The Early Link Podcast

Miriam Calderon is the early learning system director of the Early Learning Division in the Oregon Department of Education. Before returning to Oregon in 2017 to lead the division, she helped build a birth-to-three system and universal preschool for the District of Columbia. She was also a senior fellow with the BUILD Initiative leading work pertaining to dual language learners and universal preschool, and served as a political appointee in the Obama administration.

We invite you to spend an hour listening to our interview with Ron Herndon, a long-time community leader and activist in Portland and nationally. He has been the director of the Portland-based Albina Head Start since 1975, and his background includes more than four decades of advocacy efforts on behalf of low-income families and young children, and Portland’s black community.

Having served as chairman of the board for the National Head Start Association for 20 years, from 1993 to 2013, Herndon offers a unique historical perspective on early childhood in Portland and nationally. Today, his Head Start and Early Head Start programs serve more than 1,000 children in 33 classrooms at 25 locations in North, Northeast, and Southeast Portland. And he has recently pioneered a Mandarin language program, the first of its kind for a Head Start program in the US.

In this interview, we discuss the history of Albina Head Start, racial discrimination and segregation in Portland, and the history of state and federal policy that systematically isolated and suppressed Portland’s African-American community — actions that still have lasting impact today. Herndon also provides his commentary on the history of education in the country, what is lacking for low-income children, the importance of teacher training and family empowerment, and ideas for changing the lives of children with a commitment to their well-being and success.

Please tune in, share, and enjoy.

The Ready, Set, Go! Play and Learn program at Earl Boyles Elementary School gives children from birth to age 3 and their caregivers opportunities to learn in a child-centered and culturally responsive environment. The program, in its second year at Earl Boyles, builds parenting and social and emotional skills, and strengthens relationships between families and schools. Judy Strand, the CEO of Metropolitan Family Service, which runs the program, highlights the results of the program, while Program Coordinator Maria Perdomo explains, “We notice how the children have been improving in their skills—social/emotional skills, cognitive skills—and how the parents are improving how they connect with their children and support them with positive discipline.”

A Parent's Experience with Albina Head Start by Children's Institute

Kelly Soter is the principal at Jackson Elementary School in Medford, Oregon. She was named 2017 Oregon Elementary Principal of the year by the Confederation of Oregon School Administrators and the Oregon Elementary School Principals Association. In this Q&A, Kelly talks about her passion for working with children, how Jackson Elementary has shifted its approach to serving the community by building connections with parents and families, the importance of starting and building a preschool program, the power of partnerships, relationships with funders, and much more.

She also talks about what it takes to create change and impact lives and how effective systems are necessary to sustain efforts for the long-term. Listen here, download, and share!

Ralph Smith is managing director of the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading (GLR), an initiative to mobilize communities to third-grade reading proficiency for children from low-income families. The GLR network now includes more than 300 Campaign communities in 42 states.

Smith has served on the boards of the Council of Foundations, the Foundation Center, Venture Philanthropy Partners, and the Wells Fargo Regional Foundation. Recently, he retired as senior vice president of the Annie E. Casey Foundation and also served as a cabinet officer for the School District of Philadelphia. Previously, Smith taught Corporations and Securities Law and Education Law and Policy as a member of the Law Faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, during which time he also served as a senior advisor to Philadelphia’s mayor. Smith led efforts to design and implement the school district’s landmark voluntary desegregation plan, negotiate some of the nation’s first education reform-driven teacher contracts, and develop Children Achieving, a district-wide blueprint supported by the Annenberg Challenge.

In this interview, we discuss how GLR is designed to help communities create solutions for kids, the concept of accountable advocacy, the role of philanthropy and state leaders, and much more. Listen, download, and share!

Learn about Vroom, a free tool designed to stimulate parent-child interactions with brain building activities. Created by the Bezos Family Foundation in partnership with the Center for the Developing Child at Harvard University, the app is for parents and educators and now offers a new texting service.

This segment features Ari Wubbold, the Vroom coordinator for the Oregon Department of Education Early Learning Division.

Listen, download, and share!

With school back in session, many young children are just getting to know their kindergarten classrooms. To help with the transition, school districts in Multnomah County have offered an Early Kindergarten Transition program to students who have not had preschool or have a primary language other than English.

Known as the EKT program, a new five-year study found that students who participated in the three-week intervention showed higher attendance rates and early literacy skills over time.

Here’s Dr. Beth Tarasawa, manager for education research partnerships at the Northwest Evaluation Association and lead researcher on the study, to explain.

This segment features Abdikadir Bashir Mohamud, executive director at the Center for African Immigrants and Refugees of Oregon and the program manager for the center's Preschool Promise Program. In this interview, we discuss the purpose of CAIRO as a social change organization, the Somali community in Oregon, collective efforts to change education outcomes, and much more.

In this episode, we talk to lead teacher Katy Allaback and assistant teacher Carlos Sanchez about Waverly Elementary School in Albany, where an innovative preschool was built from the ground up.

This is part two in our podcast about Waverly's preschool. Listen to the first installment here.