2020
The Preschool Exclusionary Discipline StudyDecember 9, 2020 CEP founder Dr. Shantel Meek and CEP partner Dr. Richard Fabes and postdoc Dr. Evandra Catherine review the 2017-2018 CRDC Data, revealing that Black children are suspended and expelled at a rate 2.7 times higher than White children. Furthermore, Native American kids are suspended and expelled at about 1.6 times higher than White children. |
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New Federal Data Shows Black Preschoolers Still Disciplined at Far Higher Rates than WhitesNovember 27, 2020 CEP founder Dr. Shantel Meek and CEP postdoc Dr. Evandra Catherine discuss the need to abandon the colorblind approach to discipline and explicitly write actions to address racial disparity into policy and budgets. |
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OPINION: U.S. Public Schools Should be Federally FundedNovember 06, 2020 CEP founder Dr. Shantel Meek and CEP partner Dr. Meek and Dr. Williams published an op-ed in the Hechinger Report discussing the impact of COVID-19 on school funding and making the case for substantially increasing the federal role in education funding as a matter of equity. |
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Start at the Beginning: New Report Offers Solutions to Rooting Out Racism in Early EducationOctober 25, 2020 CEP Founder Dr. Shantel Meek and CEP partners Drs. Rosemarie Allen and Conor Williams released a new report that provides concrete solutions to addressing inequities in early ed, “so that today’s preschoolers are not tomorrow’s protester.” |
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New Data Tell How We Can Better Meet English Learners’ Needs This FallSeptember 15, 2020 CEP Partner Dr. Conor Williams published a piece at The Century Foundation on how schools can learn from the spring to better serve dual language learners in the fall. |
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As D.C. Feels Gentrification Pressures, New Study Finds Its Pre-K Lottery Provides Equal — but Not Necessary Equitable — AccessSeptember 08, 2020 By Dr. Conor Williams Dr. Williams published a piece at the 74 Million on new research on school enrollment policies in Washington, DC's universal pre-K program. |
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Report: Deck Stacked Against Young Children of Color, but Leaders Can ‘Seize This Moment’ to Improve EquityJuly 14, 2020 The 74 features the Children’s Equity Project’s Start with Equity report, which offers a policy agenda that includes a ban on punishments that exclude children from classrooms, more early-childhood mental health services, full funding for special education, incentives for including children with disabilities in regular classrooms, and assessment tools in multiple languages. |
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Start With Equity: From the Early Years to the Early GradesJuly 14, 2020 The Children’s Equity Project and the Bipartisan Policy Center released today a groundbreaking, actionable policy roadmap for all levels of government on closing long-standing educational equity gaps that start at birth in the United States. Start with Equity: From the Early Years to the Early Grades highlights the grave inequities that have long pervaded the education system and affect the lives of millions of children from historically marginalized communities, using the lens of three policy areas: disproportionate application of harsh discipline practices; lack of inclusion of students with disabilities in general classrooms; and inequitable and inadequate access to dual language programming. In each policy area, the 140-page report includes analyses of existing data, a review of the latest research and concrete recommendations for policymakers at the federal, state and local levels. |
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Williams: Despite Our Desperation — and the President’s Insistence — Facts Don’t Support Schools Safely Reopening This FallJuly 12, 2020 With COVID-19 cases on the rise and the academic school year quickly approaching, many are wondering if in-person schooling will resume this fall. CEP partner Dr. Conor Williams argues that we are still a long way from a public-health scenario where in-person schooling is likely to be safe. |
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How to Engage in Anti-Racism PracticesJune 2020 CEP Partner Dr. Rosemarie Allen had a conversation with CBS4 about ways to engage in anti-racism practices. |
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How to Build a Better Child Care SystemMay 29, 2020 CEP founder, Dr. Shantel Meek discusses how crucial a quality child care system is. She emphasizes that quality child care is more than a place where children exist while their parents work, but an important environment where they can learn and grow. |
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Metro State University Professor Details How To Speak To Your Kids On RacismMay 2020 CEP Partner Dr. Rosemarie Allen talks to CBS4 reporter Justin Adams about how parents can speak to their kids about racism and social injustice. |
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English Learners Are Home with Their Home Languages, and That’s OkayApril 29, 2020 CEP Partner Dr. Conor Williams details the unique challenges English-learning students face during the COVID-19 pandemic. |
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Williams: The Politics — and Economics — Around Why We Should Make Pre-K Universal Are ChangingApril 27, 2020 CEP Partner Dr. Conor Williams discusses the importance of making Pre-K universal and how each Democratic presidential candidate discusses the topic in their campaign. |
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Williams: Coronavirus Pandemic Reveals the Reality — and the Risk — of America’s Child Safety Net Being Its Public SchoolsMarch 2020 CEP Partner Dr. Conor Williams discusses the COVID-19 pandemic and highlights the benefits and risks of the American public education system. |
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There’s a Real Progressive Case for Supporting Charter SchoolsFebruary 20, 2020 CEP partner Dr. Conor Williams argues that a strong push to advance progressive ends through charters could improve students' academic performance, school integration, and the quality of the charter movement. |
2019
OPINION: Let's Never See Another First-Grader in HandcuffsOctober 15, 2019 Dr. Shantel Meek, founding director of the Children's Equity Project at Arizona State University, partnered with Roy Austin Jr., a former deputy assistant to the president and policy lead on criminal justice reform in the Obama administration, to examine and address the criminalization of black children in early education. |
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Aware Is Halfway There: Identifying and Combating Implicit Biases in Early Childhood EducationOctober 3, 2019 As the keynote speaker of the Sharing a Vision Conference, president and CEO of the Institute for Racial Equity and Excellence and Children's Equity Project partner, Dr. Rosemarie Allen spoke about implicit biases - and how they can address them. Image credit: Tim Shelley / WCBU |
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Back to School but Nothing's Normal. Schools Mobilize to Help Children of Immigrants After Traumatic SummerSeptember 15, 2019 Along with other experts and educators, Dr. Shantel Meek, founding director of the Children's Equity Project at Arizona State University, weighed in on the topic of chronic stress affecting a child's learning at school. She said, "When we think about early childhood development, what's the number one thing that we think is critical to healthy development? Securely attached relationships. It's this notion of dependability of 'I'm going to cry and I trust you to be there to meet my needs.'" Recent, sudden changes to U.S. immigration policies risk, she explained, "taking away that trust, that security that kids have in their primary caregiver. We're fundamentally messing with the social-emotional foundation of these kids ... It's like we're intentionally causing trauma." Image credit: People hold candles during a candlelight vigil at the Immanuel Church for victims of a shooting that left a total of 22 people dead at the Cielo Vista Mall WalMart in El Paso, Texas, Aug 5, 2019. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images) |
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Laboratories of Democracy: Washington, DC, Showed How to do Universal Pre-K RightAugust 12, 2019 Dr. Conor Williams, a Children's Equity Project partner, wrote an article on Washington's universal public prekindergarten for 3- and 4-year-olds and how this creates a ripple effect that helps K-12 students too. Image credit: Christina Animashaun/Vox |
2018
Betsy DeVos Loves Charter Schools. That's Bad for Charter SchoolsJune 2, 2018 Dr. Conor Williams, a Children's Equity Project partner, wrote an article on school choice and the unique position charter schools have been placed in due to politics. Image credit: Devyn Pittorf teaching a kindergarten class at Hiawatha Leadership Academy-Morris Park elementary school in the Morris Park area of Minneapolis.CreditCreditJoe Dickie/Big World Films, via Hiawatha Academies |