MATTER

WHAT DOES IT
TAKE TO CLOSE
THE EARLY
LEARNING GAP?
By investing in
early interventions,
affordable and
high-quality
preschool, and
family engagement
programs, California
can help Black
children gain access
to the resources
they need to
catch up before
kindergarten.
Instead of leveling the playing field early, we underinvest in our state’s future. It
doesn’t have to be this way. By investing in early interventions, affordable and
high-quality preschool, and family engagement programs, California can help Black
children gain access to the resources they need to catch up before kindergarten.
Specific strategies that work include these:
1. Making high-quality early learning opportunities available to all children.
Successful initiatives guarantee free or subsidized preschool to all 4-year-olds,
provide teachers with coaching and professional development, and monitor
the quality of preschool programs. Quality preschool matters, because early
academic, social, behavioral, and physical learning during the first five years of
life forms the foundation for classroom learning later on. Preschool-age children
learn early literacy and math skills, as well as executive function and selfregulation
skills that are vital for social, emotional, and academic development.
Research has found that well-designed, high-quality preschool can positively
impact school readiness, later academic achievement, high school graduation
rates, lifetime earnings, and even arrest rates. 8
2. Engaging families of young learners. In the most welcoming early education
schools and settings, family engagement is a core value. Successful schools
and programs build upon families’ strengths, address trauma, build trust, and
encourage engagement. They view a parent as a child’s first and most important
teacher. They treat parents as partners rather than as obstacles in the way of
progress, and they build their knowledge and skills so they can more fully and
confidently participate in their child’s learning.
3. Offering young black children a healthy start. Successful programs offer
African American families access to the same resources other families have,
with some starting these services at birth. Strategies include: providing families
of new infants a home visit from a nurse or case manager; high-quality health
care for children and their families; education for parents on child development,
nutrition, early literacy, and school readiness; and access to developmentally
appropriate books to support early literacy development.
10 THE EDUCATION TRUST–WEST | BLACK MINDS MATTER | OCTOBER 2015