Early Education Fellowship for Inclusion, Equity, and Belonging

Research shows that effective leadership and governance improve children’s outcomes. Our vision for the Early Education Fellowship program is to strengthen the school district leaders responsible for early learning and K-3 alignment so that:

• Leaders make research-based decisions and work with teachers and families to ensure a successful transition into kindergarten and through elementary school.
• All in the learning ecosystem (i.e., families, children, teachers, other frontline staff, and administrators) work together with the child in mind.
• Schools foster a continuous quality improvement culture by encouraging inquiry, ongoing data gathering, reflection, and meaningful dialogue. These actions all help uncover and address inequities by revealing what is working, for whom, and why?

To achieve this, we built the Early Education Fellowship program on an iteration of several successful national P3, and Kindergarten transition programs developed by or in collaboration with Gail Joseph, PhD.

• P3 Executive Leadership Certificate at the University of Washington
• Office of Head Start Community Demonstration Project (CDP)
• Education Managers Leadership Institute and Fellowship
• Buell Early Childhood Leaders Program

We built the Early Education Fellowship on the prior lessons, knowledge, expertise, and experiences of prior program participants. We also listend to Washington State’s families, teachers, and district leaders who are experiencing or leading P3 alignment. With that, we set these goals:

• Improving Inclusive and Equitable Education:
  • Foster a sense of belonging for children, families staff members and community partners.
  • Use effective and equitable leadership practices specifically focused on early learning and K-12 leadership.
  • Create early childhood policies and systems that reflect how complex the education and early learning fields are and advocate for systemic and equitable change.
  • Understand inclusion and equity as a cultural change rather than a teaching practice.
  • Use Continuous quality improvement to evaluate programs, practices, and policies in real-time and set reachable goals.
• School and Family/Community Connection
  • Explore strategies to improve school and community relationships.
  • Create school communities that honor families, staff and students for better outcomes, educational justice, and belonging.
  • Engage parents, family members as educational leaders in school.
• Improve Leadership Health and Wellness
  • Recognize that health, wellness and stress management keep leaders in place longer to and serve staff, students, and families.
  • Learn skills and strategies that support your own well-being and the well-being of teachers, children, and families.
  • Understand the importance of emotional intelligence for leaders and how improving self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management is key to building a strong school climate and staff morale.

Commitment: The Early Education Fellowship program is a one-year fellowship that will start in the Fall of 2024. Within the fellowship year, participants are expected to participate in the full range of the program (see various activities outlined above). All fellows will receive clock hours for their participation.

• One three-day and a half day in-person orientation
• Bi-Monthly and or monthly in person or virtual convening
• Monthly office hours as needed
• A final project/presentation
• Other time commitments include time fellows will spend outside of the program convening with others in the district to actively work on the goals outlined in the fellowship program

After the first year, fellows will continue to have access to the program and to one another through an online community of practice.