This Conference Strives To:
- Equip the workforce to be able to employ data-based decision making to ensure that all children and family needs are being met
- Provide effective strategies for instruction in all areas, inclusive of early literacy, language, and social-emotional, physical, and cognitive skills
- Promote the use of differentiated supports to meet the needs of dual language learners and children with disabilities
- Build understanding that MTSS is a tiered approach to prevention, promotion and targeted support for children and families
- Engage members of the San Diego community to consider how MTSS is a unifying framework that can be effectively integrated program-wide to support the various learning and developmental needs of children.
Keynote Speaker (Friday):
Dr. Judith Carta is a Senior Scientist in the Institute for Life Span Studies/Juniper Gardens Children’s Project and Professor of Special Education at the University of Kansas. Her science focuses on developing strategies to minimize the effects of poverty on children’s language and social outcomes and developing practices that teachers and parents can use to promote children’s early learning particularly in vulnerable populations. Her current research and policy interests include creating multi-sector community-wide interventions for advancing the quality of children’s caregiving environments, and scaling up tiered approaches for enhancing all children’s learning and development such as Multi-Tiered Systems of Support. She has been the Principal Investigator of several multi-site research projects and centers funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Institute of Educational Sciences, and the Administration on Children and Families. She was the co-director of the National Center for Response to Intervention in Early Childhood. She currently directs the Bridging the Word Gap Research Network, a collaborative of 200 researchers, practitioners, civic leaders, and policymakers seeking to enrich young children’s language learning environments. She also directs a post-doctoral training program funded by the Institute of Education Sciences focused on Evidence-Based Practice in Early Intervention and Early Learning.
Keynote Speaker (Saturday):
Amy McCart, Ph.D. is a Research Professor with Life Span Institute and Adjunct Faculty status with the Department of Special Education at the University of Kansas. She is the Co-Principal Investigator for the Equity Leadership in High Need Schools research grant, funded through the U.S. Department of Education Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. Dr. McCart is the Co-Director of SWIFT Education Center established in 2012 at the University of Kansas. SWIFT is a national pre-K-12 research and technical assistance center designed to improve outcomes for all students, with emphasis on students of color and those with the most extensive need for support. Dr. McCart leads an amazing team of technical assistance professionals in urban, rural and high need schools across the United States.
Target Audience:
Early Learning and Care professionals serving children from infancy through kindergarten, in center-based, school district, and family child care settings.