The Early Link Podcast

In this week’s episode, host Rafael Otto delves into the importance of focusing on Native American wellness and the impact of COVID-19 on Native communities.

Guests:

Jillene Joseph is the Executive Director for the Native Wellness Institute and a partner with the Future Generations Collaborative.

Suzie Kuerschner is also a partner with the Future Generations Collaborative and serves as the Education Mode Coordinator.

Background:

The Future Generations Collaborative was formed by the Multnomah County Health Department and other community partners in 2011 to promote healthy pregnancies and cultural healing in the Native community, and to create a positive relationship between a government agency and the Native community.

The Native Wellness Institute is a nonprofit that exists because of the lasting effects of intergenerational trauma and how that contributes to the contemporary trauma that exists in Native American communities today. The institute focuses on providing opportunities for healing, growth, and development.

Resources:

In the midst of this pandemic, the Native Wellness Institute is providing a daily program called Native Wellness Power Hour on Facebook Live. Everyday at noon pacific time there is an hour long workshop consisting of storytelling, activities, concerts etc. These workshops can also be found on the Native Wellness Institute’s YouTube page.

In this week’s episode, host Rafael Otto talks with Dr. Carlos Crespo about COVID-19 and the impact on families and communities.

Note: This is a developing story and some things may have changed since the date of recording. Check the CDC’s website for updates and best practices on how to stay healthy.

Dr. Carlos Crespo is a community health professor at the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health. He studies the connection between physical activity and health among minorities.

In this week’s episode, host Rafael Otto talks with local education policy experts about the implementation of the Student Success Act.

Guests

Scott Nine is the Assistant Superintendent at Oregon Department of Education. He has spent almost two decades organizing, writing, speaking, and learning about what it takes to foster equity for students and remodel public education systems.

Parasa Chanramy is the Policy and Implementation Director at Stand for Children. Parasa started her career as a kindergarten teacher at a K-8 charter school in North Minneapolis. After teaching, she went on to work as a Policy and Advocacy fellow at Charter School Partners where she developed a nonprofit business plan to pilot a new parent advocacy organization called EMPOWER: Education Matters—Parents Organizing and Working for Education Reform.

Dana Hepper is the Director of Policy and Advocacy at Children’s Institute, she oversees the organization’s legislative advocacy and community engagement work. Dana started her career as an elementary school and preschool teacher, then she worked at Stand for Children for nine years doing community organizing, policy, and advocacy before joining Children’s Institute.

Background

The Student Success Act (SSA) was passed during the 2019 Legislative Session. It mandates that Oregon will allocate $1 billion in new education investments each year, beginning in the 2020–2021 school year.

The SSA investments are allocated into three separate accounts:

The Student Investment Account ($500 million) will be used used to meet students’ mental and behavioral health needs, and to increase academic achievement and reduce disparities for students of color; students with disabilities; emerging bilingual students; students navigating poverty, homelessness, and foster care; and other students that have historically experienced disparities in our schools.

Statewide Investments ($300 million) include High School Success (M98); expansion of nutrition programs; school safety; African American/Black Student Success Statewide Plan; American Indian/Alaska Native Student Success Plan; Latinx Student Success Statewide Plan; ESD support for school districts; summer programming; and the High Cost Disability Fund.

The Early Learning Account ($200 million) funds will go toward early learning opportunities for kids under 5. Examples include: Early Intervention and Early Childhood Special Education; Early Head Start; Healthy Families Oregon; Early Childhood Equity Fund; and professional development for early childhood educators.

Swati Adarkar discusses the role of Children's Institute in driving educational change in communities across Oregon. She also describes recent legislative wins through the Student Success Act, the power of partnerships that connect practice to policy, and the growing momentum to strengthen early care and education for young children and their families.

Concordia University will honor Adarkar with their Governor Victor Atiyeh Leadership in Education Award on February 4, 2020. The award, named for former Oregon Governor Victor Atiyeh in recognition of his life-long passion for and leadership in education, is presented each year to a leader who has profoundly changed the odds for our children to succeed in school and life.

In this week’s episode, host Rafael Otto speaks with Soobin Oh about the importance of anti-bias education in early childhood. Soobin Oh is the senior education advisor at Children’s Institute. He is a committed social justice educator and is well-versed in anti-bias education, culturally sustaining pedagogy, and critical pedagogy. Soobin holds a master’s in early childhood inclusive curriculum and instruction from Portland State University (PSU) and is working towards his Ed.D. in curriculum and instruction at PSU with a research focus on social justice in early childhood education.

Definitions:

Institutional Bias is the tendency of institutions to advantage and favor certain groups of people while other groups are disadvantaged or devalued.

Explicit Bias is attitudes and beliefs of individuals about other people or groups of people on a conscious level.

Implicit Bias is attitudes and beliefs of individuals about other people or groups of people on an unconscious level. Implicit bias is a problem for educators because it can come into play in a classroom without intent.

A Tourist Curriculum is a superficial educational approach that does not make diversity a routine part of the ongoing, daily learning environment. Instead, it is curriculum that “drops in” on strange, exotic people to see their holidays and taste their foods, and then returns to the “real” world of “regular” life. Essentially it treats non-western cultures as “other.”

Rob Grunewald is an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Grunewald conducts research on community development and regional economic issues. He co-authored a report called “Early Childhood Development: Economic Development with a High Public Return” in 2003. Since then he has continued his work supporting and advocating for investments in early childhood programs and services.

2019 has been an incredible year for early childhood. We recorded 13 episodes of The Early Link podcast this year. For this, our 14th show, we review some of the common themes shared by our many esteemed guests, and share what’s on our minds as we move into 2020. This is our final Early Link podcast of the year, a 2019 year in review and look ahead to 2020.

Dr. Anya Hurwitz is the executive director of SEAL, an organization based in Oakland, California that is at work improving the education experience for English learners. SEAL stands for Sobrato Early Academic Language, and is a model that includes curriculum, professional development and technical assistance so schools and teachers can better meet the needs of English learners.

Dr. Hurwitz has been a teacher, school leader, and district administrator, and has a doctorate in educational leadership from University of California Berkeley. She has been on the SEAL team since 2014 and the SEAL model, today, is used in more than 100 programs and schools in California.

Dr. John Kitzhaber is well known in Oregon and across the country for his expertise on health care and health policy. He has practiced as an emergency physician, served for fourteen years in the Oregon legislature and three terms as Governor of Oregon. Through his service, he authored the Oregon Health Plan and was the chief architect of the state’s Coordinated Care Organizations. Today, he continues to work on ways to improve the lives of children and families in the state with an eye on improving our health systems and how government spends its resources.

Deborah Leong is professor emerita of psychology at Metropolitan State University of Denver where she taught for 37 years. She is co-founder and executive director of Tools of the Mind, a curriculum and professional development program that was developed more that 25 years ago for early childhood classrooms to improve how children learn and how teachers teach. Dr. Leong also has extensive experience working on and publishing about early childhood assessment and standards. In this episode, we discuss the history and development of Tools of the Mind, brain development and the importance of play, and the role of assessment in early childhood settings.