When I Think of Research....
Some insights I have gained about research is that research takes patience and is time consuming. I also realize that everyone does research everyday in an informal way. I have learned that research is an important tool in the early childhood field as it improves the knowledge we need when teaching young children. Research is about uncovering and enabling the emergence of new understandings, insights, and knowledge (Rolfe & Mac Naughton, 2010, p. 3). I have learned to be aware of any bias's when planning research with children and that the Ethical Standards for Research with Children has different rules and regulations to keep children safe from any type of research compared to conducting research with adults. In the field of child-based research, it is imperative that the well-being of children involved is the first and foremost priority and child-based research is typically held to stricter standards and scrutiny.
My ideas about research have changed in many ways. The first is because of the many different types of research methods; interviews, surveys, focus groups, direct observations, and experiments. Research can verify or nullify stereotypes and help researchers to have the ability to eliminate guesswork and assumptions about different concepts. Another way that my ideas about research has changed is that not all research results are always valid. When I use the elements of the process of triangulation I will have a better understanding on the study and be more confident in the results of the research. A statement about the validity of a study is a judgement about the extend to which it can be said that the research has captured important features of the field and has analyzed them with integrity (Edwards, 2010, p. 162). Integrity in research is extremely important and any contribution toward validity is a step in the right direction.
I have learned that I have difficulties narrowing down research questions but once I do narrow them down, the hypothesis comes easy for me. When I have these two "ducks in a row," I do not have any problems deciding what research method to use and how to apply these techniques. I have also learned that I should do a feasibility study to determine possible positive and negative outcomes before investing in the research.
One challenge that I had to overcome was the actual research; that is finding information and articles to fit my needs. I became overwhelmed with the amount of reading involved but I was excited to learn that I could safely skip a large portion of any research article and still know exactly what the research was all about (Lepuschitz, 2011, p. 1). Reading the abstract and introduction was very beneficial for me as it told me whether I wanted to continue reading the article. Another challenge I had was narrowing down my research question as I was always too vague when writing this question. I do believe that I will always have difficulties with this situation.
I would like to thank all my colleagues who posed some challenging questions to me in the discussions as these questions had me looking at things in a different light. Just the discussions alone were very beneficial to this course and I appreciate the resources that everyone has suggested. This course was difficult for me and I respect and value everyones opinions.
Lepuschitz, J. K. (2011). A practical guide to reading research articles. Laureate Education,
Inc. Baltimore, MD.
Mac Naughton, G., Rolfe, S.A., & Siraji-Blatchford, I. (2010). Doing early childhood
research: International perspectives on theory and practice (2nd ed.). New York, NY:
McGraw-Hil.
Friday, April 25, 2014
Friday, April 4, 2014
Research Around the World
I researched the Early Childhood Development Virtual University Sub-Saharan Africa portal using the link http://www.ecdvu.org/ssa/major_reports.php
One research topic presented in Nigeria is "Assessment of the Caring Practices in Two Motherless Babies' Homes" and "Delivery of a Nutrition Training Program to the Staff of These Homes to Improve Nutrition of Children in Their Care." Children's orphanages represent a defenseless group of children that must have better care for healthy development. Training of high quality teachers for this project will support and encourage appropriate practices while discouraging inappropriate ones. Unless significant efforts are made to control these conditions, they will continue to be major challenges both in Nigeria and internationally (Akomas, 2004, p. 2).
Another research project presented in Malawi is "A Community-driven Rural Early Childhood Development (ECD) Project, with Emphasis on Culturally and Developmentally Appropriate Exploratory Learning Concepts." The project was designed to address the children's needs from a holistic perspective. It provides experiential learning pedagogy as well as a meeting place for the children's psychosocial and cognitive requirements (Day, 2004, p. 3).
One interesting fact that I read was about the extreme poverty level in Malawi. The families in the villages would not be expected to pay any fees for their children attending the early childhood facility. They would need to be involved with the learning by contributing firewood, maize, clay, or homemade toys. This project was expected to be branching out to other villages. Not only will the children benefit from this project, parents will benefit as well. I am sure these families who live in poverty are grateful for the early education their children will receive that they would willingly become involved with the facility. In the United States, getting families involved in their child's education is sometimes very difficult.
The ECDVU held its first Early Childhood Higher Education Symposium in 2013 and feels that leadership in this field cannot be met within the current traditional academic framework. This website provides many links with projects about improvements made in the field of early childhood among the poorer areas in Africa. The virtual university is addressing issues that are global; poverty, the training of high quality early childhood educators, offering appropriate learning experiences, food insecurity, and language barriers, but maybe not as intense as what is happening in Africa.
Akomas, O.E.U. (2004). Assessment of the caring practices in two motherless babies' homes in Abia State, Nigeria and the development and delivery of a nutrition training program to the staff of these homes to improve nutrition of children in their care. Retrieved from, http://www.ecdvu.org/ssa/major_reports.php
Day, C. (2004). A community-driven rural early childhood development (ecd) project, with emphasis on culturally and developmentally appropriate exploratory learning concepts. Retrieved from, http://www.ecdvu.org/ssa/major_reports.php
I researched the Early Childhood Development Virtual University Sub-Saharan Africa portal using the link http://www.ecdvu.org/ssa/major_reports.php
One research topic presented in Nigeria is "Assessment of the Caring Practices in Two Motherless Babies' Homes" and "Delivery of a Nutrition Training Program to the Staff of These Homes to Improve Nutrition of Children in Their Care." Children's orphanages represent a defenseless group of children that must have better care for healthy development. Training of high quality teachers for this project will support and encourage appropriate practices while discouraging inappropriate ones. Unless significant efforts are made to control these conditions, they will continue to be major challenges both in Nigeria and internationally (Akomas, 2004, p. 2).
Another research project presented in Malawi is "A Community-driven Rural Early Childhood Development (ECD) Project, with Emphasis on Culturally and Developmentally Appropriate Exploratory Learning Concepts." The project was designed to address the children's needs from a holistic perspective. It provides experiential learning pedagogy as well as a meeting place for the children's psychosocial and cognitive requirements (Day, 2004, p. 3).
One interesting fact that I read was about the extreme poverty level in Malawi. The families in the villages would not be expected to pay any fees for their children attending the early childhood facility. They would need to be involved with the learning by contributing firewood, maize, clay, or homemade toys. This project was expected to be branching out to other villages. Not only will the children benefit from this project, parents will benefit as well. I am sure these families who live in poverty are grateful for the early education their children will receive that they would willingly become involved with the facility. In the United States, getting families involved in their child's education is sometimes very difficult.
The ECDVU held its first Early Childhood Higher Education Symposium in 2013 and feels that leadership in this field cannot be met within the current traditional academic framework. This website provides many links with projects about improvements made in the field of early childhood among the poorer areas in Africa. The virtual university is addressing issues that are global; poverty, the training of high quality early childhood educators, offering appropriate learning experiences, food insecurity, and language barriers, but maybe not as intense as what is happening in Africa.
Akomas, O.E.U. (2004). Assessment of the caring practices in two motherless babies' homes in Abia State, Nigeria and the development and delivery of a nutrition training program to the staff of these homes to improve nutrition of children in their care. Retrieved from, http://www.ecdvu.org/ssa/major_reports.php
Day, C. (2004). A community-driven rural early childhood development (ecd) project, with emphasis on culturally and developmentally appropriate exploratory learning concepts. Retrieved from, http://www.ecdvu.org/ssa/major_reports.php
Friday, March 21, 2014
Research that Benefits Children and Families-Uplifting Stories
In 2005, I enrolled in a Child Psychology class to finish up my Associates Degree. I had to pick a topic, research it, and if possible, actually conduct the research. I chose to research "The Good Behavior Game" which was invented by Montrose Wolf. The Good Behavior Game is an intervention for reducing disruptive classroom behavior. The Good Behavior Game is not a separate curriculum but a behavioral procedure. It is unique because it is the only practice, at the time it was created, implemented by teachers that is documented to have long term effects. The Good Behaviors Game allows children to work in teams in which the members of each team are responsible to the rest of the group.
Teachers define a disruptive behavior they want to reduce; such as keeping your feet to yourself while sitting in circle time. The teacher clearly defines what she means and even demonstrates an example of the action expected, in this case how to sit without your feet touching or kicking your neighbor. The class is divided up into two teams with a mixture of the well-behaved children and the more "spirited" children. The teams pick names and are posted on a small chart. The teacher will place a check mark by the team when one of the children displays the behavior that is to be corrected. The team that receives the least amount of check marks while the game is being played are rewarded at the end of the game with stickers or candy. The Good Behavior Game should be done for ten minutes a day, three times a week for preschool children and can be extended longer later in the year.
I actually applied the findings of the Good Behavior Game to my pre-k class using the scenario above. I used ten minutes in the morning and ten minutes in the afternoon for three days of one week. Once the children understood what was expected, they took over the "game." Meaning that the well-behaved children would remind the other children on their team about keeping their feet to themselves. Sometimes the children would say to their peers "you can't tell me what to do!" But after the children saw that a reward was given at the end of the game, they worked together on their teams. The children would always ask to play the "game" and even played it while in their centers. The Good Behavior Game did help the children keep their feet to themselves for a few weeks and then we had to start over as a reminder.
All in all it was a positive experience for everyone as sometimes both teams won. I was worried about the rewards of stickers or candy being the focus for the appropriate behavior and that the children would become angry with each other if some did not do the right thing on their team. But, at this age, it did not appear to have any negative psychological effects on anyone. In some studies, the Good Behavior Game is implemented in the first and second grade. Long term results of the research include such statistics as fifty percent lower rate of illicit drug abuse, fifty-nine percent less likely to smoke, thirty-five percent lower rate of alcohol usage, and a sizable increase in high school graduation (Donaldson, Vollmer, & Berard, 2010).
Because of its simplicity and evidence of long-term effects, the GBG has been termed a "behavioral vaccine" (Donaldson, Vollmer, & Berard, 2010).
Donaldson, J. M., Vollmer, T. R., & Berard, K. (2010). An evaluation of the good behavior game in kindergarten classrooms. Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. Retrieved from, http://www.ncbi.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3177341
In 2005, I enrolled in a Child Psychology class to finish up my Associates Degree. I had to pick a topic, research it, and if possible, actually conduct the research. I chose to research "The Good Behavior Game" which was invented by Montrose Wolf. The Good Behavior Game is an intervention for reducing disruptive classroom behavior. The Good Behavior Game is not a separate curriculum but a behavioral procedure. It is unique because it is the only practice, at the time it was created, implemented by teachers that is documented to have long term effects. The Good Behaviors Game allows children to work in teams in which the members of each team are responsible to the rest of the group.
Teachers define a disruptive behavior they want to reduce; such as keeping your feet to yourself while sitting in circle time. The teacher clearly defines what she means and even demonstrates an example of the action expected, in this case how to sit without your feet touching or kicking your neighbor. The class is divided up into two teams with a mixture of the well-behaved children and the more "spirited" children. The teams pick names and are posted on a small chart. The teacher will place a check mark by the team when one of the children displays the behavior that is to be corrected. The team that receives the least amount of check marks while the game is being played are rewarded at the end of the game with stickers or candy. The Good Behavior Game should be done for ten minutes a day, three times a week for preschool children and can be extended longer later in the year.
I actually applied the findings of the Good Behavior Game to my pre-k class using the scenario above. I used ten minutes in the morning and ten minutes in the afternoon for three days of one week. Once the children understood what was expected, they took over the "game." Meaning that the well-behaved children would remind the other children on their team about keeping their feet to themselves. Sometimes the children would say to their peers "you can't tell me what to do!" But after the children saw that a reward was given at the end of the game, they worked together on their teams. The children would always ask to play the "game" and even played it while in their centers. The Good Behavior Game did help the children keep their feet to themselves for a few weeks and then we had to start over as a reminder.
All in all it was a positive experience for everyone as sometimes both teams won. I was worried about the rewards of stickers or candy being the focus for the appropriate behavior and that the children would become angry with each other if some did not do the right thing on their team. But, at this age, it did not appear to have any negative psychological effects on anyone. In some studies, the Good Behavior Game is implemented in the first and second grade. Long term results of the research include such statistics as fifty percent lower rate of illicit drug abuse, fifty-nine percent less likely to smoke, thirty-five percent lower rate of alcohol usage, and a sizable increase in high school graduation (Donaldson, Vollmer, & Berard, 2010).
Because of its simplicity and evidence of long-term effects, the GBG has been termed a "behavioral vaccine" (Donaldson, Vollmer, & Berard, 2010).
Donaldson, J. M., Vollmer, T. R., & Berard, K. (2010). An evaluation of the good behavior game in kindergarten classrooms. Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. Retrieved from, http://www.ncbi.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3177341
Saturday, March 15, 2014
My Personal Research Journey
The topic that I chose to research is self-regulation and I had a difficult time narrowing it down to subtopics. My original subtopics were social-emotional self-regulation, cognitive self-regulation, and activities for scaffolding self-regulation skills. Dr. Darragh-Ernst suggested that I narrow my subtopics down even more as my subtopics could each be a stand alone major topic. I wanted to keep self-regulation of preschoolers in my research because it is an important skill young children need to learn in order to be successful in life. Since a self-regulation foundation develops in the first five years of a young child's life, early childhood professionals play a huge part in helping children regulate their though process. So, with Dr. Darragh-Ernst's guidance, I narrowed my subtopic down to strategies that support cognitive self-regulation in preschoolers.
I found many articles on self-regulation for both social-emotional and cognitive development, and also found that self-regulation is not an isolated skill. Because self-regulation involves different domains, regulation of one domain affects other areas of development (Florez, 2011, p. 2). Early childhood professionals must teach children to regulate themselves through different strategies or techniques such as modeling and scaffolding self-regulation during normal activities throughout the day. Children's thinking affects their emotions and these emotions affect their cognitive development. I also found many articles about how pretend play helps to develop cognitive self-regulation.
I felt like I spent hours researching cognitive self-regulation as one article would have a footnote to another article, and so on. Sometimes I got lost in what my original topic was as I dug deeper into the articles. I searched the Walden Library and the Wichita State University Library looking for articles about my topic. With so much information available, I had to decide what was important and what was not, which was not that easy. The research chart helped me a lot as far as terms used and the definition of these terms. I also kept going back to the resources from week one to determine creditable articles. One issue I found in research is that it is time consuming! Has anyone found any easier ways to research their topics? Maybe just using key words?
Florez, I.R. (2011). Developing young children's self-regulation through everyday experiences. Young Children. Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/yc/
The topic that I chose to research is self-regulation and I had a difficult time narrowing it down to subtopics. My original subtopics were social-emotional self-regulation, cognitive self-regulation, and activities for scaffolding self-regulation skills. Dr. Darragh-Ernst suggested that I narrow my subtopics down even more as my subtopics could each be a stand alone major topic. I wanted to keep self-regulation of preschoolers in my research because it is an important skill young children need to learn in order to be successful in life. Since a self-regulation foundation develops in the first five years of a young child's life, early childhood professionals play a huge part in helping children regulate their though process. So, with Dr. Darragh-Ernst's guidance, I narrowed my subtopic down to strategies that support cognitive self-regulation in preschoolers.
I found many articles on self-regulation for both social-emotional and cognitive development, and also found that self-regulation is not an isolated skill. Because self-regulation involves different domains, regulation of one domain affects other areas of development (Florez, 2011, p. 2). Early childhood professionals must teach children to regulate themselves through different strategies or techniques such as modeling and scaffolding self-regulation during normal activities throughout the day. Children's thinking affects their emotions and these emotions affect their cognitive development. I also found many articles about how pretend play helps to develop cognitive self-regulation.
I felt like I spent hours researching cognitive self-regulation as one article would have a footnote to another article, and so on. Sometimes I got lost in what my original topic was as I dug deeper into the articles. I searched the Walden Library and the Wichita State University Library looking for articles about my topic. With so much information available, I had to decide what was important and what was not, which was not that easy. The research chart helped me a lot as far as terms used and the definition of these terms. I also kept going back to the resources from week one to determine creditable articles. One issue I found in research is that it is time consuming! Has anyone found any easier ways to research their topics? Maybe just using key words?
Florez, I.R. (2011). Developing young children's self-regulation through everyday experiences. Young Children. Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/yc/
Friday, February 28, 2014
Strengthening Bonds With Professionals
One consequence of learning about the international early childhood field is how other countries are facing the same issues that the United States early childhood field is facing; poverty, training of high quality early childhood teachers, quality early childhood experiences, and language barriers. The Children's Defense Fund website gave me many articles on how advocates can help families in poverty by investing in early childhood.
Another consequence would be culture. With all the different races and languages, quality early learning opportunities are a must for any child. There must be a liaison advocate for parents of immigrants for help with the language barrier and help them secure resources that are available.
A third consequence is the knowledge that I received from my contact in Africa. He wrote a lot about inequity for African children, especially for poor children who usually get less quality nutrition, less appropriate leaning opportunities, and generally less resources for early childhood education.
One of my personal goals is to hopefully stay in touch with my contact in Africa. I will continue with online research learning about the differences, commonalities, and inequities with other countries and the United States. I have enjoyed the discussions with my peers as we all have interpreted these discussions in different ways. Teaching young children is one of the most altruistic professions as we give so others can benefit.
One consequence of learning about the international early childhood field is how other countries are facing the same issues that the United States early childhood field is facing; poverty, training of high quality early childhood teachers, quality early childhood experiences, and language barriers. The Children's Defense Fund website gave me many articles on how advocates can help families in poverty by investing in early childhood.
Another consequence would be culture. With all the different races and languages, quality early learning opportunities are a must for any child. There must be a liaison advocate for parents of immigrants for help with the language barrier and help them secure resources that are available.
A third consequence is the knowledge that I received from my contact in Africa. He wrote a lot about inequity for African children, especially for poor children who usually get less quality nutrition, less appropriate leaning opportunities, and generally less resources for early childhood education.
One of my personal goals is to hopefully stay in touch with my contact in Africa. I will continue with online research learning about the differences, commonalities, and inequities with other countries and the United States. I have enjoyed the discussions with my peers as we all have interpreted these discussions in different ways. Teaching young children is one of the most altruistic professions as we give so others can benefit.
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Getting to Know Your International Contacts--Part 3
My contact in Africa, Eric Atmore, did not respond to my two emails that I sent, so I explored UNESCO's "Early Childcare Care and Education." My goals that I wrote in the Foundations course were:
*To better myself in the field of early childhood education
*To positively impact the quality of life for young children and their families
*To nurture and support my staff so they will continue to have balance with their
personal and professional lives
One article that I read was "Better Monitoring in Sight for the Well-being of Young Children." This article parallels with my goals as I work hard to empower the children, families, and teachers in becoming socially and emotionally well balanced competent adults. Thirty early childhood experts from around the world met in Paris in 2010 to develop a holistic index to improve Member States' ability to track progress towards quality early childhood care and education (ECCE)-the first of the Education for All (EFA) goals (UNESCO, 2014, p. 1). It is a huge challenge to keep pace with the changing world and making sure that all children receive the skills needed in this increasingly knowledge-based economy.
Another article, "Vox Pop: What are the Three Most Important Skills a Child Should Learn?" is also similar to my goals as I want to recognize children and their families as a group, but relate to them as individuals. Children should be thinking critically about who they are and how they relate to their world around them, in a social and political perspective...(Sahni, 2013, p. 2). Children, and sometimes their families, need to learn life skills and core values along with respect for the different cultures. \
One insight I learned when exploring this website is that internationally, countries want to place more emphasis on investing in girl's education. In the United States, we take education for granted. But in poorer countries, education is not readily available to everyone, especial females. Girl's make up half of 140 million children who are out of school (UNESCO, 2011). Education for females results in better health, stronger families and communities, and lower maternal child mortality. UNESCO supports the provision of school meals and encourages parents to send their daughters to school. By the year 2015, one of the six goals set by Education for All is all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities have access to, and complete, free and compulsory early education (UNESCO, 2014, p. 1).
Sahni, U. (2013). Vox pop: What are the three most important skills a child should learn?
Education UNESCO Bangkok. Retrieved from, http://www.unescobkk.org/education/news/article/vox-pop
UNESCO. (2011). A winning equation. Retrieved from, http://www.unesco.org
UNESCO. (2014). Better monitoring in sight for the well-being of young children.
Retrieved from, http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems
My contact in Africa, Eric Atmore, did not respond to my two emails that I sent, so I explored UNESCO's "Early Childcare Care and Education." My goals that I wrote in the Foundations course were:
*To better myself in the field of early childhood education
*To positively impact the quality of life for young children and their families
*To nurture and support my staff so they will continue to have balance with their
personal and professional lives
One article that I read was "Better Monitoring in Sight for the Well-being of Young Children." This article parallels with my goals as I work hard to empower the children, families, and teachers in becoming socially and emotionally well balanced competent adults. Thirty early childhood experts from around the world met in Paris in 2010 to develop a holistic index to improve Member States' ability to track progress towards quality early childhood care and education (ECCE)-the first of the Education for All (EFA) goals (UNESCO, 2014, p. 1). It is a huge challenge to keep pace with the changing world and making sure that all children receive the skills needed in this increasingly knowledge-based economy.
Another article, "Vox Pop: What are the Three Most Important Skills a Child Should Learn?" is also similar to my goals as I want to recognize children and their families as a group, but relate to them as individuals. Children should be thinking critically about who they are and how they relate to their world around them, in a social and political perspective...(Sahni, 2013, p. 2). Children, and sometimes their families, need to learn life skills and core values along with respect for the different cultures. \
One insight I learned when exploring this website is that internationally, countries want to place more emphasis on investing in girl's education. In the United States, we take education for granted. But in poorer countries, education is not readily available to everyone, especial females. Girl's make up half of 140 million children who are out of school (UNESCO, 2011). Education for females results in better health, stronger families and communities, and lower maternal child mortality. UNESCO supports the provision of school meals and encourages parents to send their daughters to school. By the year 2015, one of the six goals set by Education for All is all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities have access to, and complete, free and compulsory early education (UNESCO, 2014, p. 1).
Sahni, U. (2013). Vox pop: What are the three most important skills a child should learn?
Education UNESCO Bangkok. Retrieved from, http://www.unescobkk.org/education/news/article/vox-pop
UNESCO. (2011). A winning equation. Retrieved from, http://www.unesco.org
UNESCO. (2014). Better monitoring in sight for the well-being of young children.
Retrieved from, http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems
Friday, February 14, 2014
Sharing Web Resources
The resource that I have been researching is The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER).
http://www.nieer.org/resources/newsletter/index.php
There were several outside links that NIEER took me to: The Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center, NAEYC, The National Education Policy Center (NEPC), and Rand.
I explored the link to The National Education Policy Center (NEPC) which produces and disseminates high-quality, peer-reviewed research to inform education policy discussions. Their belief is that public education is strengthened when policies are based on sound evidence (NEPC, 2014, p.1). This organization has many articles, policy briefs, and think tank reviews. I was intrigued by the think tank reviews which are academically rigorous reviews of the strengths and weaknesses of selected publications. The expert assessments provide the public policymakers, and the press with the information needed to make informed judgments about the value of the conclusions drawn, and recommendations made in the reviewed reports (NEPC, 2014, p. 1). One article in the think tank review explained how Hispanic children have the largest achievement gap at kindergarten entry. Hispanic children have least access to preschool education because of limited access to public programs, inadequate outreach, and few dual language programs (Barnett, 2013, p. 3). A dual language Pre-k is critical to young children as bilingualism has cognitive, economic, and social benefits. The US must increase access to high quality Pre-k, especially Pre-k that meets the needs of young Hispanic children (Barnett, 2013, p. 5).
I also receive Preschool Matters...Today which is the NIEER blog. The blog that I received on February 10, 2014, states that all levels of government will have to increase their support for young children and families, including the federal government which can best lead the way by priming the pump-providing financial support and incentives that encourage and enable state and local governments to develop sustainable quality programs (Barnett, 2014, p. 1). Educational failure and inequality that plaques the country begins in children's experiences before they actually enter kindergarten. The need for quality early education is clearly greater than the funding we receive.
The Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center, http://www.fpg.unc.edu, is another excellent link to explore issues such as developmental disabilities, diversity, early care and education, physical and social health, international initiative, professional development, and public policy.
Other issues and trends that I found interesting is the debate about universal Pre-k.
Barnett, S. (2013). Young Hispanic children: Early learning needs and opportunities.
National Education Policy Center. Retrieved from,
http://www.nieer.org/resources/mewsletter/index.php
The National Education Policy Center. (2014). Think tank review. Retrieved from,
http://www.nepc.colorado.edu/think-tank-reviews
The resource that I have been researching is The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER).
http://www.nieer.org/resources/newsletter/index.php
There were several outside links that NIEER took me to: The Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center, NAEYC, The National Education Policy Center (NEPC), and Rand.
I explored the link to The National Education Policy Center (NEPC) which produces and disseminates high-quality, peer-reviewed research to inform education policy discussions. Their belief is that public education is strengthened when policies are based on sound evidence (NEPC, 2014, p.1). This organization has many articles, policy briefs, and think tank reviews. I was intrigued by the think tank reviews which are academically rigorous reviews of the strengths and weaknesses of selected publications. The expert assessments provide the public policymakers, and the press with the information needed to make informed judgments about the value of the conclusions drawn, and recommendations made in the reviewed reports (NEPC, 2014, p. 1). One article in the think tank review explained how Hispanic children have the largest achievement gap at kindergarten entry. Hispanic children have least access to preschool education because of limited access to public programs, inadequate outreach, and few dual language programs (Barnett, 2013, p. 3). A dual language Pre-k is critical to young children as bilingualism has cognitive, economic, and social benefits. The US must increase access to high quality Pre-k, especially Pre-k that meets the needs of young Hispanic children (Barnett, 2013, p. 5).
I also receive Preschool Matters...Today which is the NIEER blog. The blog that I received on February 10, 2014, states that all levels of government will have to increase their support for young children and families, including the federal government which can best lead the way by priming the pump-providing financial support and incentives that encourage and enable state and local governments to develop sustainable quality programs (Barnett, 2014, p. 1). Educational failure and inequality that plaques the country begins in children's experiences before they actually enter kindergarten. The need for quality early education is clearly greater than the funding we receive.
The Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center, http://www.fpg.unc.edu, is another excellent link to explore issues such as developmental disabilities, diversity, early care and education, physical and social health, international initiative, professional development, and public policy.
Other issues and trends that I found interesting is the debate about universal Pre-k.
Barnett, S. (2013). Young Hispanic children: Early learning needs and opportunities.
National Education Policy Center. Retrieved from,
http://www.nieer.org/resources/mewsletter/index.php
The National Education Policy Center. (2014). Think tank review. Retrieved from,
http://www.nepc.colorado.edu/think-tank-reviews
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