As California expands access to Universal Pre-K (UPK) to advance equity and opportunity, one urgent question remains:
Are we building an educator workforce that’s prepared to meet the needs of our youngest multilingual learners?
Today, 59% of children under five in California are multilingual learners. These children deserve educators who recognize their home languages as assets and who are prepared to provide developmentally, linguistically, and culturally affirming instruction from the very start of their educational journeys.
Our new report, Ensuring a Multilingual-Ready UPK Workforce, offers practical strategies to help education leaders do just that. Grounded in the work of the English Learners Workforce Investment Initiative (EL-WIN), this resource highlights key insights and seven actionable recommendations for strengthening the pipeline of multilingual-prepared educators across California.
What is EL-WIN?
Led by the Emerging Bilingual Collaborative, EL-WIN provides philanthropic support to local education agencies working in partnership to recruit, prepare, and sustain early childhood educators who:
- Reflect the racial, cultural, and linguistic diversity of the children they serve
- Are supported in pursuing meaningful early education careers rooted in community
- Deliver instruction that sustains home languages and cultures, while building strong foundations for academic success
This initiative uplifts community-based, equity-centered approaches to building a workforce ready for California’s multilingual future.
Recommendations for Action
Education leaders at every level have tools to build a robust, multilingual-ready UPK workforce. The report outlines seven key recommendations:
- State Agency Collaboration:
Convene an interagency workgroup focused on early childhood and UPK multilingual education. - Local Agency Coordination:
Support cross-sector collaboration at the local level to align efforts and share resources. - Workforce Preparation:
Expand and strengthen preparation programs to equip educators with the skills to serve dual language learners. - Recognition of Experience:
Create standards to recognize prior experience, multilingual education, and credentialing equivalencies. - Funding & Wage Stabilization:
Establish a stabilization fund to support fair compensation for mixed-delivery UPK providers, especially those prepared to serve multilingual learners. - Workforce & Enrollment Data:
Collect and use detailed data on the monolingual and multilingual UPK workforce to inform policy and program decisions.
What’s Next
This resource is designed to support alignment across County Offices of Education, school districts, postsecondary institutions, and early learning providers. A coordinated approach is essential to building a workforce that reflects and supports the children it serves.
Read the full report here.
Together, we can ensure California’s youngest multilingual learners enter school with the teachers—and systems—they need to thrive.