Page 23 - Gateways for Early Educators

Gateways for Early Educators
Ethnicity and Language. To understand the population the program is coached data on participants’ ethnicity and language was examined. The 2006 study of Family Child Care Providers in Los Angeles County reported that 48.9% of FCCs were Latino, 23.5% were African- American, 18.7% were Caucasian, and 8.8% were Asian, Pacific Islander, American Indian, or mixed race.xxxviii In addition, 38.8% were fluent in English, 18.3% were fluent in Spanish, 31.7% were fluent in English and Spanish, and 11.1% were fluent in English plus another language. Ethnicity differs by teacher/assistant teacher role in centers. Teachers are more likely to be white and less likely to be Hispanic compared with Assistant Teachers (Teachers: 35.5% White, 36.6% Hispanic, 14.1% African-American, 7.1% Asian/Pacific Islander, 6.7% other; Assistant Teachers: 23.1% White, 53.2% Hispanic, 13.8% African-American, 5.4% Asian/Pacific Islander, 4.6% other). Additionally, 33.5% of directors, 47.9% of teachers, and 58.7% of assistant teachers were able to communicate fluently with children and families in a language other than English (per self-report from the Director).xxxix Furthermore, the most common language other than English was Spanish (of the teachers with a language other than English, 76.2% spoke Spanish and 3.5% spoke Chinese and of the assistant teachers who spoke a language other than English, 83.8% spoke Spanish and 3.8% spoke Chinese). These findings differed by Service Planning Area within Los Angeles County.
As seen in Figure 1, Gateways coaching participants were mostly Hispanic/Latino (67.5%) while 17.3% are African-American, 5.7% are Asian, and 3.2% are Caucasian, with the remaining not responding or selecting another ethnicity. Half (50.0%) of the participants reported Spanish as their primary language and 43.4% reported English as their primary language (see Figure 2).
2016
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