November 1996 New Director Sees Doors Opening to Families
D r. Theresa Elofson brings a rich history as a teacher, administrator, researcher, and evaluator to her new position as Director of the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory's Child and Family Program.
Most recently, Elofson served as Title I Learning Assistance Program Specialist in the Federal Way, Washington, School District. Elofson also has been the director of the Kansas Head Start Training Office, director of the Early Childhood Specialist Graduate Program at Pacific Oaks College (California), research assistant at the University of Illinois Center for Instructional Research and Curriculum Evaluation, and director and evaluator of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act Title III Program for the state of Vermont.
Elofson holds a Ph.D. in early childhood education and educational evaluation from the University of Illinois.
A frequent keynote speaker and presenter at state and national conferences, Elofson began in her new position with NWREL on August 15. Below, Elofson shares her views on early childhood education in the Northwest.
: How will your experiences come into play in your new role as director of the Child and Family Program?
Elofson: We're trying to look at families and children in that whole ecological system, and my experiences have fit into a lot of those different systems. We're going to be working with schools, private agencies, child-care settings, and research institutes, and that's all a part of where I get my experience. That experience gives me an ability to go across the lines into the various agencies that need to work with families and children.
Elofson: I think our Laboratory network will do a lot in this area. We'll look at the legislation that's passed nationally and in the region and determine the effects it will have on children and families. Then we'll look at and suggest policy considerations to address the legislation…We're likely to see an increase of homeless children, higher rates of student mobility, and more families in need. These situations affect more than the schools. They also have an impact on health care providers, social service agencies, and other human services. We all need to begin working in concert with families to determine how we can best meet their needs.
Elofson: When you have increasing populations of poor, homeless, or troubled children, it takes more and more attention from teachers to address their needs in the classroom. It also affects the services we have to offer because it affects the costs we have to pay. Although we're talking about children and families, ultimately these children are going to be teenagers and adults. You have to wonder what kind of foundation we're setting for them.
Elofson: Part of our mission is to get institutions, agencies, and organizations to work together. We have to have some strong supports for families, regardless of whether they're two-parent, single-parent, extended, or foster families, or made up in other ways.
Elofson: I think this goes beyond the early childhood programs to all the agencies that serve families and children. We tend to be fairly territorial, and we must begin removing the barriers and seeing families as caring, loving units. I think that early childhood programs have always been fairly good at working with parents. I'm not saying all of them, but certainly Head Start and some other early models had strong family-involvement components. I'm much more concerned about the connections between families and schools once children get into more formal school settings. Families are not likely to get involved in the schools or be strong advocates for their children if they feel unwelcome or sense that school staff is unfriendly. I think a lot of it has to do with barriers that we don't even know we're setting up in front of our schools, in front of our institutions, in front of our programs for parents and families.
Elofson: For one thing, we have to remove barriers in our personal and professional lives. As a program director, I ask myself multiple times in a day if I am being territorial. I seek ways in which I can be collaborative. Two, I think that parents who have concerns about their children are going to be getting involved in greater numbers with schools and other institutions that serve them. Families have found that when they connect, it's powerful for them and it's powerful for their children. I think they'll be pressing those borders, and that means we'll have to open wide the doors.
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