk University and a Doctorate in clinical /community psychology from the State University of New York at Albany. She has more than twenty years of experience as a clinician, administrator, educator, and consultant. Dr. Tate's roles at DCFS included serving as the Senior Deputy responsible for Clinical Practice, Child Well-Being, Policy and Quality Assurance and Research. As the Deputy Director for the Office of Child Well-being, Dr. Tate led the implementation of the Title IV-E Waiver: Illinois Birth Thru Three demonstration project. She also oversaw the Early Childhood Developmental Screening program for children 0-5. Prior to her appointment as the Deputy Director for the Office of Child Well-Being, Dr. Tate was the Deputy Director for the Division of Clinical Practice and Professional Development of DCFS. She led a professional statewide staff of clinical social workers, consulting psychologists, developmental screeners, experts in trauma-informed practice, and other professionals. With her considerable experience and expertise in working across multiple sectors, we are looking forward to having Dr. Tate lead our team.
Diane moved to Chicago from the Philippines to earn her Masters in Child Development. Passionate about reading, she taught middle school Reading, Language, and Writing for seven years. Realizing that literacy development is most crucial during the early years, she worked as a Program Officer at Save the Children, where she was involved in early learning initiatives such as parent education, workforce training, and material development in urban communities and indigenous populations. She hopes to gain a better understanding of how different government agencies can work together to establish a system for early childhood initiatives, and the role that the government plays in helping children reach their full potential. After graduation, she hopes to be involved in early childhood policy and research and someday going back to the Philippines to help establish an early childhood system.
David began his career as a 6th grade math teacher in Atlanta, Georgia, with Teach for America. Subsequently, he joined a research study group with the University of Michigan focusing on teacher quality and effectiveness. Later, after earning his MBA from Cornell University, he joined Hewlett Packard as a Product Marketing Manager, where he led the outbound marketing activities for a number of software solutions in the Big Data group. Now, David is stepping into the role of RTT-ELC Grant Manager at OECD and will have the opportunity to leverage his marketing and teaching background to contribute to achieving a stronger early childhood system in Illinois.
Penny came to the OECD in August of 2015 as a Policy Fellow after graduating from the University of Chicago with her Bachelor's degree in Public Policy. Penny has played a variety of pivotal roles at OECD, including: RTT-ELC fiscal support and coordination of monthly monitoring calls and quarterly meetings for sub-grantees; developing communications materials including the OECD newsletter; and supporting the office's community systems development work. As her fellowship has now ended, she is moving on to take an analyst position at a green energy consulting firm. She says that she has had an amazing group of peers to learn from and support her in her first year job out of college, and that in her time at the OECD, she was inspired by both her colleagues' and partner agencies' dedication to improving the early childhood system in Illinois. We wish Penny all the best as she starts a new chapter in her life.
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Innovation Zone Spotlight
Funded through the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge grant and supported by Illinois Action for Children, early child
hood collaborators in eleven Innovation Zones in Illinois are building local systems toward the goal of equal access to early learning opportunities that will ultimately lead to improved child outcomes.
In this Innovation Zone Spotlight, we will focus on the strategies and successes of the Altgeld-Riverdale Innovation Zone. Altgeld-Riverdale is home to about 6,000 residents, the vast majority of whom are black, low-income, and reside in public and subsidized housing.
The Altgeld-Riverdale Innovation Zone works closely with a diverse array of community partners including the Chicago Housing Authority, the Chicago Park District, the Chicago Public Library, the local health center, and several local social service agencies to support area preschools and child care centers in their efforts to increase preschool enrollment opportunities for families. As a result of these outreach and collaboration efforts, Altgeld-Riverdale preschools have seen significant increases in enrollment, with some at 90 percent capacity.
Most recently, the Altgeld-Riverdale Innovation Zone worked with local preschools to coordinate a community-wide celebratory welcome on the first day of preschool. Program teams at each preschool used the celebration as a way to encourage as many families as possible to enroll. On the first day of preschool, families were greeted with red carpets, refreshments, and positive messages about the value of early childhood education.
Over the summer, the Altgeld-Riverdale Innovation Zone also brought enrollment opportunities directly to parents by partnering with the Chicago Public Library to host regular preschool enrollment hours in which parents were provided with hands-on assistance in completing their preschool enrollment applications. As the Altgeld-Riverdale Innovation Zone moves forward in its efforts to increase access to enrollment, innovative partnerships in the community will continue to be a cornerstone strategy.
For more information about the Altgeld-Riverdale Innovation Zone, see this fact sheet.
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Children's Cabinet Update
 The Children's Cabinet is an inter-agency collaboration that leads Illinois' strategic vision for the education and well-being of children and families across the State. Organized around four primary goals, it aims to ensure that Illinois' children are safe, healthy, well-educated, and self-sufficient. On September 28
th
, a Children's Cabinet meeting was convened in order to present and select projects that will benefit Illinois' youth. Three projects were adopted by the Cabinet and will address lead prevention, support the early childhood education workforce, and form a youth apprenticeship initiative.
For more information on the Children's Cabinet and the projects chosen, visit the Cabinet homepage
here
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IL Newborn Practice Guide Published
 In September, the
Professionals Partnering with Newborns and their Families: A Guide for Practitioners from the Illinois Newborn Practice Roundtable
was published as a result of the partnership between the Illinois State Board of Education and the Illinois Newborn Practice Roundtable. The resource provides practitioners with a guide on how to support families as they build relationships with and care for their newborn babies.
Follow this
link
to access the publication.
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ILAEYC Hosts Children's Health Equity Convening
This fall, the National Association for the Education of Young Children convened a variety of community and state-level stakeholders in a series of regional meetings around the country to discuss the determinants of health and to highlight actionable solutions for reducing health disparities and promoting health equity. The final convening was hosted by the Illinois Association for the Education of Young Children in partnership with the Governor's Office of Early Childhood Development (OECD) and the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH). Held at Illinois State University in Normal on September 29th, this meeting brought together leaders from across Illinois in the early education, public health and related fields.
Kathy Stohr, Deputy Director of OECD, and Andrea Palmer, Chief of the Division of Maternal, Child and Family Health Services at IDPH, opened the convening with an overview of the health equity landscape in Illinois. This presentation highlighted IDPH's study of concentrated disadvantage, an index of communities with high propensities towards poverty and related disadvantages. Levels of concentrated disadvantage in Illinois communities correlate closely to levels of infant mortality, teen birth, homicide and poor educational attainment. In the context of the early childhood landscape, this research demonstrated that reducing health disparities will be critical for achieving the State's goal for every child to enter kindergarten safe, healthy, eager to learn and ready to succeed. Participants further discussed these issues during breakout groups focused on early childhood mental health, social determinants of health and advocacy efforts, and strategies for creating effective pipelines for serving children with high needs.
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Collaborating for Success: Elevating the Profession
The 2017 Gateways to Opportunity Higher Education Forum Call for Proposals is now underway. Twelve proposals on the subject of professional development will be accepted from Illinois faculty working in the early care and education sector (sessions will be 75 minutes in length). The proposals are peer-reviewed and must apply to one of the following teacher preparation areas:
- Policy-e.g. Institutional policies for articulation that support students in bridging
- Research-e.g. Early Math
- Promising Practices-Competency based education
For more information on the Call for Proposals and how to apply, see the flier.
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New Research Shows Preschool Teachers Treat Black and White Children Differently
The Huffington Post covered recent research produced through the Yale Child Study Center showing that preschool teachers respond differently to black and white students. The study shows that black children are 3.6 times more likely to be suspended than their white classmates most likely due to teachers' implicit biases, such as teachers expecting more disruptive behavior from black students.
For details on the study, read the Huffington article
here
and see the whole study
here
.
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First Lady Diana Rauner Visits Early Childhood Center in Rockford
In September, First Lady and president of the Ounce of Prevention Fund, Diana Rauner, visited the Dennis Early Childhood Center in Rockford to show her support of the early childhood initiatives in the area. Rockford Public Schools and the City of Rockford's Head Start program have successfully partnered to create comprehensive preschool programs utilizing funds from local, state, and federal sources. Rockford receives federal support from RTT-ELC, Preschool Expansion, and the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting program (MIECHV). Additionally,
all three of the school district's early childhood centers have received Awards of Excellence for Inclusion through ExceleRate Illinois. For further details, read more from the Rockford Register Star
here.
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Exploring the Importance of Parental Leave
NPR's series, "Stretched: Working Parents' Juggling Act", recently explored evidence indicating the powerful health benefits of paid parental leave. Featuring Dr. Benard Dreyer, a developmental and behavioral pediatrician at the NYU School of Medicine and president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the discussion covered the recommended length of parent leave, how leave benefits the whole family, and how breastfeeding increases with leave and improves the health of the child.
To hear the story and read the entire article, click this
link
.
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Podcasts Available: Conversations on Advancing Early Learning
The Committee for Economic Development (CED) has produced five podcasts in a series titled, "Advancing Early Learning". The CED affirms that strong early childhood programs are central to a healthy economy. The five topics addressed in the podcast series are found in the links below:
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