RESOURCES

Oakland Starting Smart and Strong and our partners are researching, developing, and testing solutions that support parents, caregivers, and educators as they prepare children for a lifetime of learning.
 
On this pages we list resources and research we’ve funded, as well as other great sources of information.

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OUSD Preschool Experience Study
For the past 3 years, OUSD has collected information about the preschool experience of enrolling Kindergarten students. What percent of students attended some sort of preschool? What types of programs do our students attend? The preschool experience dashboard, updated with 2018-19 data, answers these questions and more, including exploring preschool experience by income, ethnicity, and school. Please email Rinat Fried at rinat.fried@ousd.org with questions or feedback about this study.

​Data for Action

​With the right data, we can understand how young children are doing in Oakland -- and we can better target solutions together.

That’s what drew members of the Healthy Havenscourt Collaborative to examine the results of Oakland’s rich new data source, the EDI. At a recent meeting, the group dove into data that indicates, on a neighborhood (not individual) level, child development strengths and challenges across 5 domains: physical health, social competence, emotional maturity, language & cognitive development, and communications skills & general knowledge.

“What was most interesting about the results was to find out that 80% of Havenscourt children have some preschool experience,” said Anita Kumar, Manager of the Healthy Havenscourt Collaborative. “The EDI also indicated that there are many early childhood education resources in Havenscourt. This says to me that there’s an opportunity to positively shift the narrative around early childhood education and kinder readiness in the neighborhood.”

Added Elise Washington, K12 Specialist with the United Way Bay Area, “in the past Zone 12 (the Havenscourt neighborhood) has been labeled as a community where the majority of students are ‘not ready’ for kindergarten. This data displays the strengths of students in this neighborhood.”
“This tool will help assess kinder readiness from an equity lens,” continued Anita, “and will help us to better assess which populations need targeted supports. For example, African American boys in Zone 12 do not perform as well as African American girls or Latinx children. We can refine strategy development so as to support those populations with the most need.”

Attendees at the meeting also included members of Oakland Parents Together, representatives from First 5 Alameda County, OUSD’s Executive Director of Early Learning, and the Resident Services Coordinator at Lion Creek Crossings. Actions that the group brainstormed included setting up a meeting with the OUSD Office of Equity to discuss the racial justice issues they saw in the data. They also planned to deepen their collaboration with the principals of Futures and Community United elementary schools, two schools that many children living in the Healthy Havenscourt area attend.
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Click here to explore the EDI’s interactive dashboard and see trends by neighborhood across the entire city. If you would like to be involved in discussions on how to use this data, contact priya@oaklandedfund.org.

Using community data to support kindergarten readiness
Oakland has a great new data source -- the Early Development Instrument (EDI). This instrument gives us a way to explore, from a neighborhood level, children’s strengths and the challenges they face both pre-kindergarten and once they enter school.
 
Based on observational assessments by kindergarten teachers, the EDI is a community snapshot of young children’s health, development, and school readiness. Outcomes are coded to where children live, giving community members a strong sense of place by showing neighborhood-level results. OUSD has created an interactive dashboard that allows community members to observe strengths and inequities across the city.

The Starting Smart and Strong Initiative supported and funded use of the EDI in Oakland. 
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In June 2018, Oakland Starting Smart and Strong held a Task Force meeting to discuss the EDI and a 2nd instrument: the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment. Community stakeholders explored the data sources and began to strategize on how to use these results.
Click here to explore the EDI’s interactive dashboard and see trends by neighborhood. If you would like to be involved in discussions on how to use this data, contact priya@oaklandedfund.org.

Image Below: a screen shot from the interactive dashboard

Research and Resources Funded by Oakland Starting Smart and Strong:​​

• ​The Glen Price Group identified and mapped programs supporting parents and informal caregivers of young children in Oakland.  This report includes their findings and key recommendations for strengthening services to support informal care in Oakland.  Informal Care Landscape Analysis and Mapping - Glen Price Group

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• Parent Voices Oakland conducted a parent-led research project focused on families accessing informal care in East Oakland. This project used a research-justice framework to create a community-driven parent engagement strategy to gain insight on child care needs and solutions.  Parent Engagement Study - Parent Voices Oakland
  
  
• Urban Strategies Council analyzed key health and education outcomes to help ground OSSS in an equity framework. This research supports the work of OSSS to understand and address disparities in health and education for boys of color.  Analysis of Health and Education Outcomes for Boys of Color - Urban Strategies Council and Presentation to OSSS Task Force
  
  
• Through the support of the  Hellman Collaborative Change Initiative, the Smart and Strong Kids (SSK) project is piloting innovative, deeper and more targeted strategies for African American and Latino boys attending preschool in West Oakland. This dashboard provides data and program implementation information on SSK. Smart and Strong Kids Dashboard - Harder Evaluation
  
  
• As part of the Smart and Strong Kids (SSK) project, High Expectations Parental Service developed African American Parent Advisory Councils (AAPACs) for OUSD’s Early Childhood Education Department. This document provides an overview and progress report on this work.  Oakland Starting Smart and Strong African-American Parent Advisory Council (AAPAC) Progress Report: 2016-17 - High Expectations Parental Service
  
  
• The OUSD Preschool Experience Study explores the early learning experiences OUSD students have prior to entering Kindergarten (K) and Transitional Kindergarten (TK) classrooms. Data was collected on 96% of K/TK students and is available in interactive dashboards.  Preschool Experience Dashboards - OUSD

 
Other Research and Reports:

• School Readiness, Oakland Unified District 2015 Report - First 5 Alameda describes the state of school readiness and related findings for a sample of Oakland Kindergarten students at the start of the 2015-16 school year.
  
  
• Teachers’ Voices: Work Environment Conditions That Impact Teacher Practice and Program Quality - Center for the Study of Child Care Employment presents detailed information about Alameda County early childhood teaching staff’s perceptions of work environments, and makes recommendations for action.   
  
  
• Alameda County Early Care and Education Workforce Study provides demographic, education and employment characteristics (including compensation and workplace conditions) of Alameda County’s center-based early childhood education workforce.  
  
  

Legislation:

• Access updates on California legislative bills related to early childhood: First 5 Association Bill Tracking and Resources

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