Educational Leadership

The pandemic highlighted Australia’s reliance on early childhood educators, while adding to their existing stresses. A study of how educators fared identifies three key factors in their well-being.

In December, Conor Williams asked whether the growing demand for multilingual early-childhood programs might push out the students these programs were designed to serve.

Conor Williams’s insightful piece on dual-language learning, “The Intrusion of White Families Into Bilingual Schools,” acknowledges the impact of rapidly changing demographics on many bilingual schools in Washington, D.C. Yet by pointing the finger at one category of parents, attention is diverted from the real issue: We are slicing a cake that is too small. If a fraction of the resources thrown at stem over the last decade, for example, were thrown at bilingual education, we could make multilingualism an integral part of our education system and correct most of the current inequities.

One in five early childhood educators said they planned to leave their job within a year. It is vital we design a system and policies to ensure there are enough to meet the demand.

Will the growing demand for multilingual early-childhood programs push out the students these programs were designed to serve?