Announcing Start Early’s Exclusive Partnership with ACSES

Start early is pleased to announce our new partnership with ACSES, a research-based approach to equitable classrooms developed by Stephanie Curenton, Ph.D. The Assessing Classroom Sociocultural Equity Scale (ACSES) is a valid and reliable observation tool and framework for measuring and supporting equitable sociocultural interactions in early childhood classrooms.

Now more than ever, we see the challenges facing our early education system and workforce. Black children are more likely to be suspended and expelled compared to their peers from other racial groups¹. There is also a tendency to quickly label a child’s behavior as “challenging” without taking into consideration children’s emotions, strengths, or developmental needs. This unfair discipline and mischaracterization can isolate racially, culturally and linguistically diverse learners. Meanwhile, teachers may experience burnout from managing their classrooms without sufficient resources. Without adequate support, it is challenging for teachers to center the experiences of diverse learners in their classroom and to provide intentional and positive learning environments for all students.

The Start Early and ACSES partnership will support early childhood educators at all levels with tools and strategies to address these challenges and build more equitable classrooms and education systems. Through professional learning, coaching, collaboration across peer groups, and measurement, we will prepare teachers and leaders to:

• Adopt the ACSES approach and integrate culturally relevant and anti-bias behaviors into their practice
• Facilitate equitable interactions with children to improve outcomes and peer relationships
• Develop skills to provide equitable discipline, individualized instruction and culturally sustaining social emotional learning opportunities

”I believe in the capacity of our workforce to learn and grow in their knowledge and commitment to equity,” says Dr. Curenton. “ACSES is not simply about creating a classroom environment that is more welcoming of social and cultural differences, but also about creating an education system that values and supports early educators to be the best they can be. ACSES is about investing in our workforce.”

As the exclusive professional learning partner for ACSES, Start Early will collaborate with Dr. Curenton to develop and deliver comprehensive professional learning for early childhood educators and program leaders. We will co-design PL opportunities with ECE teachers and leaders to make sure they are relevant and match the daily realities of working in an ECE classroom and program.

A Journey to Infant and Toddler Mental Health

As she became a program manager, Adrienne found new meaning in working with home visitors and parent educators through reflective supervision, making time for them to slow down and think more deeply about their practice. By shifting the focus to the home visitor and their needs, it could have significant impact on the delivery of services to families. Adrienne felt a growing desire to learn learning more about infant and toddler mental health, which led her to the Infant Toddler Mental Health certificate program and Portland State University’s Early Childhood Inclusive Education Master’s Degree. Drawn in by the school’s strengths-based and collaborative approach, and infant mental health classes’ exploration of the dynamic between parent-child or caregiver-child relationship in particular, the program reinforced her beliefs of how these interactions profoundly shape a child’s development while impacting the parent’s journey. One that Adrienne sees as a delicate dance that requires understanding, empathy, and advocacy.

The Dance of Parenting

As Adrienne shared, mothers, in particular, often struggle with self-doubt when it comes to parenting. “We tend to focus on our perceived shortcomings rather than celebrating our strengths. Home visiting that supports infant and maternal mental health can step in to bridge this gap. By supporting parents, we empower them to build strong attachment relationships. It’s not just about the child’s growth it’s about the parents’ growth too, and as home visitors, we can be a part of facilitating this transformation firsthand.”

Unseen Impact

Home visitors rarely know the full impact of their work. However, home visitors all have stories that demonstrate the power of the program to support families. Adrienne shares one story of a distressed mother who truly believed she couldn’t handle parenting. Her daughter’s tantrum at a bouncy house left her feeling inadequate and unequipped. By exploring the mother’s strengths, emphasizing and reminding her of the effort she put into creating enriching experiences for her child, despite the challenges of the moment, she was able to recognize that she had persevered through the challenge, and she was able to do it because she knew it was beneficial for her child. Leaning into the strengths-based aspects of the interaction and being able to normalize these emotional moments helps parents recognize their worth.

The Luxury of Strengths-Based Approaches

In trauma-informed principles, like those at the center of the hope-filled, compassionate NEAR@Home practice for addressing childhood trauma, being strengths-based is essential. Imagine entering someone’s home and focusing on what they’re doing well instead of pointing out flaws. It’s a necessity to be able to see what is going right —one that reveals genuine strengths. When home visitors are able to help parents see the best in themselves, we empower them. It’s not about rigid rules; it’s about acknowledging their efforts. Even after tough experiences, it’s critical to be able to take a step back and appreciate the positives—a parallel process that enriches the practice.

Continuing to Emphasize the Positive

Maternal and infant mental health isn’t just about fixing problems; it’s about celebrating strengths. Home visitors hold a unique position—to witness growth, resilience, and love within families. As Adrienne continues in her role leading Washington’s training efforts and expansion of NEAR trauma-informed practice, she believes in the power and potential of these strengths-based approaches to empower families to build strong and healthy relationships that will last a lifetime.

Authentically and meaningfully engaging families in systems design and improvement work requires careful attention to how we value the expertise and lived experiences of these critical partners. Oftentimes, there is a contrast in our espoused beliefs and actual behaviors (explicitly or implicitly). How conscious are we of the disconnect? What tools and frameworks exist to help us as systems leaders on our journeys to be more genuine in our beliefs and equitable and liberatory in our practice? Here are some key insights from Start Early Consulting’s work focused on centering family and provider voice.

Systems leaders aiming to engage families more equitably and effectively in systems design and improvement efforts need to assess their progress towards meeting these goals. Start Early has developed a self-assessment tool focused on cultivating family leadership in systems building work through the establishment of Family Councils. Framed as a continuum for developing capacities, the tool incorporates tenets of the Spectrum of Community Engagement to Ownership framework.

Focusing on the Needs of Early Childhood Professionals

The word “innovation” can be perceived as a buzz word. We see it everywhere – in job descriptions, in resumes, organizational websites, etc. and people almost instinctively pay attention to it. And rightfully so… it’s desirable to think of new ways of doing something, especially if it saves time, human effort, and money.

And yet, I often wonder if designing relevant and engaging professional learning for today’s early childhood educators is a matter of innovation, or rather a matter of focusing on the learner and what matters most to them.

The field of adult learning has provided some principles about how adults learn…and there have been research studies to confirm these. I like to think of these as conditions that we can create to center the needs of adult learners. Here’s a few of them:

• Give learners choice
• Respect learners and meet them where they are
• Show, don’t tell them
• Let learners practice
• Make it relevant

These conditions that support adult learning help us shift our focus from what we want (learning designers, subject matter experts, etc.), to what learners need. In my work at Start Early, we’re focusing on learner needs through centering equity using inclusive facilitation and offering microlearning.

The 2024 National Home Visiting Summit brought together advocates, home visitors, program leaders, funders, and researchers, alongside federal, state, and local level public sector system leaders for three days of learning, reflection, and action, both in person in Washington, D.C. and virtually with attendees joining from across the globe.

This year’s gathering spotlighted the tremendous progress public sector early childhood system leaders, particularly at the state level, have made to advance home visiting as part of an equitable, comprehensive early childhood system.

In breakout session presentations, small group discussions, and networking opportunities throughout the Summit, the four points below emerged as the key themes from system leaders regarding progress toward equitable early childhood systems:

1. Consolidation is not enough. There was energy and excitement about the lessons states are learning as they move towards consolidation of early childhood programs and funding streams into single, state agencies focused solely on early childhood. For example, state home visiting leaders shared promising practices around single statewide referral lines, and increasingly integrated funding streams. As more states consider consolidation, system leaders at the Summit asked attendees to consider how consolidation and integration are actually experienced by families and providers when they interact with public systems, and challenged leaders not to stop with integration at the top.
2. Look for “catalyst” funding opportunities. In a session about the Preschool Development Grants for Birth-Five (PDGB5) , state leaders reflected on approaching the funding opportunity with the question of “what can PDGB5 do for us, versus ‘how do we meet the requirements?” The Summit offered numerous examples of system leaders looking at federal, state, and increasingly philanthropic funding sources as catalysts – not carrying the full weight of system infrastructure but inspiring progress.
3. Communities are key. State system leaders are increasingly operationalizing infrastructure at a state level with reverence, respect, and leadership from the unique needs of individual communities. Home visiting programs, with their connection to community infrastructure, offer a unique opportunity for child care, preschool, and other early childhood programs and funding streams to leverage the existing relationships and networks of home visitors.
4. The Home Visiting Work Force is a part of the Early Childhood Education Workforce. Chronic staffing shortages, low wages, high turnover rates, and a feeling of lack of respect for the child care workforce have been well publicized in the media, but these issues are also being felt across the home visiting workforce. While it might sound obvious to those in the field, system leaders are increasingly implementing cross sector approaches to recruit, support, and retain the early childhood workforce, inclusive of those in the home visiting sector. These comprehensive strategies to lift all the professionals who support young children and their families send a message of value to all those in the field, while also attacking the structural impediments to an effective workforce.

How can you bring these takeaways into your state’s system? Mark your calendars for February 12-14, 2025, for the 2025 National Home Visiting Summit! We hope you will join us in person at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C. for more peer learning on these topics.

The month of December is often referenced as the most wonderful time of year, and I have always taken advantage of this time to personally reflect and think about the successes and challenges over the past 12 months. 2023 has been a tumultuous year for me as I personally experienced the best and worst that our profession has to offer, getting caught in the crossfires of a book ban aimed at dismantling the foundation of the early learning profession. My experience has strengthened my resolve that we must invest in young children and the workforce that serves them by providing holistic, high quality early learning environments.

I am frequently asked how the so-called “culture wars” impact early childhood education. I begin these conversations praising our early childhood workforce for their resilience and commitment to early learning. We show up every day to serve children and families despite what’s happening around us. We hug babies and toddlers and offer support for families when our own world is crumbling due to the lack of infrastructure to fund our profession and support our work to create inclusive early childhood systems.

We cannot continue to ask more and more of our workforce while our country continues to devalue and disrespect our early educators.

• Early childhood workforce turnover is as high as 40% ¹
• Average wages are $11-15/hour, with early educator poverty rates 8X that of K-12 educators. The federal poverty line for a family of 4 is $30,000. A typical early educator earning the average hourly wage would come in around $26,000 annually ²
• Professionals are deeply stressed, with depression rates 13% higher than the national average ³

These statistics are compounded when we consider that our workforce is comprised primarily of women – particularly women of color.

Recently, we have seen yet another wave of oppressive legislation and public attacks, including doing away with loan forgiveness and affirmative action, striking the right to abortion, and demonizing and limiting the use of words and practices around diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.

All of these efforts silence, scare and limit our efforts to foster a diverse and effective workforce that provides high quality early learning experiences for children and families. How can we be okay with policies and practices that discriminate against children and families while disregarding their culture and diversity?

Attacking Early Childhood Quality

On a personal note, for 5 years I led in a state where we heralded pre-k as a bi-partisan policy effort and as a result we had a pre-k program that was number 1 in reaching NIEER (National Institute for Early Education Research) quality for 17 years in a row. For DAP (Developmentally Appropriate Practice) to be under attack now is unconscionable as DAP was always the foundation for quality in our classrooms.

Terms including “culturally responsive,” “social-emotional learning,” “implicit bias,” and “diversity” are being censured. When states change competencies, dismantle standards and professional learning to remove these words, it prevents our workforce from receiving the support they need to employ best practices that are critical for children’s development. An urgent example is the crisis we are experiencing around harsh discipline practices that disproportionately affect black children. We must teach culturally responsive, anti-racist, and anti-bias pedagogy to address this.

Silencing and Restricting Workforce Rights

We have a staffing crisis and desperately need qualified, prepared teachers and staff. Striking down Affirmative Action and Loan Forgiveness programs shuts down essential educational support for staff.

When our professionals can’t access the healthcare they need for themselves and their families because of losing Reproductive Rights, it jeopardizes well-being.

“Color Blind” lawsuits threaten specific programs and interventions for Black, LatinX, and indigenous children and families who make up both our workforce and classroom populations. We see gaps in rights, quality of life, and wealth growing even bigger from this discrimination and racism. The workforce, and the children and families we serve, are from diverse backgrounds and we cannot serve them effectively when we employ strategies that force us to ignore the complexities of race, culture and ethnicity.

A question I keep hearing is, “How can we remain hopeful and enable a brighter future for our professionals, families and children?” My response is that there is no living and no better tomorrow without hope. Hope allows us to return each day knowing that we are making a difference and putting the needs of others first.

At Start Early our mission is to eliminate the opportunity gap so that all children can thrive and learn. We are focused on four areas of action:

1. Career Pathways. We must create accessible and affordable pathways to support our workforce in getting the credentials and knowledge they need to earn higher wages.
2. Professional Learning. We need powerful, rich onboarding to support new staff. We must improve workplace culture and climate to be inclusive and supportive. And we need to foster ongoing learning to increase educator effectiveness and confidence – and improve retention.
3. Engage Congress & Lawmakers. We must raise awareness about the science behind early childhood and demand support for early learning as the economic plan for improving our country and preparing tomorrow’s leaders.
4. Support Each Other. And equally important, we can create space to slow down and be intentional about supportive environments in our programs and classrooms. We can embrace rest, joy, relationships, and connections. This is what will help us cultivate resiliency and hope as we face these historic challenges to our workforce.

“Culture Wars” are a call to action for us all. As we prepare to end one year and start a new one, we must ensure that the early learning workforce has the support necessary to build strong relationships with children and families that last a lifetime. Our educators must not be forced to work in fear of retaliation for using strategies that optimize early learning spaces. It is up to each of us to do our part to tackle these issues with those in power. We must arm ourselves with knowledge and engage our communities and local coalitions to spread the word about why the work we are doing for our youngest citizens matters. We must demand for every child what we expect for our own young children.

Sources
¹Turnover: Ed Surge; OPRE; Yale Medicine 
² Hourly Wage Average & Rate of Poverty: 2020 Early Educator Workforce Index; Alabama 
³Depression: Children’s Equity Project, Mental Health Report

Occasionally, Start Early Washington team members are honored with opportunities for thought leadership on a global scale. In this blog, ParentChild+ Washington State Program Director, Pamela Williams shares a few thought-provoking insights from her recent presentation at the 18^th World Congress for the World Association for Infant Mental Health in Dublin, Ireland.

A Global Stage for Equity & Social Justice

In July 2023, Pamela Williams joined a global panel discussion at the 18th World Congress for the World Association for Infant Mental Health in Dublin, Ireland, focused on Equity and Social Justice in Infant Mental Health. Joining co-presenters from Canada, Australia and the U.S., Pamela led a session exploring the Residual Effects of Colorism and the Impacts of Implicit Bias in Our Decision Making. This presentation provided a unique opportunity for practitioners to reflect on how unconscious bias affects decision making in their field.

Exploring Colorism in Media & Society

Pamela led her audience through a series of thought-provoking questions and exercises, shedding light on the presence of colorism in communities, society and media. She showcased compelling historical and contemporary print ads, billboards and advertisements from the U.S., France and Asia, demonstrating how media supports a harmful, racist narrative that white is best, “the lighter your skin, the better you are.” She encouraged her audience to reflect on the messages the media portrays to Black, Indigenous and other people of color (BIPOC), and the messages it portrays to white people.

Broadening the Scope of Race Equity Work

Pamela stressed the importance of broadening the scope of race equity work beyond an American-centric perspective to better serve diverse staff with varying life experiences. Recognizing the disparities in the representation experienced by BIPOC American-born staff and those born outside the U.S., she pointed out that discussions about race need to adapt to the backgrounds of the communities we partner with. “Many of our BIPOC American-born staff struggle to remember the age when they saw people like themselves on TV, and many of my team members born outside of the U.S. said they saw representation all their lives.”

The result is that the conversations around race we may have in the U.S. do not mean the same thing to individuals raised in other countries. However, when we ask what it means to have dark skin, many individuals around the globe can relate to biases around skin tone. –Where the U.S. may embrace terms such as “Black” and “Brown,” individuals born outside the U.S. may cringe at the thought of their child or themselves being labeled with terms such as brown or black because they are viewed negatively in their home country.

Embracing Uncomfortable Conversations for Positive Change

Delving into these deeply ingrained biases, Pamela acknowledged the weight of these discussions. She was particularly mindful of encouraging her audience to stay present and engaged, as addressing these “sneaky little buggers that sit with us” is crucial for positive change and needs to be talked about. As a result, there can be powerful outcomes from doing this hard work; by challenging ourselves to uncover deeply held biases, we can improve our decision making, allowing us to do better in the communities we serve.

Resources For Deeper Understanding

To gain a deeper understanding of colorism, Pamela referenced the book Colorism: Investigating a Global Phenomenon by Dr. Kamilah Woodson. She also shared movie suggestions that explore this subject, including Imitation of Life and Passing. These resources provide valuable insights into the complex worldwide issue of colorism and its societal impacts.

Echoing Resilience: Intertribal Canoe Journeys

October celebrates Indigenous Peoples Day, honoring Indigenous People’s legacy, traditions and invaluable contributions.

In the rich tapestry of Indigenous coastal communities of the Pacific Northwest, Canada and Alaska, the timeless art of canoeing embodies more than just transportation — it represents profound journeys that symbolize unity, resilience, and a deep connection to the land and the water.

Start Early Washington’s Training and Technical Assistance Specialist Alex Patricelli shared how she reclaimed her Native culture and traditions with her young boys Mateo (6) and Kulani (4) through the celebration of intertribal canoe journeys at the 2023 Paddle to Muckleshoot.

For generations, coastal tribal communities relied on canoes for daily life. However, cultural ties were severed when canoeing was banned in the U.S. and Canada in the 20th century. More than 100 years passed before this restriction was lifted. In 1989, coastal communities reclaimed the canoe with an intertribal canoe journey to symbolize the resilience and survival of traditional practices against colonization and Western assimilation challenges.

In preparation for the 2023 epic canoe journey, Alex wanted to make her boys custom drums. The drum is regarded as the heartbeat of Indigenous culture in ceremonies, celebrations and spiritual gatherings.

Alex’s vision for the drums was clear: to harmoniously blend her son’s multifaceted cultural identities, uniting them as brothers while also preserving their individuality. She soaked the deer hide, skillfully assembled the drum kits and hand-painted each drum. The drums serve as a canvas for symbolism, where a turtle and manta ray take center stage through distinct imagery.

Alex elaborated on the origins of her art designs, “The outer ring symbolizes the boys’ Native heritage, inspired by the ‘formline’ design of Coastal Native artwork. Within the lines, both drums bear the symbols of a turtle and manta ray, which hold cultural significance to our Chamorro and Filipino heritage and represent qualities of persistence, wisdom, patience, good fortune, power and protection.”

Alex further emphasized, “drums are regarded as living entities and not just musical instruments; before a drum can be used, we awaken their spirit by burning sage and infusing them with good thoughts, energy and blessings. Mateo and Kulani are learning to respect and understand the hand drum’s cultural significance, a vital part of our families’ cultural teachings and identity that we’ve worked hard to reclaim for our family.”

*all photos credited to Alex Patricelli

Children have many big emotions! Preschoolers are learning to name and manage them. They are also learning friendship and other social skills. And sometimes, their behaviors are challenging. Many behaviors are appropriate for a child’s stage of development yet are found challenging by adults. This may be one of the biggest pain points for educators in early childhood. We’re taking a new approach to support educators who want to build positive social skills and decrease challenging behaviors in their classroom – Reflectable SEL.

In early childhood, we have always focused on social and emotional learning. We know that high quality social and emotional skills are linked to all other areas of children’s learning and critical to their success; skills like empathy, regulating behaviors and emotions, and problem solving. It can be challenging to supply the support preschoolers need to develop these important skills.

Every Pre-K teacher that I have met is deeply invested in the growth of their students. They want to send children to kindergarten ready to succeed in school and in life.

How Early Childhood Teachers are Feeling Today

At this moment, teachers are worried about the state of children’s social and emotional growth. There is an increasing number of challenging behaviors in the classroom that they must deal with, like emotional dysregulation, difficulty building relationships, or coping with change in routine. These challenges affect the mental health of both teachers and children in ways we haven’t seen before.

The recent pandemic highlighted the vital role early childhood teachers play in families’ success and how under supported they are. We know educators experience high levels of stress—and when they are stressed, children show more challenging behaviors. And the cycle of worry, frustration, anger, and dysregulation repeats.

In a recent visit to a child development center, I asked teachers, “What do you need to help children grow and learn skills like empathy, sharing, friendship skills and regulating their emotions?” Their answers:

1. We need support that is focused and specific to the work we are doing.
2. We need support that helps us respond to challenging behaviors in the moment during our daily work.

There are many valuable frameworks, curricula, and learning models for promoting growth and preventing challenging behaviors. Their use creates lasting and positive effects on children. But it is hard to apply frameworks, curricula, and special resources to guide a teacher’s practice day to day in real time.

Applying a Human-Centered Approach to Problems of Practice

At the Early Learning Lab – where we combine human-centered design and early childhood expertise with data and technology – we asked: How might we help practitioners quickly recall the strategies they learn in training to make it easier to use them with children? How might we provide easy mindfulness supports?

To answer these questions, we used a discovery process to create a new tool and bring it to teachers to get their ideas and input. These pilot teachers helped us make the experience one that would be helpful to them. With guidance from these educators, we built the first Reflectable tool to supply focused and specific bite sized actions in simple and easy to apply language. This put the power in the teachers’ hands. They were able to reflect on the topics that mattered most to them. This made it easier for teachers to practice the skills they learned during training in a way that made sense for their unique needs. In turn, this helped educators make quick choices for how to best care for children when challenging behaviors appear.

“I didn’t realize I had the power to really change things!” – Pilot Pre-k Teacher

After using this simple, new tool to reflect on practice and set weekly goals, teachers said they:

• felt valued as experts for the work they were doing
• could thoughtfully make choices that help children’s growth
• made meaningful mindset shifts for themselves
• experienced less stress themselves and saw fewer challenging behaviors among children

A New Tool to Support Reflective Practice

The result of testing and refining this tool is Reflectable® and its Social Emotional Learning content module. Reflectable’s online, guided 10-minute weekly reflection, helps educators see the power of taking small, intentional steps. These steps improve their social emotional learning practice in the areas they decide matter most and positively impact children.

Reflectable is a helpful pause for educators to take time for themselves and give children the attention and support they deserve. In turn, this boosts outcomes, morale, self-efficacy, and job satisfaction.

It’s time to rethink support tools for the early learning workforce. They are a precious resource, and their job is tough. The early learning workforce deserve to be heard and valued so they can listen to and value the children in their care.