Agenda Highlights
On April 19th, 40 network partners joined us for our April meeting focused on the early education landscape in Oakland. In addition to our knowledgable expert speakers, OLC members were invited to share and network over a delicious lunch from El Gusano. Thank you to all who joined us for another opportunity to learn, collaborate, and champion! And a special guest to all special guest speakers. We look forward to seeing you all in July for our Annual Summer Convening. In the meantime, don’t forget to check our blog for the latest news and opportunities from the us and for community announcements and community job postings.
A Look at Early Childhood Education Issues, Initiatives, and Data
Malia Ramler and Andrea Youngdahl of Oakland Starting Smart and Strong shared how the initiative is working to develop a cross-sector, citywide, integrated, quality early childhood system. OSSS is a ten-year initiative focused on creating universal access to high quality early learning opportunities and the promotion of healthy development for children 0-5. The presentation focused on how Oakland is mobilizing cross-sector agencies to build systems and support, and how OSSS is serving as the early care and education collaborative for Oakland.
Community organizations interested in this 0-5 task force are invited to learn more by contacting Sarah Price at sarah@oaklandedfund.org.
A Look at the Preschool Experience of OUSD Kindergartners
Rinat Fried shared the new public “Preschool Experience Dashboard” for OUSD kindergarten students. OUSDs recent inclusion of parent reported preK experience information as part of the enrollment application, revealed important data on how many children have had preschool.
“16% of OUSD kindergarten students had no preschool experience prior to enrolling in OUSD preK”
The dashboards include the type of preschool (head start, OUSD, private, day care, etc), as well as where they attended. The dashboards also show feeder patters for kinder enrollment, allowing interested principals to understand where their students are coming from.
The dashboard is available via OUSDs community portal.
Supporting Early Learning in Oakland Discussion
Following both early education focused presentation, a discussion followed on how Oakland can message the importance of early education and preschool for all.
What does the public at large need to understand in order to support quality preschool for all Oakland children?
- What is school readiness and how does it impact later learning?
- How does investing in preschool benefit the city.
- What does expanded preschool look like? What do children gain?
- What does the access gap to preschool look like and how does it impact families?
- How is preschool different from other forms of child care?
How do we address these questions and build public will and support?
- Create a grassroots, parent led campaign for preK
- Craft messages for various stakeholders and decision makers, such as policy makers.
Some outstanding and thought provoking questions remain:
- Is there a common understanding of school readiness?
- Is there a common understanding of “quality”
- In addition to increasing the number of available preK seats, how do we address the other barriers to preK access and enrollment?
“Done in A Day” Pro Bono Services with Taproot
Andrew Mahoney of the Taproot foundation shared their pro bono services for non-profits. The Oakland Literacy Coalition is working to secure a partnership with the Taproot Foundation to make their “Done in a Day” pro bono services available to OUSD organizations. Please contact Andrew Mahoney at Amahoney@taprootfoundation.org with any questions about how the Taproot Foundation might support your non-profit.