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Equity, Inclusiveness, and Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Practices (EI&CLRP) 

Guiding Principles Across and Within All Early Childhood National Centers: 2021-2025

Preamble 

In order to ensure equal opportunities and optimal outcomes for all children and families, we must address equity, inclusiveness, and culturally and linguistically responsive practices (EI&CLRP) in early childhood education. The National Centers are uniquely positioned to collaborate to redress inequities and to promote a strength-based approach as they develop and tailor materials and provide training and technical assistance (TTA) across early childhood systems. These systems include local Head Start, Early Head Start, Migrant and Seasonal, child care, and school-age and summer programs, as well as state, territory, and tribal child care programs.

Goals of EI&CLRP 

  1. Build and strengthen intentional organizational- and self-awareness and understanding of the diverse populations that we serve.
  2. Make progress toward removing barriers to the equitable distribution of resources and work to eliminate the impact of disparities in health, early learning, community and economic supports, expulsion, suspensions, and access* to services, information, and resources.
  3. Promote organizational- and self-awareness around historical practices of inequity and the institutional and structural barriers to equity, including explicit and implicit biases against individuals and groups of people perceived as “other.”** 
  4. Strengthen organizational management practices, including inclusive hiring practices related to recruitment, retention, and advancement and the use of qualitative and quantitative data that are inclusive and reflective of the populations served.
  5. Create partnerships across TTA centers to ensure that equity is addressed from multiple perspectives (e.g., race, ethnicity, life conditions, socioeconomic status, geographical locations and settings, language, age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, differing abilities, religion, language-based disparities, family characteristics, and other ways that families may be unique).

*“Access” refers to potential barriers involving affordability, accessibility, accommodations, acceptability, or awareness of services, information, and resources.

**“Diversity” is a multidimensional, broadly inclusive concept that acknowledges and embraces the richness of human differences so that there is no “other.”

Guiding Principles

  1. National Centers should intentionally promote and practice a culture of respect, validation, and systemic change by dedicating time and resources and assigning personnel to conduct staff- and organization-wide reflections and scans. They should look for the root causes of inequity and exclusion based on the multiple perspectives mentioned above (under Goal 5) and seek to proactively address those root causes of inequity. The National Centers should also support the creation of equity and inclusivity for all children in safe, nonjudgmental, and supportive environments.
  2. Broad and inclusive definitions of equity, culture, belonging, and population diversity in the United States and territories should be integrated into the development, dissemination, and delivery of all resources, products, and trainings by the National Centers. These definitions can guide efforts to overcome potential barriers to access as they relate to the multiple perspectives mentioned above (under Goal 5). 
  3. All National Centers should develop training and materials that are audience-specific and designed to recognize the existing knowledge and experience base of its end users (e.g., from the “grass roots to the grass tops” of the TTA delivery system through feedback loops). Trainers, trainees, staff members, consultants, and other consumers of information should be expected to progressively advance in their understanding of the multi-dimensional nature of equity, inclusiveness, culture, language, and cultural humility and the importance of having representation from the groups that are intended to be served. 
  4. All materials developed by the National Centers to enhance the understanding of the impact of EI&CLRP should be informed by current evidence- or research-based practices. Evidence or research used to inform materials development should clearly state the population being studied as well as any potential biases of the author.
  5. Diverse perspectives should be incorporated at the inception of National Centers’ training and product development. Whenever possible, the Centers should cultivate communication that facilitates contributions from all the people involved in the process. Materials should be co-constructed and field tested with representatives of the populations they are intended to serve and benefit. For example, when working with sovereign nations, ensure that protocols include adequate time frames for review and approvals by governing bodies, if needed.

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