For those of us in the early childhood field, it is a familiar scene: preschool classrooms with large numbers—even majorities—of children of color. Increasingly the norm in Illinois’ cities and suburbs, these classrooms are a snapshot of the nation’s demographic future.
The trends fueling the growing diversity of the early childhood population have shown little sign of stopping, as newly released Census data vividly reveal. Children of color now make up half of all children age five and under for the first time in U.S. history. And the growth isn’t slowing: Government data predict that in the next five years, the “half-and-half” statistic for of color/White children will hold true for all young people under age 18. While the... Continue Reading