Tulsa Educare

This year, a study was published demonstrating that our schools deliver long-term academic returns to the children we reach. We already believed in our impact but the study confirmed our impact and has renewed our energy and passion. We have been sharing this information with parents, funders, policy makers, and practitioners since we need more to understand that we have the answers for disrupting intergenerational poverty nationwide. The study was conducted by researchers from the early childhood education institute at the university of oklahoma-tulsa. While celebrating this news, we have worked to continue rebuilding our schools from the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic. Our hard work to retain existing staff and hire new staff paid off as staffing increased by five percentage points. Data from staff surveys tell us our program became more nurturing as reports of trust and positive work environments increased and reports of being treated unfairly by colleagues decreased. Child attendance significantly improved as average daily attendance increased six percentage points. Along with children being in our schools more days, parents spent more time in our schools as we offered more in-person events such as a school-wide multicultural fiesta and english as a second language classes. Our community initiative early learning works (elw) experienced a 30 percent increase in the number of child care providers it reaches, now up to one hundred twenty six. Also, elw began work to support fifteen individuals in opening high-quality family child care homes funded by their new grant from the Oklahoma clearinghouse for early childhood success.