TABLE 4. CHANGING HOW SCHOOLS DO SCHOOL: TRANSITION IN PRACTICE FROM A TRADITIONAL APPROACH TO THE SCHOOL AS HUB BIRTH–GRADE 3 APPROACH

Principles of Practice From: Traditional Approach

1. Connected System Early childhood and elementary education are viewed as separate and isolated from one another.

2. Developmental Progression Children’s learning and development are viewed narrowly within discrete ages and grade levels.

3. Child-Centered Priorities Social-emotional development is prioritized for children birth through 5; academic achievement is prioritized in the elementary years.

4. Family-School Partnerships Family engagement consists of a series of isolated activities and events built on school perspectives about family interests and needs.

To: School as Hub Approach

Early childhood and elementary education are viewed as unified across the birth through Grade 3 continuum.

Children’s learning and development at specific age and grade levels are viewed within a continuum of learning and development.

Content-rich, intellectually rigorous learning experiences integrated with support for socialemotional development is a priority at every age level, birth onward.

Families engage with schools in reciprocal, ongoing partnerships. Collaboration and communication are responsive to their interests and values. Families are empowered to act as advocates and decision-makers in their children’s learning.

5. Engaged Communities Schools engage with communitybased organizations around specific activities or events.

6. Professional Growth Staff professional development is viewed primarily as disseminating information and knowledge about educational practice.

7. Equity Policies, procedures, curriculum, instruction, and assessment choices are made without consideration of children’s race, culture, home language, or ability.

Schools honor community context by partnering with families to establish and maintain relevant community partnerships. Community partnerships are linked to goals and provide opportunities for family supports that promote learning and development.

Professional development is viewed as continuous learning and support for practice embedded within the day-to-day work of staff, including collaborative learning interactions among colleagues.

Schools act as agents of change for equity by prioritizing culturally responsive practices and focusing on disaggregated data to ensure each child has access to the educational resources they need at the right time, at the right level, and with the right intensity. This involves challenging and replacing existing inequities within policies, procedures, curriculum, and assessments.

8. Strengths as the Starting Point

Identifying and remediating deficits in how children and families function is often the starting place for action.

Identifying and building upon strengths of each child and family is viewed as the starting place for action. Economic, linguistic, and racial disparities are scrutinized as a function of the system, rather than the children and families served.

Translating the broad School as Hub goals related to quality, continuity, and equity—and the Six Big Ideas—into strategic action takes place gradually, based on careful planning, mentoring, and the ability and willingness to adapt to changes as they unfold. The principles of practice presented here emphasize starting early, persisting across time, and strengthening learning opportunities and support not only for children but also for the adults who are critical to fostering children’s school success. Each of the principles shown in Table 4 is grounded in research on effective early care and education, as summarized here:

1. Connected System. Aligning preschool with the early grades has become a priority in several efforts across the nation, including Ritchie and Gutman’s First School105 and Takanishi’s New American Primary School.106 It is based on the recognition that even when preschool and elementary programs are in the same physical location, their policies and procedures may be disconnected. Results from a recent review of quality in early childhood publicly funded programs demonstrated positive results in connecting early care and education to the public school system, including providing better access for families and more integrated learning systems for young children.107

2. Developmental Progression. Educators’ knowledge of child development is critical for helping children reach a variety of learning goals.105,106,108 Relying on learning standards and developmental trajectories provides an effective framework for instruction, as well as insights from which to individualize support for each child’s learning needs.109-112

3. Child-Centered Priorities. A child’s social and emotional competence is foundational to overall well-being and is a key predictor of academic achievement.113 Strong supports for social-emotional and language development are integrated into intellectually challenging learning experiences, including play, at every age level and for every child in the School as Hub approach.114-116 Integration of academic learning with social and emotional learning promotes engagement, positive behavior, collaboration and support of peers, resilience, and a sense of success.117,118

4. Family-School Partnerships. An ecological lens illuminates the critical understanding that young children learn and develop within a set of embedded systems from home to society. Learning potential is enhanced when children can make relevant connections between these systems. Schools must actively seek information from families to build understanding, expand opportunities for collaborative decision-making, and learn how well things are working and what can be improved. Family engagement activities that are effective at promoting academic achievement include communication between parents and children regarding the school experience, parental encouragement and support for learning, reading at home, and parents holding high expectations/aspirations for their children’s academic achievement and schooling.119,120

5. Engaged Communities. Quality, continuity, and equity are advanced when schools prioritize building bridges between school and community.121 School as Hub creates, facilitates, and institutionalizes home-school-community collaborative values, norms, and interactions.122 Meaningful connections with child care and after school care providers support children’s transitions to elementary school. They also support higher academic and developmental outcomes, increased respect for and shared understanding among educators, development of responsive teaching practices, and stronger family partnerships.123

6. Professional Growth. Strong birth through Grade 3 systems are brought to fruition by educators who possess the knowledge, attitude, skills, aspirations, and behavior needed for advancing quality, continuity, and equity in children’s learning and family engagement.124 Professional learning in a School as Hub setting is based on a paradigm shift in elementary schools. Research demonstrates four explicit dimensions of effective professional learning that guide this paradigm shift: cognitive engagement, emotional engagement, social engagement with students, and social engagement with colleagues.115

7. Equity Focus. At the core of what sets a School as Hub school apart from traditional elementary schools is a commitment to tackle systemic challenges that serve as barriers to high quality and continuous early learning experiences and opportunities.125 An equity focus involves explicitly addressing disparities in learning opportunities and experiences, family supports, and child outcomes for children from under-resourced families and groups that have been historically marginalized.126 Equitable practice and policy reflect increasing vigilance about including and responding to the perspectives of all children and families in the school, particularly those facing income- and race-based social inequities, as well as those with home language and cultural differences.127

8. Strengths as the Starting Point. Children’s learning and developmental outcomes are advanced when educators reject a deficit perspective and invest in building children’s strengths.128 Schools that take a strengths-based approach foster feelings of inclusiveness and belonging among children and increase opportunities for both academic and personal success.85,129,130 Evidence exists that teaching becomes more fully grounded in caring and responsive relationships when teachers come to know each child well and build upon each child’s personal strengths, interests, and culture.129 Positive teacher-child relationships are particularly impactful for the language development and learning of boys of color.131

Together, these principles of practice are meant to guide practitioners in closing gaps in opportunity. They are based on making specific changes that help schools become inclusive of all children beginning at birth, more actively engaged in partnerships with children’s families and their surrounding communities, and aligned with what is known from the child development and research literature about fostering effective learning experiences for young children.