Welcome to Polk County’s 6th Annual Early Childhood and Early Elementary Educators Conference, Bridges to the Future: Connecting Early Learning To Kindergarten. The goal of our time together is to support early elementary school teachers and early learning professionals by providing an opportunity to learn and advance the educational and transition opportunities for the children in our communities.
Over the next two days, early childhood educators, early elementary school teachers, and school staff will hear from a great keynote speaker, participate in self selected workshops including topics such as social emotional learning, supporting children with special needs, mindfulness, and more. These days are about exploration, integration, and connection. This conference is was brought to you by the collaborative efforts of a partnership between Polk County Family & Community Outreach, The Marion & Polk Early Learning Hub, and Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency Child Care Resource and Referral.
Special thanks to Western Oregon University for providing a space for us all to come together and learn from each other. For more information about how to stay connected after the conference, contact Stephanie Gilbert at gilbert.stephanie@co.polk.or.us
In the state of Oregon assessments are a requirement by program funders (OPK, PSP, PFA, Baby promise) and any Spark participating program can request an observation for their own continuous quality improvement. Some early learning programs can select what assessment type they would like to have. In this session the presenters will provide an overview of the Environment Rating Scales (ERS) and the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) that are widely used in the state. We will explore how they are being used in early childhood programs in Oregon and how the results of these assessments can be used for CQI. We will examine key items, terms, and concepts of the ERS tool and why the subscale practices are important for children. We will also examine the concepts of the CLASS Tool then discuss moment-to-moment interactions, back-and-forth exchanges, and the role they play in sustaining relationships and the development of learning. We will make comparisons of these tools and briefly discuss how they might best fit in some early learning programs. In the end, we will discuss how to use the data from the reports to strengthen your program's practices.
