EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
It’s not surprising that these stubborn trends culminate with dismal high school graduation rates: Latino youth are as likely to drop out of high school as they are to finish, a troubling statistic, given that 1-in-5 students in Illinois schools is Latino.
But Illinois has recently upped the ante in addressing these stubborn achievement gaps, with legislation mandating that our youngest learners have access to preschool programs in their native language. In a state where one-fifth of residents speak a language other than English, it’s vital that Illinois give our youngest English-language learners—many of whom are Latino—the best shot at building a solid academic foundation. This bilingual early education mandate will be fully implemented in Illinois preschool programs by 2014, and will begin to whittle away at the stubborn achievement gaps that exist between Latinos and their peers.
Lean economic times threaten funding for these vital programs, both at the state and federal levels. Budget cuts threaten to reduce the availability of quality, accessible preschools, already in short supply in Latino communities: Just 1-in3 Latino children are enrolled in preschool in Illinois, compared with almost two-thirds of other children. However, research from the University of Chicago’s Nobel Laureate Dr. James Heckman shows us that early childhood education is a sound investment, with every $1 invested yielding a $10 return in the form of increased school and career achievement as well as reduced costs in remedial education, health and criminal justice system expenditures
What we’re doing to ensure that Latino children have access to high quality early childhood services that are linguistically and culturally appropriate:
• Advancing a collective agenda on issues that impact young Latino learners with the Early Childhood Education Acuerdo work group, working with leaders from early childhood education centers.
• Enriching civic understanding and media coverage of Latino children and families with the New Journalism on Latino Children project, a project coordinated with the University of California at Berkeley and the Education Writer’s Association.
• Promoting culturally-relevant parent education programming to Latino-serving organizations throughout the region with the Abriendo Puertas (Opening Doors) program.
• Providing recommendations to increase Latino students’ access to quality early childhood education through analysis and policy reports, most recently the Transforming Early Learning: Educational Equity for Young Latinos.
• Advocating for administrative and legislative changes by participating in public policy decision-making processes and training community leaders and parents to participate in the advocacy.
