Early Childhood Education and Latino Children

National Task Force report: Para Nuestro Niños, For Our Children¹⁴

A report from the National Task Force on Early Childhood Education for Hispanics says that “the most promising opportunities for raising Hispanic achievement are in the early childhood years.” The report recommends that states increase their investments in publicly funded, universally accessible pre-kindergarten programs, which have the potential to serve large numbers of Latino children. Additionally, the report recommends: (1) increasing Latino children’s access to high-quality early education; (2) increasing the numbers of teachers and language-acquisition specialists who are proficient in both English and Spanish; (3) increasing the capacity of center-based programs in Latino neighborhoods; and (4) increasing efforts to design, test, and evaluate early childhood education strategies that can strengthen the language and literacy development of Latino children. A recent report by NIEER indicates that programs that prepare early childhood educators for the classroom should provide training aimed at addressing the needs of Latino children and their families.

For more information, contact Ophelia Navarro, EEA Research and Policy Analyst at onavarro@earlyeducationforall.org.

References

1 Shonkoff, Jack P. & Philips, Deborah A. (Eds). From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Child Development. National Research Council, Institute of Medicine, Washington: National Academy Press, 2000.

2 Bowman, B., Donovan, M.S. & Burns, M.S. Eager to Learn. National Research Council, Washington: National Academy Press, 2000.

3 The Children of the Cost, Quality, and Outcomes Study Go To School. NICHD, June 1999, p. 2 and Karoly, Lynn, et al, Investing in Our Children: What We Know and Don’t Know About the Costs and Benefits of Early Childhood Interventions: RAND, 1998, xv.

4 Reynolds, A.J., Temple, J.A., Robertson, D.L., & Mann, E.A. Long-term Effects of Early Childhood Intervention on Education Achievement and Juvenile Arrest: Journal of the American Medical Association, 2001.

5 Gormley, William Jr., et al., “The Effects of Oklahoma’s Universal Pre-K Program on School Readiness.” Washington, DC: Center for Research on Children in the US, Georgetown University, 2004.

6 Ibid.

7 Ibid.

8 Michael Lopez, PhD, Center for Latino Child and Family Research. PowerPoint presentation to NCLR Latino Birth-to-Three Agenda Advisory Committee Meeting, April 22, 2005 on U.S. Census Bureau data.

9 Ibid.

10 U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, The Condition of Education 2002, NCES 2002-025, Washington, DC. U.S. Government Printing Office, 2002. Table 1-1.

11 P. J. Hopstock & T. G. Stephenson. Descriptive Study of Services to LEP Students and LEP Students with Disabilities. Special Topic Report #1: Native Languages of LEP Students. Arlington, VA: Development Associates, Inc., 2003.

12 Calderon, Miriam. Head Start Reauthorization: Enhancing School Readiness for Hispanic Children. NCLR, 2005.

13 Rumberger, Russell W., Preschool Participation and the Cognitive and Social Development of Language-Minority Students. CRESST, 2004.

14 National Task Force on Early Childhood Education for Hispanics, Para Nuestro Niños, For Our Children, , 2007. Available: http://www.ecehispanic.org