7. Nine Takeaways from Our Work with States, School Districts, & Communities

In fall 2021, our team began working with three states and three school districts to strengthen their transitions policies and practices. Since then we have been working through the six steps in the previous section using the tools in the appendices.

1. Engage the community. The transitions team should consider including families, pre-K providers, kindergarten teachers, school leaders, district leaders, and other community members. If some constituents are not able to participate, include them in roundtable discussions or gather their thoughts in a focus group setting or survey. Each community member cares deeply about their children and wants to provide the best possible setting for them to transition in school.

   Considerations for specific parties:
   • Policymakers and advocates: Child care providers, pre-K teachers, Head Start teachers, kindergarten educators, and families have the best insight into how strong transitions are helpful for students. Ask them for their stories and create opportunities for them to engage in the process.
   • New to this work: Consider hosting different roundtable discussions or events that will invite diverse parties into the conversation.

2. Center equity. The pandemic has disproportionately impacted people with low incomes and communities of color. Our youngest learners are at the forefront of our nation’s growing racial, ethnic, and linguistic diversity, and they are coming to elementary school with a wider array of experiences and early childhood environments than ever before. Our early childhood workforce—which is grossly underpaid and largely made up of women of color—has also been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. Historical inequities for educators and the families they serve call for change. Using equity-focused tools, like this example from the Washington State Board of Education, must be the foundation of this work as we seek new ways forward.

   Considerations for specific parties:
   • Policymakers: Continuously check that proposed policies reach families furthest from opportunity and support early childhood educators. Seek policies that support restorative practices and remove current barriers.
   • Advocates and those new to the work: Use your knowledge of and relationships within your community to ensure that individuals from all backgrounds are represented on your transitions team.

3. Establish a path to decision-making. Having leaders who can drive change is pivotal to building processes across a state or district. The transitions team should assess what policies and practices it has the power to influence and should identify a path to reaching leadership, which can influence further change. The team should also determine where this work will be stored, as transitions work often involves multiple agencies or offices.

   Considerations for specific parties:
   • Policymakers: Know which agencies, offices, and teams control different aspects of the transitions process.
   • Advocates: Determine which policy and practice levers need to be pulled and involve people who have the power to pull them.
   • New to this work: Involve a range of individuals in the policy design process and identify how team members can influence different aspects of the work.

4. Evaluate leader capacity. Strengthening transitions requires ongoing effort across the state, in the district, and in the school building that goes far beyond back-to-school activities at the start of the school year. Transitions teams must set aside the time and resources to understand strengths and gaps in their current practices and make changes throughout the calendar year. For longer-term impact, these teams can also consider a policy agenda that strengthens practices and identifies potential champions to help move it forward.

   Considerations for specific parties:
   • New to this work: Understand what types of practices can strengthen transitions and set realistic expectations about the time commitment required to meet year-round transitions goals.

5. Plan for long-term funding. Efforts to strengthen the transition to kindergarten benefit from ongoing investment. While the transition into kindergarten is often viewed as something that can be supported at critical moments, such as the summer and early fall, effective transitions teams plan beyond this once-a-year prioritization and create long-term systems. Whether a team decides to pursue summer programming for rising kindergarteners, ongoing family engagement strategies, staffing changes, or professional development opportunities, this work requires dedicated funding.

   Considerations for specific parties:
   • Policymakers: Policy and funding for transitions do not need to stand on their own; they can be incorporated into relevant K–12 and ECE proposals.
   • Advocates: Make recurring funding for transition into kindergarten part of K–12 and ECE priorities.
   • New to this work: Identify which tasks can be easily and quickly fulfilled with existing resources and which will require longer-term effort/capacity and investment.

6. Align transitions work with current priorities. This work must start with the team establishing a firm understanding of what efforts are currently underway so it can determine a realistic starting point. An understanding of current practices should inform transitions goals, ensuring that they fit within state and/or district priorities and can leverage ongoing initiatives. The COVID era has brought about competing priorities with limited resources. Supporting a smooth entrance to kindergarten should be a practice that coincides with other priorities, rather than becoming an additional burden on educators.

   Considerations for specific parties:
   • Policymakers: Make sure the transition into kindergarten is considered when focusing on reaching more children, training and recruiting more staff members, and creating stronger family and community relationships.
   • Advocates: Look for areas of potential overlap between transitions activities and other requirements.
   • New to this work: Remember that effective transitions can be woven into many other priorities and activities; they do not need to be separate.

7. Create buy-in. Some relevant stakeholders (parents, educators, administrators, etc.) may lack understanding of their larger community or might not understand how transitions impacts their work. Within one district there may be a mix of reluctance to participate in the work and an eager willingness to make use of resources and invest in relationships. Barriers to progress may be high in some communities, especially because issues like pre-K expansion, educational equity, and even social-emotional learning have become increasingly politicized. Tying the positive effects of effective transitions to less contentious areas of policy can help reduce some of these barriers.

   Considerations for specific parties:
   • New to this work: Help ensure program leaders and educators understand the importance of transitions, what developmentally appropriate practice looks like for young learners, what challenges the community is facing, and how a focus on transitions can address some of those challenges. Take time to understand how interested parties, including practitioners and parents, are viewing different issues. Focus groups, interviews, and surveys are all useful tools.

8. Address educator capacity. Many pre-K and kindergarten teachers and program administrators know the importance of healthy and positive transitions practices through their day-to-day interactions with families, but practitioners may not all be on the same page about the effort required to ensure smooth transitions for each child. The transitions team must determine where gaps and barriers in background knowledge may exist. If an elementary school principal does not have training in or knowledge about early childhood education and developmentally appropriate practice, getting buy-in will be an essential step to making transitions a priority. Buy-in must go beyond enthusiasm and commitment from district-level leadership. Professionals at the school and classroom level must see the work as a worthwhile investment of their time. Opportunities for training and professional development related to transitions can create the space for educators to become consistent in their practices.

   Considerations for specific parties:
   • Policymakers: The transition to kindergarten is one part, but a crucial one, in the early childhood ecosystem. Use the transitions work and research that shows healthy transitions lead to greater academic and social-emotional growth in later grades.
   • New to this work: Reach out to different district and community offices to learn about the expertise they can lend to your team. Think about the best person to invite community members into the work.

9. Find political allies. As the team works to ensure that transitions remain a vital priority in ECE work, it will likely need support from key political players like school board members, city council members, mayors, or other local politicians. Political leaders have a wide reach and can provide visibility for the importance of transitions practices in ECE.

   Considerations for specific parties:
   • Policymakers: Find ways for transitions practices to be highlighted across multiple areas of policy, including education and health care priorities.
   • Advocates: Work to establish relationships with local policymakers. Provide them with relevant talking points so they can help spread the word about the importance of kindergarten transitions and what resources are available to families.
   • New to this work: Learn about your local politicians and vote for champions of early childhood education.