Neal Halfon Presentation - Using the EDI for Transforming

Our Community
• Population: 101,314
• School district (WFISD): 27 campuses
• Kindergarten population (1,164)
• Major industry: Manufacturing
• Educational achievement: 20% of adults over 25 do
not have HS diploma; 47% among the Latino
population
• Income data: 65% free and reduced lunch
Why Was the EDI Important to Our
Community?
• History of fragmented Early Childhood community
Apathy; lack of horizontal alignment; no central
organizational effort
• We want to be smarter about how to impact school
readiness
Targeted; visual; compare across communities and
neighborhoods
• It promotes SHARED accountability for school
readiness
Community accountability: parents, institutions,
neighborhoods and communities
Allows us to track progress over time in populations
• It will help us mobilize the community to improve school
di
How Does It Help Us Mobilize?
• Align institutional, neighborhood and community level to
vulnerabilities
Institutional
• QRIS (home and centers in neighborhood); rofessional
development (emergent literacy); Public schools
(storytelling program for parents); Language facilitator
(home; center and public school); Corporations in
neighborhood (volunteer reading program)
Neighborhoods
• Discover, connect and mobilize neighborhood assets to
improve school readiness
• Community/parent cafes specific to vulnerabilities; Asset
mapping (informal child care providers)
Community
• Social marketing campaigns; Parent engagement (Live N’
Learn)Advocacy (resident advocacy council)
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