April 2025: Newsletter

At the Center, we have been welcoming in the joys of Spring with new projects and opportunities for broadening our reach and impact!

We are excited to share that we have just been awarded a $200,000 grant from the Morgan Charitable Foundation to support a partnership between the Center and the Early Childhood Institute (ECI) at San José State University. The focus of the project will be to explore our Anchor Competencies Framework from an early childhood lens and develop a complementary set of resources and professional learning offerings for early childhood teacher educators, school leaders, and teachers. We are seeking to help these educators integrate a focus on whole child development into their teaching. The impetus for this work was spurred by the many initiatives happening with early childhood education (ECE) in California.

Over the past five years, California has looked toward ECE to address historic inequities and persistent opportunity gaps for children across the state. This has included several mechanisms in California’s mixed delivery system, including:

Establishing Universal Prekindergarten Access primarily through an expansion of access to transitional kindergarten (TK). As of academic year 2025/2026, all children turning 4-years-old by September 2 of the academic year will be eligible to enroll in TK programs, regardless of family income level or child ability.
Expanding Eligibility for California State Preschool Programs to include younger children from families who meet income-eligibility requirements and those who have identified disabilities.
Establishing a New PK-3 Credential intended to ensure that teachers working with young children, particularly those stepping into TK classroom, are equipped to understand the developmental needs of young children and develop instructional strategies that are responsive to the needs of younger learners.
Updating the Preschool and Transitional Learning Foundations (PTKLFs) and Developing the PK-3 Teacher Performance Expectations (TPEs) to include a greater focus on whole child development, social and emotional learning, and culturally responsive teaching practices.

With the new PK-3 credential, the inclusion of increasingly younger children within state preschool programs and elementary schools, and the changing TPEs and standards for early childhood educators, we are witnessing a pivotal moment for ECE in California. This pivotal moment also offers an opportunity for reimagining the ways we are preparing and supporting early childhood educators.

Considering this, deliberate efforts are needed to ensure that early childhood educators are equipped to meet these changing realities with the skills, mindsets, and tools necessary for supporting whole child development and creating learning environments where all students can thrive and learn.

These changes across the ECE landscape in California have compelled the Early Childhood Institute (ECI) at San José State University and the Center for Reaching & Teaching the Whole Child to work together to ensure early childhood educators, particularly those in programs leading to either the new PK-3 credential or Child Development permit, leave equipped with an orientation toward and set of approaches for meeting the needs of the whole child.

We will be convening a workgroup of experts in the early childhood space over the course of the next academic year and we are eager to begin this important work!

In Joy for the Work,

The CRTWC Team

Some Helpful Resources: Early Childhood Education Insights

Measuring What Matters: There is more to preschool than learning your ABCs and 123s, researchers say, as they propose broader range of skills for assessing early education
The 2025 Common Sense Census: Media Use by Kids Zero to Eight: The key findings show that digital media habits for children age 8 and under are evolving
Learning through Play: Strengthening learning through play in early childhood education programmes

Please welcome our two new research fellows at the Center, Lindsay Romano (left) & Julie Sauve (right).

Lindsay Romano is joining the Center as a Research and Development Fellow. Lindsay is a PhD candidate in special education at New York University, and an incoming Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. Lindsay brings deep expertise in multilingual learner support, educator development, and special education. Her work has been supported by NAEd/Spencer, IES-PIRT, and NYU’s Urban Doctoral Fellowship. For more information about Lindsay, check her out on our team page here!

Julie Sauve joins us as a Research Fellow, bringing deep knowledge in social and emotional learning (SEL) and educator development. Julie earned her PhD in Human Development, Learning, and Culture from the University of British Columbia, where she studied SEL implementation and educator wellbeing. Julie is currently an Implementation Specialist at Harmony Academy and teaches preservice educators at the University of Portland.
For more information about Julie, check her out on our team page here!

Thank you for your continued belief and support of the Center. Please consider making a donation to help educators reach and teach the whole child.

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Email: info@crtwc.org