Californians Together released a toolkit on Aug. 7 to support coherent and aligned implementation of the California English Learner Roadmap for preschool and transitional kindergarten students.
The California Master Plan for Early Learning and Care and the principles of the English Learner Roadmap work together to guide practice and provide resources that will help support leaders as they work to ensure the state’s youngest dual language learners can fully and meaningfully access and participate in an inclusive and affirming schooling experience.
“For school leaders who are now part of embracing preschools and early learning in what was previously defined as a K-12 system, new learning is required to lead and support developmentally appropriate programs and services for young dual language learners effectively and responsibly,” Laurie Olsen, the toolkit’s author, writes. “For those early childhood educators leading and supporting a major expansion of programs to serve young children and families representing new levels of cultural and linguistic diversity equitably and inclusively, new learning is similarly required.”
The toolkit includes:
- Reflection tools and resources for program directors and teams to support planning, reflection and dialogue to create the early education classrooms and preschool/TK programs that implement the EL Roadmap’s four principles; center dual language learners; and leverage, affirm and develop their multiple language and cultural assets as part of healthy development and learning.
- Planning tools for leaders and teams charged with identifying priority areas for action.
- Resource materials to build understanding of dual language learners in the early childhood years and create a shared foundation for improving practices and programs across the P-12 system.
- References and resource lists including organizations, key documents, research sites and other learning materials.
EL Roadmap principles
The toolkit addresses the four principles of the EL Roadmap policy individually, with each section providing resources, tools, supports and prompts to reflect on that should contribute to a plan for preschool leaders to bring to life the tenets of each principle.
The first principle, assets-oriented and needs-responsive schools, notes the creation of assets-oriented and student-responsive preschools sets a foundation of understanding about the diversity of dual language learners and their needs.
The second principle, intellectual quality of instruction and meaningful access, focuses on implementing research-based approaches to developmentally appropriate, culturally and linguistically inclusive teaching and learning for dual language learners that is intellectually rich integrates language development, literacy and content learning. This ensures English learners have meaningful access to a full standards-based and relevant curriculum and the opportunity to develop English proficiency.
The third principle, system conditions that support effectiveness, centers on the creation of systems designed to support learning for dual language learners that requires knowledgeable and advocacy-oriented leaders, systems of professional learning, the investment of resources and meaningful assessment and accountability.
The fourth principle, alignment and articulation within and across systems, speaks to the alignment of practices and pathways across grade levels that an effective, efficient and equitable system demands to ensure dual language learners are graduating college- and career-ready.
“Plenty of work can be done in each of these areas, yet the profound truth is that no one principle stands alone,” Olsen states. “Each informs the other. Each demands attention to the others. And the vision and mission of the English Learner Roadmap cannot be realized without enactment of all four principles.”
The full document, Preschool/Transitional Kindergarten Toolkit for English Learner Roadmap: Leading Implementation, can be downloaded here.
