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Brad R. Fulton and Richard L. Wood’s chapter uses a national dataset of faith-based community organizing (FBCO) coalitions to provide an overview of an organizational field that is central to the progressive religious activist field as a whole. The chapter focuses on the high levels of religious diversity, racial/ethnic diversity, and socioeconomic diversity of the FBCO field, and argues that these groups draw on shared religious commitments to bridge their racial/ethnic and socioeconomic divides. Finally, they argue that in addition to the sheer scale of mobilization enabled by the FBCO infrastructure, this diversity constitutes faith-based organizing’s most significant source of power and most important credential for legitimacy in the public arena.

The inevitable shift toward a pluralistic society is already evident in the child population today, decades before it becomes reality for all Americans. If we are to act responsibly in our advocacy for early care and education, it is essential that the diversity of the child population serve as the platform upon which policy is developed. These will be the policies that prepare our children for living and succeeding in a new America. The chapter begins with a demographic analysis of the child population and asserts that there are three categories of diversity each having a different impact on public perception and social reality. Understanding diversity allows for a nuanced understanding of who America’s children really are and why the concept of diversity has such import for early care and education. Four recommendations are made that put diversity and equity at the forefront of early childhood policies.

This chapter explores early childhood classroom quality with an explicit focus on the implications for dual language learners (DLLs). The 2010 census revealed that 22% of children in the United States speak a home language other than English. Stemming from the theory presented by Carollee Howes, high quality and effective early learning experiences can best be achieved for DLL populations through culturally responsive teaching. The culturally responsive teaching framework is used to discuss best practices for the DLL population, along with suggestions for positive avenues of change within early childhood classrooms. The authors consider future directions concerning the philosophical and political goals of DLLs’ education, and how to achieve these outcomes. Reconceptualizing the goals of education for ethnically and linguistically diverse children influences how we define and measure quality in the future.

The editors comment on three themes that address the central question of the book—that is, whether the standard early care and education canon regarding definitions of quality, models of relationships, and peer relations in the child care context remains accurate and relevant given the increasingly racially, linguistically, and ethnically diverse society in the United States. Three central themes are identified from the chapters of this book: First, child care is inequitable, and poor children of color bear the brunt of that inequity. Second, intense professionalization is mandatory if early childhood education is to fulfill the promise of equity that it is held up to. Third, culturally relevant affective social interaction is the anchor for decisions regarding practice and policy.