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Big picture: The goal for the in-service suite project is to update each suite to be applicable for ALL age groups and options in Head Start preschool and Early Head Start programs (center-based, home-based, family child care). The new structure of the suites includes flexibility to be used independently by staff or expanded by TTA providers for group training.

Key Products:

Updated in-service suites

Guide for TTA Providers

Updated ECLKC webpage

Connection to the FEP: Each suite identifies the component of the FEP content focuses on. Suites updated during this contract have been supportive of the house foundation.

Status: The team is working with HSICC to publish a new ISS page and individual pages for each suite. The first draft page can be viewed below. The plan is to launch nine suites plus a new page with a TTA provider's guide in Y5.

Call to Action:

Explore the new suites as they become available. Feel free to chat with ISS content developers: Becky, Virginia, Brittney, and Saameh or ISS leads Crista and Tam if you have any questions.

Integrate the new and existing suites as a resource in your training.

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Head Start Coaching Companion Mobile App

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Head Start Coaching Companion Mobile App

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ELOF Play the Head Start Way Newsletter and Social Studies, Creative Arts Guides

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ELOF Play the Head Start Way Newsletter and Social Studies, Creative Arts Guides

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ELOF Play the Head Start Way Newsletter and Social Studies, Creative Arts Guides

Big picture: Play the Head Start Way shares ideas and strategies to increase direct staff’s use of play to engage with children, follow children’s lead, and use social studies and creative arts to explore the world. New practice guides will outline effective practices related to social studies and creative arts that education staff can use to find joy and wonder while supporting development of children birth – 5 across program settings.

Connection to the FEP: connected directly to all elements of the house except screening and assessment

Status: Play the Head Start Way e-newsletter issues are underway with 4 published and 2 more in review and a related ECLKC page nearing completion; practice guides are in development with content planned to be completed Q1 and launched early in Q2 if possible.

Call to Action: refer to the e-newsletter as a resource and share any insights into elements as you would like (and feel free to contribute to any content you find interesting!); share any helpful input for social studies and creative arts topics, especially as they relate to your expertise

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American Sign Language - New ECLKC page! 

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American Sign Language - New ECLKC page! 

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Responsive Relationships, Reason, Resources, Reflective Dialogues, and Recognition

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Big Picture: The Year 5 5Rs project fulfills a standing request from early childhood specialists and recipient leaders, "help us put the 5Rs into action".

Key Products:

5Rs webpage

5Rs Toolkit (for recipients on ECLKC)

5Rs Toolkit for Regional TTA

Connection to the FEP: The 5Rs competencies support all elements within FEP by strengthening equity-focused practices within the siding.

New ECLKC eBook will include:

Introduction to each R (with highlight video)

Equity Commitments self-reflection and action plan

R-specific toolkit with information and resources to strengthen leadership skills

Status:

Introduction and the first chapter (Responsive Relationships) in HSICC QA Review

Highlight videos in final production

Planned submission date for all materials: December 15th

Call to Action:

Help promote the 5Rs toolkit when it makes its debut!

Familiarize yourself with the 5Rs competencies and resources.

Infuse 5Rs terms and strategies into work you already do. Example: "To understand the root causes of child incidents we need to engage in reflective dialogues with our data. To see beyond the numbers, to create safe spaces to ask hard questions, and propose innovative solutions..."

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Big picture: New Inclusion Lab mobile app + new and existing resources migrated to ECLKC/headstart.gov site

Connection to the FEP: EVERY COMPONENT with special emphasis with the foundation and roof.

Status: Resources are ready for use now!

Call to Action:

Explore the resources available online and become familiar with them.

Reach out to the inclusion team (Jen, Brittney, Gail, and Tam if you have questions.

Integrate disability inclusion and strategies and tools that support children with disabilities into your work (training and resource development).

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Big picture: The request to have the Head Start Coaching Companion as a mobile app increases the convenience of using the platform to support coaching efforts.

Connection to the FEP: The mobile app supports all elements within the FEP, in particular the foundation and the roof as it contains resources to support effective practices and a place for coaches and coachees to document shared goals, action plan steps and reflection and feedback.

Status: The mobile app is currently in the QA process in collaboration with HSICC and will be submitted to the app stores this month. We anticipate the app will be published by the end of September/Early October.

Call to Action:

Help promote the mobile app when available in app stores.

Include the HSCC as a resource when talking about coaching.

Direct prospective and current users to the HSCC landing page on ECLKC for information, joining, FAQs and contact information.

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Big Picture: We have just a few resources related to ASL but our resources are growing! Educators have been asking for more ASL information and all children can benefit from learning and using ASL.

Connection to FEP Foundation, Roof, Siding: ASL has many connections to the FEP. It increases engagement and effective communication, the benefits of ASL is backed by research, can be included in individualized teaching, supports family connections (if they are Deaf or use ASL in the home), and generally promotes language and communication equity by providing children with a tool to communicate in familiar and culturally appropriate ways.

Status:

ASL webpage: hub for everything ASL!

Including instructional videos. Needs to be built

Research Notes, in review.

Front Porch is posted

Baby Talks will soon be posted.

DLL app in development.

Call to action:

Share resources! Learn ASL! Promote ASL usage will all! Communicate needs of educators to me to steer direction of resources.

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The National Center on Early Childhood Development, Teaching, and Learning (NCECDTL) uses a house to represent six elements of quality teaching and learning for children ages birth to 5 in all Head Start program options. Quality teaching and learning uses children's and their families' lived experiences, home languages, perspectives, and cultural ways of knowing and being to make learning more meaningful and engaging. It creates equitable environments where all children feel a sense of belonging, and that promotes their social and emotional development and school readiness.

The six elements of the Framework for Effective Practice, or House Framework are:

Interaction and Environments: Providing nurturing, responsive, and effective interactions, and engaging environments

Curriculum: Implementing research-based curriculum and teaching practices

Screening and Assessment: Using screening and ongoing assessment of children's skills

Individualized Support: Embedding highly individualized teaching and learning

Families: Engaging parents and families

Equity-focused Practices: Promoting high-quality equitable learning environments

When these elements are connected, they form a single structure that surrounds the family in the center. Family is at the heart of the house. Each element is implemented in partnership with parents and families as co-educators in their cultural and community context. Equity-focused practices and policies not only surround the house but are embedded throughout each element to ensure equitable access, belonging, high-quality nurturing and joyful experiences, and positive outcomes for all children and families.

Equitable Teaching and Learning Practices

Equity Fair and just treatment to all children, families, and those who support them, enabling everyone to achieve their full potential.
Equity promotes consistent, systemic, and unbiased access to comprehensive services and systems for everyone, including marginalized groups - African American, Black, Latino, Hispanic, Indigenous, American Indian, Alaska Native, Asian American, Pacific Islander, or other people of color; members of religious minorities; people who are LGBTQIA2S+; people with disabilities; people who live in rural areas; and people adversely affected by persistent poverty or other forms of inequality.

The terms "children and families who are historically and contemporarily marginalized" and "children and families with marginalized identities" are used throughout this resource. Specific groups are named when appropriate.

Equitable teaching and learning practices are built on positive and nurturing relationships and interactions that are culturally and linguistically responsive, bias conscious, and affirm all aspects of children's identities - race, ethnicity, culture, language, disability, gender, socioeconomic status, etc. Children who are Black, Latino, Indigenous, Asian, and all children of color, as well as children with disabilities, children experiencing poverty, children whose parents are LGBTQIA2S+, and their families bring a wealth of diversity and knowledge rooted in cultural ways of knowing and being, which should be centered during their learning experience. Centering their lived experiences seeks to remedy the impacts of historical and contemporary marginalization while creating equitable learning environments where children's joy, brilliance, and identities are validated.

Equity-focused practices teach through the lens of culture in authentic ways that validate children's and families' identities to support development and learning. It is necessary for early learning leaders, education staff (e.g., teachers, home visitors, family child care providers), and coaches to consider how their beliefs and practices work to disrupt bias to encourage a joy in learning. To accomplish this goal, equity-focused practices are an essential practice and elevated within each element of the House Framework.

Equity-focused Mindset

An equity-focused mindset maintains the following:

Keeping children and families at the center

Being aware of our own biases and assumptions

Understanding how bias and assumption lead to prejudiced attitudes, beliefs, and actions toward children and families, particularly those whose identities have been historically and contemporarily marginalized

Education staff play a critical part in children's learning experiences in early childhood and beyond. When staff create learning environments characterized by interactions that are positive and strength-based, children and families experience a sense of belonging. To accomplish this, education staff need to have an equity-focused mindset. Being equity-focused means that one is consciously aware of the historical and contemporary injustices and discrimination that have marginalized the identities of children and their families in our society. It requires an understanding of the barriers that racism, classism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, xenophobia, and other systems of oppression have had on children and families' lived experiences. It also means that beyond awareness and understanding, one is committed to action to disrupt these inequities within our spheres of influence so children and families can thrive. Having an equity-focused mindset is key to working with children and families from diverse racial, ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and ability backgrounds. In the House Framework, this equity-focused mindset is shown as the strong siding that surrounds the house. It highlights the importance of entering all aspects of the work with awareness of how one's biases and daily actions impact children and families.

Having an equity-focused mindset involves:

Committing to ongoing self-reflection about one's actions, biases, attitudes, and beliefs

Learning about the historical and contemporary aspects of our society that unjustly discriminate against people and communities based on their intersecting identities

Critically reflecting on and unlearning research and educational framings that are deficit-based

Applying strength-based language and approaches that center the joy and brilliance of all children, particularly children of color and children with disabilities

Fostering learning environments where children and their families' intersecting identities are included as valuable parts of children's development and learning

Advocating for greater equity in children and families' access to high-quality education and services, positive and fair experiences, and outcomes that are not based on one's demographic variables

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Framework for Effective Practice | ECLKC

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The Framework for Effective Practice, or House Framework, promotes meaningful learning, equity, social and emotional development, and school readiness for children from birth to 5 years old.

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Big Picture: The Classroom Language Models (CLMs) provide explicit and comprehensive research-aligned guidance on how to create a learning environment that can effectively foster ALL children's language and early literacy development, based on the children's unique characteristics (home language(s), age, etc.) and the language(s) teachers speak fluently.

Key Products:

Leader's Implementation Manual

Step-by-Step Guide

Connection to the FEP: The CLMs are a how-to-guide to ensure that linguistic equity- a key component of the FEP- is upheld to provide children with the environment and interactions they need to develop strong language and early literacy skills.

Status:

Editing the CLM resources to have plain language for FPO review

Coordinating with production team to include updated CLMs in ECKLC

Planned completion of final CLMs on the ECKLC website-December 2025

Call to Action:

Help promote the CLMs when they are launched :-)

Familiarize self with updated CLMs

Communicate that the CLMs are for everyone---not only children who are Dual Language Learners

Connect the CLMs to the FEP and Multicultural Principles

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Big Picture: In Year 5, we will be trying to get all of the great PBC resources we've developed through DTL into the hands of the people who can use them!

Key Products:

PBC Webpage update: Revising the PBC landing page to better organize the resources available and add resources developed for Coach Camp or other recent trainings.

PBC Training Institute (PBCTI) and Coach Camp materials: Continuing to share these materials through regional trainings and the TTA meeting.

Connection to FEP: PBC, as a part of a coordinated approach to professional development, supports the effective practices outlined in the FEP.

Status: All training materials have been developed and are being disseminated through trainings throughout the year. Webpage is in development.

Call to Action:

Reach out to discuss any Coach Camp content that might be relevant to your trainings and work with regions (e.g., staff wellness, professional development).

Share the updated PBC website (when it’s done!).

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FEP ECLKC analytics data:

Nearly 5,000 hits to the main FEP page on ECLKC during Year 4 (launched Jan 2024)

Across all FEP ECLKC content, 11,848 page views since Jan 2024

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Baby Talks and Front Porch Series webinars introducing ASL reach nearly 1,400 educators!  

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Baby Talks and Front Porch Series webinars introducing ASL reach nearly 1,400 educators!  

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Front Porch webinar posted to ECLKC in August and has nearly 100 page views!

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Inclusion Lab and Inclusion Participation Numbers are Impressive! 

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Inclusion Lab and Inclusion Participation Numbers are Impressive! 

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719 Active (net) Users as of August 2024

Jan 2024 (month of release) was the highest new user month with 995 users downloading the app

Over 1,000 engaged in inclusion webinars every month since the app was launched

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 HSCC usership is strong - Just wait `til we go mobile!

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 HSCC usership is strong - Just wait `til we go mobile!

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There are currently 12,843 total users, with 1,680 new users joining in Y4.

In Y4, there were 941 coaching cycles created and 318 marked complete!

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FIRST DRAFT/DRUPAL Page for Updated ISS 

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FIRST DRAFT/DRUPAL Page for Updated ISS 

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Caring refers to a set of prosocial skills and behaviors like being helpful, respectful, kind, thoughtful, understanding, and comforting. It also includes more complex behaviors such as cooperation, generosity, and empathy. Children need prosocial skills to fully take part in the many daily group activities in early learning environments.

A caring community of learners refers to learning environments where children and educators engage in warm, positive relationships, treat each other with respect, and learn from and with each other. These environments include center-based classrooms, family child care settings, socialization spaces, and homes.

Caring behavior is like a drop of water that ripples out as education staff establish positive relationships with every child in their care. In a caring, equitable community of learners, educators intentionally make it a priority to:

Design a caring environment

Respond to individual needs

Organize awareness activities

Promote and encourage a sense of community

Check out this 15-minute In-service Suite and find tips, tools, and worksheets to extend your learning.

Creating a Caring Community

Why is the practice important?

Caring communities help both educators and children by providing them with equitable, supportive, and welcoming learning environments.

Caring creates a ripple effect. The children begin to feel safe and secure knowing adults have their best interests at heart, and the ripple continues. This sense of security allows the children to look beyond their own immediate needs to the needs of others. Children who are taught and encouraged to show caring behaviors early on are more likely to continue these behaviors in later years. Prosocial behaviors also predict children's strengths in other developmental areas, such as academic and social and emotional skills.

Sustaining Children's Cultural, Ethnic, and Language Identities

Educators view all children as valued members of the learning community. They know that learning caring behaviors may be influenced by various caregiving practices and values like, for example, a family environment that emphasizes interdependence rather than independence.

Here are some ways educators can sustain children's cultural, ethnic, and language identities:

Work closely with families and community members to learn about children's cultural and language experiences and create meaningful learning activities that affirm children's familial and cultural backgrounds.

Design environments that reflect and celebrate children's diverse cultures and languages.

Teach children pride in their cultural, linguistic, and individual identities.

Show children ways to help a peer feel fully included in their learning community.

Plan activities where children share and learn about each other's cultural and language backgrounds and experiences.

Practices for Children with Disabilities or Suspected Delays

In a caring and equitable community, educators model appreciation for children's diverse abilities. They display pictures and use books that portray people with disabilities in positive ways. They support the success of all children and offer individualized support when children experience difficulties in social situations.

Educators provide varying levels and types of support, depending on a child's learning needs. Here are some effective practices and examples:

Modify the physical environment to ensure access and participation of every child.

Arrange the physical environment so that a child using a wheelchair or walker can independently move around.

Post a visual of classroom rules to help a child with a language delay better understand expected social behavior.

Increase learning opportunities.

To provide more support for a child who struggles to participate in social interactions with peers, educators can invite a more socially competent peer to model a social behavior or directly invite the child to join in an activity.

Educators can use an activity matrix to plan when and how to do this teaching practice during daily activities and routines.

Provide intensive instruction to teach a child who struggles with social interactions important skills, like asking a peer to play, offering to help a peer who is struggling with a task, or consoling a peer in distress.

Infants - Early On

Children at an early stage of developing caring behaviors are ready to learn how to:

Show interest in other children by smiling, touching, reaching, or making sounds directed to the child.

Engage in simple back-and-forth interactions with another child by vocalizing, imitating each other's sounds, using gestures, or sharing or exchanging a toy or object.

Vocalize, gesture, or cry to seek adult help, or offer a toy or object to comfort another child who is crying or upset.

Interact with children who have diverse physical, language, and ability characteristics.

Toddlers - Emerging Skills

Children at an emerging stage of developing caring behaviors are ready to learn how to:

Actively move near other children to play or engage in simple conversations.

Show a preference for a playmate, such as greeting friends by name or seeking a friend to play with and moving toward them.

Use words or actions to comfort another child who is hurt or crying.

Engage in conversations about biases and injustices. Adults can support when they see instances of unfair behavior, such as when a child grabs another child's toy, or when a group of children reject a peer who does not yet speak English.

Preschoolers - Increasing Mastery

Children who are increasing their proficiency in caring behaviors are ready to learn how to:

Use a variety of skills to enter social situations with other children, such as suggesting something to do together, joining an existing activity, or sharing a toy.

Play cooperatively with other children by communicating with each other and working toward a common goal.

Recognize biases and injustices and speak up or offer support when another child is being treated unfairly.

Describe their own cultural, language, and ability identities and how they are similar and different from those of other children.

Practices in Action

This playlist features examples of practices that facilitate creating a caring community in early childhood learning environments. As you watch these short videos, think about what you already do to foster a caring community and what additional practices you can implement.

Find tips, tools, and worksheets below to extend your learning.

" Go to Engaging Interactions and Environments

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Creating caring communities involves warm, respectful relationships among children and adults in learning environments. Learn more with the videos, handouts, and learning activities in this in-service suite.

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Head Start Center for Inclusion (HSCI) Materials on ECLKC!

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Head Start Center for Inclusion (HSCI) Materials on ECLKC!

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Big Picture: The Head Start Center for inclusion was funded by OHS 2008-2007 with the for Inclusion. HSCI was founded on a commitment to support early childhood educators in their efforts to create inclusive learning experiences for all children. The materials have now been migrated to the ECLKC (soon to be HeadStart.gov)!

Connection to the FEP: Content connects primarily to Highly Individualized Practices

Status: Done!!

Call to Action: Spend some time reviewing these resources to see when/where you can share them with TA providers to support programs and educators in their efforts to promote the full and active participation of young children with disabilities in everyday settings.

Resource Links

Visual Supports/Tools:

Visual Supports

Visual Supports for Infants and Toddlers

Social Stories

Infant and Toddler Specific:

Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities (HUB)

Visual Supports for Infants and Toddlers

Training Suites on Infants/Toddlers with Disabilities (Activity Matrix, Embedded Learning, Curriculum Modifications, Routines-based Assessment and Planning)

Tips for Working with Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities (PBC for Inclusion, Susp and Expulsion, Partnering with Part C Providers, UDL, IFSPs, Embedded Learning)

Partnering with Part C Providers

Specific Disabilities Fact Sheets

In-Service Suites:

Inclusion Basics: Membership and Belonging

Planned Instructional Sequences (PInS)

Embedded Learning Opportunities (ELO)

Training Suites on Infants/Toddlers with Disabilities

Day in the Life of a Disabilities Services Coordinator

Individualized Instructional Strategies

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https://ncecdtl.box.com/s/mllcdoohv4eggbieopmyhkafg0ji1qm8

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Essential elements of teaching and learning, quality it's all about.

DTL, House!

Six elements stacked, that's a fact, ain't holding nothing back

Well....

Shake it down, shake it down, now.

Shake it down, shake it down, now.

Shake it down, shake it down, now.

Shake it down, shake it down, down, down

Shake it down, shake it down, now.

Shake it down, shake it down, now.

Shake it down, shake it down, now.

Shake it down, shake it down, down, down

[Repeat from the top]