This presentation aims to build knowledge about leadership's important role in promoting home-school cooperation in early childhood centers and home settings. Yuying Fan will address common obstacles encountered in early childhood multilingual settings based on her experiences as founder and director of a dual language (Chinese/English) bilingual program that includes four campuses in Las Vegas. Participants will learn how to build home-school partnerships to support linguistically and culturally diverse students with practical strategies drawn from Yuying Fan’s firsthand experiences as a bilingual school director. Further, she will discuss the challenges that culturally and linguistically diverse children, families, and teachers face. Participants will gain practical tools for fostering trust and communication with students and families from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Additionally, this presentation will explore ideas for advocating for policies and practices that support leaders and providers/teachers working in multilingual early childhood environments.

Yuying Fan is the founder of Baby University and Noble Collegiate Academy, a dual language (Mandarin Chinese/English) program in Nevada that provides instruction from Nursery to Grade 12. What began as an 18-student school now offers high-quality dual-language bilingual education to 380 students across four campuses. The school exposes students to two languages through an integrated curriculum with diverse cultural elements while utilizing a team-teacher approach. Yuying Fan holds a B.S. degree in accounting and an M.A. in early childhood education from the University of Nevada. She is currently completing a Ph.D. related to Early Childhood Administration at American College of Education. Yuying Fan has a strong trajectory of advocacy for early childhood education –specifically, building the leadership capacity in early childhood centers and home settings. She has provided multiple trainings to ECE providers and leaders in the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) conference, Nevada Registry training courses, and the Office of Early Learning and Development.

The Nevada Registry provides registry-approved opportunities for professional development and training. ECE teachers who attend the April 16th event will receive 2-hours of credit to fulfill their annual 24 hours of training.

About the Series

The Community Talks series provides researchers, practitioners, families, and community stakeholders learning opportunities to increase their understanding and ability to apply knowledge related to language development for multilingual populations in their respective settings. An attendance certificate will be provided at the end of each session.

These community talks on multilingualism and assessment issues are sponsored by Sharolyn D. Pollard-Durodola, professor and Dunn Family Endowed Chair of Educational Assessment. The events are co-hosted by the Lynn Bennett Early Childhood Education Center and the COE Early Childhood, Multilingual, and Special Education Department.