Research That Benefits Children and Families

My passion in early childhood education is that quality programs are available to all children, and their families, no matter what their economic level, race, religion, culture or beliefs may be. Unfortunately quality in early childhood programs does not have the same meaning in everyone’s eyes.

Maryland Family Network is an organization that I have been associated with for the past 6 years. I received a Facebook update from them the other day about with a link to an article titled Savings Now, Savings Later: Smart Early Childhood Programs Pay Off Right Away and for the Long Term (www.readynation.org), it was a summary of different ways investing in early childhood education now will benefit children and families in the future so I decided to check out the website even further.

I came across an in depth article titled Why America Needs High-Quality Early Care and Education. Overall this article focuses on the importance of quality education for children between birth and five years old and why it is important to school readiness skills. High-quality early care and education that focuses on children’s social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development provides the foundation that children need to enter school ready to learn (www.readynation.org, 2009). The principles behind this statement are:
• Learning
• Standards
• Teachers
• Parents
• Accountability
• Partnerships
A successful early childhood education system views children’s learning as the central mission (www.readynation.org, 2009).

To develop children’s learning, standards need to be set in place that align with their states learning standards, teachers need to have the skills and knowledge to help children enter school ready to succeed, parents know that they are their child’s first interaction with education are provided the skills needed to help them succeed, state education systems need to have accountability systems in place that measure results, and each states education system needs to build partnerships to help govern, finance, and improve the system. If each state can look at these standards and implement ways to improve them I feel the percentage of children entering kindergarten ready to learn would greatly increase.

I am excited to explore www.readynation.org in further and would encourage my colleagues to do the same. From what I have seen it has a lot of information that is beneficial to early childhood educators.

References:
Why America Needs High-Quality Early Care and Education, 2009 , retrieved from the worldwide web www.readynation.org

My Personal Research Journey

I chose to research school readiness skills across the country and what different organizations are doing to help increase the number the number of children entering kindergarten is fully ready to learn. Two local organizations that I have been following are Ready at Five, www.readyatfive.org and the Maryland Family Network, www.marylandfamilynetwork.org

Both of these organizations are very well known in Maryland and are involved with Public Policy on the local and National level. They are involved in tracking school readiness scores and providing the assistance needed for child care providers to build the quality of the education they provide, and are huge advocates for Early Childhood Education.

School readiness scores not only show the percentage of children ready to enter kindergarten but they also show where skills need to be improved. Many child care training organizations look at these scores to determine the training they provide in different areas.

I am looking forward to doing more research on this subject and finding other organizations across the country that tracks these scores and what they are doing to help improve them.

International Resources

I tried several times over the past 8 weeks to make contact with some of my international colleagues and was unsuccessful. Since I was unable to make contact with them I began to research the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Centers (NACCRRA) website and subscribed to their e-newsletter. By familiarizing myself with their website I learned about all of the resource available to parents and providers, as well as their Public Policy Agenda. I have referred to them several times throughout this course as well as in courses in the past. I have recommended, and will continue to recommend this site. It is full of useful and important information regarding early childhood education.

International Resources

I tried several times over the past 8 weeks to make contact with some of my international colleagues and was unsuccessful. Since I was unable to make contact with them I began to research the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Centers (NACCRRA) website and subscribed to their e-newsletter. By familiarizing myself with their website I learned about all of the resource available to parents and providers, as well as their Public Policy Agenda. I have referred to them several times throughout this course as well as in courses in the past. I have recommended, and will continue to recommend this site. It is full of useful and important information regarding early childhood education.

Sharing Web Resources

The Website I chose to follow is National Association for Child Care Resource and referral Agencies (NACCRRA). Their Vision and Mission statement is: “NACCRRA, the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies, is our nation’s leading voice for child care. We work with more than 600 state and local Child Care Resource and Referral agencies to ensure that families in every local community have access to quality, affordable child care. To achieve our mission, we lead projects that increase the quality and availability of child care, offer comprehensive training to child care professionals, undertake groundbreaking research, and advocate for child care policies that positively impact the lives of children and families” (www.naccrra.org).

While browsing through their website I found links too many different information portals on Early Childhood Education (ECE). They provide information on Public Policy issues and ECE Advocacy Campaigns, conferences and trainings for providers and parents, and State rankings and statistics on licensing regulations, cost, availability, of ECE programs. They also provide links to educational materials for parents guiding them on indicators to help determine a high quality program and an online child care searches, among much more.
Under the news tab I found links to articles from several different states addressing issues and challenges in ECE. There were several articles about children who died or were severly injured while in child care, parents and community members learning about child care providers criminal back grounds, and the differences in licensing standards across the country. As I stated before NACCRRA has a link dedicated to every states licensing regulations showing where they comply fully to NACCRA’s standards, where they fall short, and recommendations made to help improve licensing standards in each state. I found that Maryland ranked 11th in the country according to NACCRRA’s standards.

Their e-newsletter covers public Policy Issues, Articles and Links to what is happening in the Federal Government regarding issues on ECE. They also offer a variety of webinars for parents, and ECE professionals. I just attended one on Lobbying vs. Advocacy.

It is an interesting and very informative site for both ECE educators and parents. I highly recommend it.

References
www.naccrra.org. Retrieved from the World Wide Web.

ok I juat tried to post week 5 assignment and I don't see it. UGH! It's late and my migrain is back so I will again tomorrow.

W5blog Assgin2SnyderL

I reviewed the Harvard website for this assignment. The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University was founded in 2006 on the belief that the vitality and sustainability of any society depend on the extent to which it expands opportunities early in life for all children to achieve their full potential and engage in responsible and productive citizenship. We view healthy child development as the foundation of economic prosperity, strong communities, and a just society,and our mission is to advance that vision by using science to enhance child well-being through innovations in policy and practice. (Global Children's initiative). They have variety of resources available to faculty and parents. They have working papers on a variety of topics they support; welfare reform, workforce development and child well-being, Young Children Development in an environment of relationships, excessive Stress disrupts the Developing brain, Maternal Depression can Undermine the Development of young children, along with many more!(Center of the Developing Child). They also have books articles, and video segments available. This is defiantly I site will refer to my fellow educators.
Reference:
http//developingchild.harvard.edu/global_initiative/