Students in Central Oregon Community College's (COCC) Early Childhood Education (ECE) program represent many of the current and future early childhood educators in Central Oregon. Increasing their knowledge and skills associated with early identification of reading difficulties and improving early pre-literacy skills will have a large impact on increasing literacy of young children in Central Oregon for years to come.
For the past seven years, we have worked closely with Neighbor Impact-Child Care Resources and the Early Learning Hub of Central Oregon to develop and lead the Partners in Practice grant program. This work centers on increasing the quality and care within early learning programs throughout Central Oregon by supporting professional development of the early learning workforce through higher education. We have been able to offer courses in English and in Spanish, and we have prioritized students who have been historically underserved and underrepresented, including our Latinx and Native American communities.
In addition to the Partners in Practice program, faculty within the Early Childhood Education and Education programs at COCC are actively involved in regional efforts to address disparities between student and educator demographics. Specifically, we are working closely with regional partners, including Better Together, Grow Your Own, the Regional Educator Network, and Education in Our Future to increase the number of culturally and linguistically diverse educators throughout Central Oregon. We believe that providing accessible and culturally responsive training and programming to our future educators leads to direct, positive impact on children’s learning. Improving literacy outcomes on a large scale can only be accomplished by ensuring that our teachers have the most current knowledge and are using best practices. This project will further these efforts already underway and bring the lessons learned into the courses for early childhood educators.