Levels of School Readiness Tied to Family Income & Education

A recent article in the Huffington Post caught our eye last week. We think it helps point out to those who want to cut social programs how important the relationship between early childhood programs and families really is to our littlest learners. A report by the Brookings Institute analyzed school readiness data from the Department of Education’s Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort and concluded that children of low income parents are less prepared for school than peers from middle and upper income families. Not surprisingly, the report also found that the higher a mother’s or father’s level of education the higher the child’s level of readiness. This means that some children walk in the kindergarten door and are already behind.

One of the good things about the report is it measured a child’s school readiness by pre-academic skills and behavior and physical health at school entry. This is a wider measure of readiness than we may typically see when it comes to assessing school readiness. Many districts misuse a narrow tool such as the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS), Developmental Indicators for the Assessment of Learning-Third Edition (DIAL-3), or Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS) to assess a child’s skills and assume that the scores indicate readiness or lack thereof. These testing instruments look very closely at a child’s response to isolated academic skills but do not consider other essential personal-social competencies and traits successful students must have in order to function well in a formal learning environment.

School readiness data from the Department of Education’s Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort was collected through early academic assessments in Math and Reading, teacher responses about Learning-Related Behavior and Externalizing Behavior, and parent responses about Physical Health.

• Reading Assessment: questions about basic/phonological skills, initial understanding, developing interpretation, demonstrating a critical stance, and vocabulary.
• Mathematics assessment: questions about number sense, properties, and operations; measurement; geometry and spatial sense; data analysis, statistics, and probability; and patterns, algebra, and functions.
• Learning-Related Behaviors: based on K teacher responses about a child’s ability to focus, work independently, work to complete a task, and a child’s eagerness to learn.
• Externalizing Behaviors: based on K teacher responses about whether a child acts impulsively, disrupts others, overly active, physically aggressive, annoys other children, and has temper tantrums.
• Physical Health: based on parent’s overall rating of a child’s heath (1-5 likert scale)

Our organization, The Source for Learning, Inc. and the National Head Start Association will be partnering to host a School Readiness Summit this spring. We strongly believe that our nation has a responsibility to seeks ways to improve children’s school readiness. For more than three decades educators have been debating what exactly school readiness is AND who should decide how and what to measure when evaluating a child’s readiness. Right now more than 25 states perform assessments in some way—some use formal instruments while others use teacher checklists. Check back for more information in the coming weeks…

Read the full report Income and Education as Predictors of School Readiness online. http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/reports/2011/1214_school_readiness_isaacs/1214_school_readiness_isaacs.pdf

Make an Early Education New Year's Resolution

Policymakers and stakeholders have called for "education reform" since the late 60's. But after decades of new initiatives, federal mandates, alternative curricula and delivery systems, increased accountability and billions of taxpayer dollars...not much has really changed. Unfortunately.

Sadly, we are not getting the job done. Our increased accountability has illuminated that fact test scores have remained basically the same --yet the amount spent per child on education has risen exponentially. Experts estimate that 1 in 5 American adults struggle to read at the average 8th grade level based on national studies, most read at a lower level.

Make a resolution for 2012 to educate families. Early childhood educators can have a BIG impact in children's lives when they help families understand how important they are in their child's school success. Children who score better on tests and perform at higher reading levels have a few essential early experiences in common. When young parents ask early childhood educators for ways they can help their child "get ready for Kindergarten," try sharing these basic tips.

1. Children from families that sit and eat dinner around a table together 3 or more times a week do better in school overall. This is a time to feed the mind with conversation, the soul with emotional connecting, as well as the body with nutritious food. This is a no-cost strategy everyone can use--it should have a higher priority than a "busy schedule", and other "enrichment" or sports related activities that impact the dinner hour.
2. Children who enter kindergarten with higher early literacy skills came from homes where parents cuddle up and read a book with them 3 or more times a week. They play games looking at the pictures, point to the text as they read and take time to ask children questions about the stories--and listen to their answers. Read to infants, toddlers, preschoolers and beyond. Don't make the same mistake many busy parents make and stop reading aloud just because your child is able to read on his or her own! Now you can choose books to read aloud to them that are a few steps above their current reading level. One parent read a Shakespeare play to her son who struggled to read it on his own for a high school class. Even if a parent doesn't fully understand a text, he or she can be a "fellow learner."
   
3. Children who watch their parents use learning, knowledge and skills in everyday situations can see how learning helps all of us do the things we want. Help parents realize that when they stop and think through problems, try different solutions, are interested in learning new things, ask for help from others, use math and numbers to measure or cook or figure out a price, and read for information and pleasure they are modeling what it looks like to be a lifelong learner. This is the most import 21st century skill we can teach any child. We do not know what jobs and careers will exist in 20 years, we may not even be able to guess what special skills will be needed to do them. But we do know that people who naturally learn new things will be more successful as the world changes. Look at the huge changes in just the past 25 years....
   

Let's all appreciate the power and presence of parents and guardians in the lives of young children. Their investment of time and attention today is priceless to our nation's future.

Yet Again, What’s Old is New: Will Block Programs Bring Back Hands-on Play?

Block play has been a staple in the progressive education philosophy for decades, but now charter schools and more traditional institutions promote “block labs” and block corners as the newest pitch to help children build the 21st-century skills essential to success in corporate America. On November 27, 2011 the New York Times published and article titled With Blocks, Educators Go Back to Basics. It featured educators and parents in elite NY preschools and early care programs who have “rediscovered” the educational and academic value of including an old fashioned material—wooden unit blocks—in the daily curriculum.

We at PreschoolFirst have to ask, when did block corners disappear? Open-ended learning activities that take place in a block center has been included in every theme/topic since the creation of the PreschoolFirst assessment & curriculum system in 2003. PreschoolFirst strongly believes that comprehensive unit block program integrated into a well rounded curriculum has many benefits for young learners.

We advise caution anytime an educational technique or approach is promoted as the “next, new magic bullet” to fix education and raise test scores, educators need to stop and carefully evaluate such claims. Studies over the years do indicate that block play can help children learn basic math concepts, perform better on language acquisition tests, and that sophisticated block play may help children earn better math grades later in school. Our staff feels it is important to ask a few questions to ensure educators understand the concepts and benefits behind a “new magic bullet”—in this case a comprehensive block program.

Do the wooden blocks themselves provide the benefits or is it the fact that when young children build with blocks they work collaboratively using real materials to model what they know and to represent what they learn?

• Could one of the benefits be that when children engage in block play they control the process and flow of learning as well as the product of the activity that represents their ideas and knowledge?
• Is the benefit of a comprehensive block play activity that it involves open-ended “project” approach yet participants use a framework of “rules” to guide their interactions?
• Might the benefit to language acquisition be tied to the fact that during block play children are involved in a language rich activity? A block area is not a silent place—children must express their ideas, identify problems and challenges, talk about solutions, discuss the process, and present their structures and creations to others.
• Might similar benefits be observed with other open-ended materials? In other types of project-based learning activities? During other child-directed learning activities? (i.e. Book making in a writing center, dramatic play, the sandbox, objects found on a nature walk, play dough, group sculptures, open ended art creations, etc.)

Block play is a multi-disciplinary activity, but so are many other learning activities. Include block play in your well-rounded curriculum, but do not replace the other developmentally appropriate practices or learning centers that are part of your program. We suggest programs avoid making pie-in-the sky promises about the benefits of any one material or activity…all children are different. Provide many meaningful ways for children to integrate social skills, fine motor control, new vocabulary, early literacy skills, geometric–spatial thinking, awareness of basic math concepts and relationships, and to explore principles of physics and cause & effect.

Read With Blocks, Educators Go Back to Basics by Kyle Spencer

Common Core for Early Learning: A Call to Summit

Power Struggle

In a recent webinar, David Kirp, author of The Sandbox Investment: The Preschool Movement, stated that the biggest challenge to early childhood is that different “factions” of early childhood stakeholders cannot put aside their differences and come together to agree on what is key to early childhood education today. This divide leaves the door open to consultants, “professional” researchers, and large for-profit corporations to step in and drive the discussions, secure research & development funds, and lobby legislation to meet their own agendas.

The simple fact is: it will be easier to collect reliable data and more cost effective if States adopt a common core set of early standards. Obviously since the Race to the Top funding, Quality Rating Improvement Systems are in the minds of all early childhood educators and states. If/when QRIS is funded in each state it will determine the commercial future of the EC market for all materials, curriculum and assessments. Common early learning standards must be instrument neutral---such as the way in which the Head Start Child Development and Early Learning Framework is impartial. But we must also coordinate our efforts so that this framework/standards considers the integrated approach of learning necessary in early childhood curriculum, young children's irregular development cycles, and the broader set of skills and knowledge a child needs to acquire children need in order to be successful.

Missteps & Injuries

To have any value for the money invested, implementing the Common Core State Standards should be seen as a formative process that will require collaboration, review and revision – not a power struggle between what makes good education reform VS. interested publishers, researchers trying to get funding or noticed, and commercial stakeholders. What if—as critics say—the K, 1, and 2 standards are too rigorous and expect children to perform at levels for which few are ready?

Sam Meisels’ makes a key point in a blog published by the Washington Post last week (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/common-core-standards-pose-dilemmas-for-early-childhood/2011/11/28/gIQAPs1X6N_blog.html?wprss=answer-sheet). He says that the common core standards represent sky-high aspirations. Meisels feels that just because the standards have taller stair steps for each grade in order to reach a higher end goal doesn’t mean students will just naturally grow longer legs.

We must speak up so early childhood has a voice at this To date the Common Core State Standards are not yet validated for efficacy or studied for reliability. No studies or pilot programs were done prior to their acceptance by the RTT & US Dept of ED. Will the Common Core creators modify or agree to “push up” some standards when/if they find they are too rigorous to be accomplished by students in the current grade level our current education system.

We must come together as a field and argue for a national system—not just a state-by-state system—that uses instrument neutral methods of collecting, managing, and monitoring data about program quality and child progress. Conflicts of interest from academic research and personal agendas will be present in any discussions.

We must insist that no single assessment instrument or curricular approach is dictated for adoption. Right now big publishers battle to have their tool be the one tool specified in any state that will mandate a tool or curriculum. Researchers and academic institutions battle to have their projects funded. Those not on the “short lists” object and point out weaknesses in any instruments, research processes, and resulting decisions. This tactic will only further divide the early childhood field.

Any systems that are developed or adopted for Early Learning must be instrument neutral and allow for individual program choice about the specific tool to use to provide data on quality and progress. This is the model that Head Start implements: an expansive standards with objective frameworks that ensures local decision-making for implementation.

PreK to Common Core Correlation Debate: It Matters to All Of Us

Earlier this week Education Week published an article Common Core Poses Challenges for Preschools, by Jaclyn Zubrzycki (http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/12/07/13prek_ep.h31.html?tkn=XRTF5u5aDLomVIu%2FXBMmpoQPhjSCEAn110zQ&cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS1). The article highlighted the ongoing tension between two approaches to early childhood education: increasing and measuring academic rigor as per the Common Core State Standards vs. young children’s developmental needs. Opinions from several experts on both sides of the argument were quoted in the article, one of whom was PreschoolFirst’s Mari Blaustein, Director of Early Childhood Initiatives at the Source For Learning (SFL). She was interviewed about the Common Core Correlation Project that was facilitated by SFL in partnership with the National Head Start Association. This eight month project guided Head Start experts to correlate the Head Start Child Development and Early Learning Framework to the Common Core State Standards for the end of the Kindergarten year (CCSS-K). The resulting correlation document is available for review and comment by the broader education community and stakeholders at the SFL website (http://www.sourceforlearning.org/news.cfm?newsid=68).

Here’s why we believe this Correlation project is crucial to the future of early childhood education in the US. Early learning standards and definitions of school readiness vary across the nation—but do young children really differ from state to state? Correlating the Head Start Framework with common-core standards is just common sense; as both sets of guidelines are used in multiple states. Representatives at National Governors' Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers state that “there are no plans to create nationwide common-core standards in the mold of the K-12 standards for early childhood.”

States boast of their intense efforts to put high early learning standards into place so PreK is integrated into the elementary curriculum. Of note: implementing guidelines and accountability are voluntary in most states for private programs. Some states have written and linked their early learning standards to the Common Core, but this expensive, time consuming, and laborious process only creates an alignment that will be used in one specific state. It is still “state-centric.”

Critics of the Common Core argue that the scope of standards are too narrow because they only address English Language Arts and Mathematics, that the they are too academically rigorous and thus “misguided” or unachievable, and are “top down.” Critics also feel that the Common Core are profoundly incomplete and ignores important social, communication, and self-regulation skills.

Prior to publishing an opinion about the Common Core State Standards, we suggest that anyone—expert or otherwise—review:

a) background info and the podcasts that are on the CCSSO website that explains how/why the Common Core are designed they way they are (http://www.ccsso.org/Resources/Digital_Resources/Common_Core_Implementation_Video_Series.html);

b) personally review the broad array of state early childhood (PreK4) standards and their corresponding K level standards. After a careful review, we believe that the CCSS-K are actually much more developmentally appropriate than almost all of the K benchmarks/standards created by individual states for ELA and Math;

c) review the Correlation of The Head Start Framework to the Common Core State Standards in Kindergarten pages 1-19 (http://www.sourceforlearning.org/news.cfm?newsid=68);

d) research the status and array of benchmarks for Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) in each state.

We hope all early childhood educators and stakeholders will make the effort to become informed and join this essential debate.

$5 M Fuzzy Math Concepts for the Math Phobic?

You do the math for this one!

The Wall Street Journal reported The Department of Education awarded Erickson Institute $5 million to "offer early mathematics training to 111 teachers from preschool to third grade at eight more Chicago schools and to study the program's effectiveness." The Early Mathematics Education Project at Erikson Institute focuses on how to teach mathematical thinking to young children, rather than basic math procedures. The Erikson researchers intend to train Chicago early childhood teachers to help them teach young children to connect what numbers mean to their everyday world.

After reading the example in the article about "syncopated clapping patterns", this old time early childhood educator could not help but think of the Math Their Way program that was in widely used in the progressive private schools back in the 80's and 90's. Mary Baratta-Lorton wrote this book that uses an activity-centered approach to teach basic math skills for these same grade levels. The goal of her activities is to allow children to explore and develop understanding and insight of math concepts through the use of concrete materials.

The Early Mathematics Education Project goals and techniques and philosophy described in the article sound very similar to those used in the Math Their Way w-a-a-a-a-y back when. Seems to this early childhood educator that the newest thing was the price tag:

$5,000,000 Early Mathematics Education Project divided by 111 teachers (includes 1 week summer training + 6 training sessions during the year) = $45,045 per teacher

Math their Way: An Activity-Centered Mathematics Program for Early Childhood Education,
by Mary Baratta-Lorton, Lorton Baratta = $44.36 ($30.59 for paperback)

Oh...and Math Their Way Summer Workshops are available for $350 per person and if there isn't one in your area, you can set one up at no charge! http://www.center.edu/WORKSHOPS/wslist.php

For the same 5 million dollars, the Dept of Education could have:

-- given each of these 111 teachers a full scholarship toward a Master's degree

-- hired a full time master teaching partner for each class

-- hired 111 more teachers and cut class size in half

$45,000 is an average salary of a Kindergarten teacher earns in a year, it is 30% more than the average preschool teacher earns in a year.

Seems like early childhood educators are not the ones who need to brush up on basic math skills....

See: New Calculation: Math in Preschool, by Stephanie Banchero - http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203764804577056551856059254.html

Recession Nation: Impact on Our Youngest Children

PreschoolFirst wants to know if you see a change in the young children’s behavior in your programs since the recession. Due to less income and more uncertainty, families who may not have needed a tight budget are now forced to budget tightly and "do more with less." Many parents are under-employed or forced to work multiple part time jobs with unpredictable hours. This definitely changes the family dynamics and schedule!

Some studies show changes in reading and math test scores of older children from families where parents work night shifts. They attribute this to more challenges these families have tracking children's whereabouts; eating meals together; or due to children doing household chores during after-school hours.

Do you see ways this may be affecting infants, toddlers and preschoolers?

Do you see higher stress or behavior tendencies? Positive or negative differences? (Not all stress is bad)

Have you made adaptations in program procedures to help families in these situations? If so what are they?

Dept. of Ed now has Office of Early Learning

As many of you have heard, Jacqueline Jones announced that the ED is now creating the Office of Early Learning. Although mentioned by Jacqueline Jones in a speech at the (NAEYC) Conference last Friday, the official announcement was made in a blog by EdSec Arne Duncan yesterday in the Huffington Post. The Office of Early Learning will be tasked with the management and administration of the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge Grants.

Beyond that we can only speculate….

How might the Office of Early Learning impact the other federal agency that oversees early learning: Health & Human Services and its Head Start office?

How might this new office develop regulations that impact those early care providers who currently serve 3 and 4 year old children?
Will we push formal pre-reading programs down further into early childhood?

Will curriculum become a set of pre-selected commercial products that reportedly embrace “evidence-based instruction” for our youngest learners?

If Public funded Pre-k in becomes widely available at little or no cost, will our most creative parents (i.e. Google and Apple Developers) still choose Waldorf schools and non-academic or high-touch (rather than hi-tech) early learning programs?

Is this the beginning of the end of the local Community based program for 3-5 year olds?

What do you think?
Read More:

Act Early, Act Often on ECE @ http://blog.eduflack.com/2011/11/07/act-early-act-often-on-ece.aspx

Kudos and Qu’s on New Federal Office for Early Learning @ http://earlyed.newamerica.net/blogposts/2011/kudos_and_qu_s_on_new_federal_office_for_early_learning-60047

Build Scientific Thinkers Block by Block

Block play was always a major center in the curriculum when I was teaching in the early childhood classrooms. We reserved ¼ or more of the floor space so children could use blocks to create worlds, illustrate ideas, explore concepts and build social skills. This new research from Temple University shows that construction type toys can also help children build vocabulary related to spatial concepts; which in turn support later learning in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.

And it all starts with a simple set of wooden blocks…no electronic bells, whistles or tech apps needed.

Read more at: http://bit.ly/w0p8E9

In "Child Development:" Preschoolers' Classmates Influence Their Language Skills

Past research has shown that children's abilities to both speak and understand words developed faster when they were with classmates with better language skills. Now we have this study by Justice, Petscher, Schatschneider, and Mashburn that indicates that this is true in the early childhood classroom as well. Just recived my copy of The PreK Debates: Current Controversies and Issues as a Comprehensive NAEYC member and it brings these thoughts to mind.

~ Does this information mean we need to rethink universal prek models to ensure classrooms include diverse populations with a range of language abilities?

~Are we doing a disservice when we design programs that are offered to targeted groups of vulnerable children?

Read the story on Science Daily: http://bit.ly/rrLpru

Source: Laura M. Justice, Yaacov Petscher, Christopher Schatschneider, Andrew Mashburn. Peer Effects in Preschool Classrooms: Is Children’s Language Growth Associated With Their Classmates’ Skills? Child Development, 2011; DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01665.x

Are Electronic Screens Really Just Electronic Pacifiers?

How often do you see a parent hand off an ipad or “screen” device to a young child to distract a tantrum in its tracks? If TV is harmful even in the background, then what do you think about the flashing “educational” apps for toddlers?

Read NPR: Will Smartphones And iPads Mush My Toddler's Brain?

http://n.pr/rogego

Bring More Research into Your Program

Educators and directors, did you know about this free resource available from Research Connections? Bring more research-based best practices into the lives of your students or staff. Help them develop the basic skill of finding and using research to inform their knowledge.

Research Connections Faculty Teaching Modules

http://cceerc.org/childcare/modules/

Keep children under age 2 "Screen-Free!"

So says the AAP policy statement released on Oct. 18 at the AAP National Conference & Exhibition. "Media Use by Children Younger Than Two Years," reports that despite recommendations by experts to the contrary many parents still think that “educational” television is good for children. Parents in the study reported that 90% of children under 2 watch electronic media and 66% of 3 year olds have a TV in their bedroom…

To quote the article: “According to Dr. Brown, "In today's 'achievement culture,' the best thing you can do for your young child is to give her a chance to have unstructured play -- both with you and independently. Children need this in order to figure out how the world works."

What else need anyone say? How can we in the ECE community convince parents the best way to stimulate children's early brain development is to play in the real world? Really, I'm asking...

Read the full article: http://bit.ly/o8APuJ

Spend More on Head Start in This Economy: Is This a Joke?

No this is not a punch line to joke. This week New York Times op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof posted a piece about the value of early childhood education. He called for increased spending to combat the inequality that exists between rich and poor student. Head Start serves more than 900,000 low-income children a year. Those of us who work in or with Head Start programs know the many ways this comprehensive program supports vulnerable children and families. Yet the debate continues about whether this money is well spent if, as the Impact Study reports, the measured educational “gains” do not last beyond second grade. Some claim Head Start in its current form is a failure.

In an earlier New York Times article, Joe Klein called for “one program” under the Department of Education. In my mind this raises many new questions:

-How do you think moving Head Start into the jurisdiction of the Department of Education would impact how we define and deliver early education?

-Would their oversight improve the quality of care in early childhood?

-Have the Department of Education policies and oversight provided quality education in the K-12 world?

-Do you think all early care programs for the “rich” are the high quality?

-Can the Department Of Education understand the nuances that define high quality in early care programs?

-Can we continue to quote two studies done over 50 years ago with a small group of children and families who lived in a world that is vastly different from today?

We want your comments! Correlation of HS Framework & Common Core for K

Review the Correlation of the Head Start Framework with the Common Core State Standards in Kindergarten. The deadline for Review and comment is Nov. 20, 2011 so as not to get lost in the holiday time frame. We hope this project can spark more dialogues between NHSA, NAEYC, SFL, the early education community and K-3 and produce some positive results.

As the majority of states have already adopted the Common Core State Standards and the Head Start Framework is used nationally, this presents a good opportunity for the entire early childhood community to discuss the wealth of learning experiences and school readiness skills that PreK children in high quality, DAP programs–in this case Head Start “graduates”—bring onto the Kindergarten classroom.

Connections for Success: Ready Set Go & Update!

Read the latest update for the Correlation Project. Learn how your fellow practitioners from the Head Start community collaborated on an exciting resource that aligns the Head Start Framework with the Common Core State Standards for Kindergarten. In this day-long session at the NHSA October Institute participants reviewed the importance, challenges, and benefits of aligning early education with the continuum of Common Core State Standards, now used across the nation. Working in small groups, participants reviewed the latest draft of the project and provided additional viewpoints and expertise.

Your input is can help ensure it illustrates a continuity of learning outcomes from Head Start to Kindergarten. Common Core Standards state what a child should know and be able to do at the end of the Kindergarten year.

Stay tuned—this project in it’s entirety will be posted for an open review to the Early Childhood Community at large in the coming weeks.

Baby Bullies? The roots of early childhood aggression

In the past, adults thought that babies had no capacity to be a ‘bully.’ New research suggests that a tendency for aggression appears to emerge —by age one—right as a baby’s the motor skills develop strengthen and make it possible to coordinate and move about. Researchers found that aggressive babies were much more likely to have mothers who were clinically depressed during pregnancy, or who themselves had a history of conduct problems. Of note, no mention is made of the father and his anger threshold or depression, nor if the babies spent time care with other caregivers who might also have the identified “maternal” risk factors for childhood and adolescent aggression: which range “from social class and education to smoking, depression and conduct disorders.”

The Bully in the Baby? - Association for Psychological Science

Children are the most valuable resource in Finland

For over 15 years the one small nation--Finland--has ‘scored” at or near the top of all the nations tested in reading, mathematics, and science. The big news is Finland tests the least and scores the highest. There is a national curriculum of broad guidelines; but teachers are trusted professionals who design the curriculum and the tests. Teachers are respected; children get a rich education rather than vigorously “tested”. Finnish schools are not perceived as a “business”, scores are not productivity reports, and children are not “widgets.”

Finland also has a strong belief in social responsibility with a strong welfare system. Result: child poverty rate =4% vs. US child poverty rate=22+. Finnish children are the nation’s most valuable resource.

Read the full article by Diane Ravitch: Why Finnish schools are great (by doing what we don’t)

Check out PreschoolFirst November 2011 E-Newsletter

PreschoolFirst Curriculum Connections: November, 2011, Issue 1111 - Check out my #constantcontact newsletter

Parent Night Show Stopper: Cool Brain Power!

Need a way to convince your staff and parents that PLAY is the best way for young children to learn? Share this MSNBC Video Clip with your group before they go to the classrooms to talk to teachers. Dr. Patricia Kuhl—one of our favorite researchers in early childhood development shares amazing brain images and her findings in an “easy to listen to” delivery. See what happens in the brain before children ever get to formal school! Watch the brain grow and learn from play and relationships.

Brain Power: Why Early Learning Matters (well spent 21 minutes!)

Be a Voice for America's Children

Read what Virginia knows about early education and readiness! The advocacy group Voices for Virginia's Children agreed to let us share this great resource with our blog readers. You might want to share it with policy makers in your community as a model for a handout in your state. This simple handout makes the point in two easy to read pages.

Open publication - Free publishing - More school success

Conservative or liberal, hard to argue against better health outcomes & improved parenting skills.

Low income children live with stresses that put them at greater risk of becoming adults permanently vulnerable to infection and disease. Poor adult health costs our nation huge sums of money. What to do?

A significant minority of children from low-income families DO become healthy adults. The big difference: MOM paid careful attention to the children's emotional wellbeing, had time for them, and showed affection and caring. These are all crucial aspects of the comprehensive services that early childhood programs need to provide for our nation's most vulnerable children. Support Early Head Start, Head Start, home visiting programs and local efforts in your community to offer parenting classes to all new parents. Conservative or liberal, hard to argue against better health & parenting skills.

Read: How Devoted Moms Buffer Kids in Poverty at http://bit.ly/qJUzBM

Education Associations support more PreK $$$

Key national organizations (such as AFT, the American Association of School Administrators, the Council of Chief State School Officers, the National Association of Elementary School Principals, the National Association of State Boards of Education, the National Education Association and the National School Boards Association) recommend strengthening, aligning and broadening pre-K access in communities nationwide.

Do you believe our tax dollars are best spent on early childhood education? Do you think this is a good investment? Tell your Senator today!

Read more at Frontline Educators Make the Case for Pre-K Support

Watch Amy Mandel discussing the Capitol Hill briefing! Tweet and pass this link on to friends.

Free Staff Development Clips from Colorado Dept. of Ed

Spice up your staff meetings this year and keep professional development an ongoing part of the program with a quick learning video. These are free clips from 3-6 minutes long that focus on several different topics of great interest to quality early childhood programs. Watch a clip or two at the start of the meeting and ask everyone to discuss it together. Listen and learn what your teachers know, what they believe about these important topics, and what they may need to learn more about...

Learn about observation, documenting children's learning and even watch a parent-teacher conference,

Check it out! Tell us what you think.

http://www.cde.state.co.us/resultsmatter/RMVideoSeries.htm#top

Kudos to Jacqueline Crocker, A PreschoolFirst Subscriber!

Have you heard about Jo-Ann Fabrics' change in policy? Now child care center teachers and family child care providers are eligible for a 15% discount.
Kudos to Jacqueline Crocker, owner of an NAFCC Accredited program and a PreschoolFirst subscriber! Read more....http://www.childcareexchange.com/eed/

What’s the secret to Finland’s success in education?

Finland’s educational system is sought after by many countries and governments. Their children spend the least amount of time in the classroom, yet their test score averages are high.

A relaxed school environment, no transition between middle and high school, and blended classrooms where children of all skill levels are in one class are a few differences that Finnish schools have. Their focus is on the “whole child” education that we in early childhood try to offer in quality early childhood programs.

So what is the country’s secret? Good teachers and trust is all it takes. Click here to read the whole article and watch related videos, Why do Finland’s schools get the best results?, on the BBC website.

Young Children Respond to How Adults Behave Towards Others

Amrisha Vaish, postdoctoral researcher at Germany's Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, concludes that young children are very sensitive to the way we treat others. Her research showed that young children were less helpful to an adult when they saw that the person harmed another person. More remarkably, young children were also less likely to help a person they believed intended to harm another person without causing actual harm.

It seems that young children do notice how the people in their lives think about others as well as treat others. Its another reminder for those of us who care for children daily to be sure we are emotionally engaged with each child in positive ways.

Reference: Amrisha Vaish, Malinda Carpenter, Michael Tomasello. Young Children Selectively Avoid Helping People With Harmful Intentions. Child Development, 2010; 81 (6): 1661 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01500.x

What does new research has to say about being bilingual and Alzheimer's?

New research shows that speaking two languages can help slow down the onset of Alzheimer's symptoms. To read more on this research click here.

Calling All ECE: "You Need /r/ /ee/ /d/ to Read"

Feeling pressured to produce 3 and 4 year old readers for Kindergarten?

We saw this article You Need /r/ /ee/ /d/ to Read published in the Ed. Magazine from the Harvard School of Graduate Education written by Lori Hough and felt compelled to bring it to the attention of our followers. We found this article to be one of the most "readable" explanations of the basic stages and experiences young children require to become "readers." Professor Catherine Snow, an expert on language and literacy is quoted in the article saying:

"Most typically developing readers will begin to read independently during the first grade. Precocious readers read on their own in kindergarten, or even before. Research, however, shows there is no link between early reading and intelligence, and that those who struggle with reading often have above-average IQs."

Share with this with fellow, teachers, directors, public school principals and families.

Confucianism=Higher Test Scores?

Check out Tiger Mom Revisited on ExchangeEverday . Many cultures throughout history have revered education and fostered a passion for learning: Jesuits, Judaism, ancient Greece. Which cultures "invented" medicine and the Arabic number system? Where have the greatest libraries in the world been? Alexandria, Timbuktu, Babylonia?

Could the larger issue be more than performance expectations or reverence for education? Might it be related to parenting philosophy & approach? Our passion for permissiveness?

What’s the verdict?

A Must Read: When should kids be able to read?

Washington Post published an article by columnist Valerie Strauss on February 10, 2011 titled When should kids learn to read? We feel that is of special significance to those of us in the field of early childhood education who have been supporters of developmental education.

"It used to be that kids in the early elementary school grades were allowed to learn how to read at their own speed. Today test-obsessed public schools don’t offer that luxury; if youngsters aren't starting to learn to read in kindergarten, and can’t read by the end of first grade, they are already behind."

Further on she writes, "This flies in the face of research that shows that some students need more time to learn how to read, and that boys as a group are being put a disadvantage with earlier and earlier reading demands." Strauss concludes, "But if they aren't given the adequate amount of time to develop the habit of reading at their own pace, they will never become readers. It's time to rethink how we address this most basic enterprise."

Read the full article.

How do you think this affects the early childhood programs we offer in our communities?

Any Tiger Moms Around?

The press has made much of a book written by a Chinese mother in which she explains the myth of how Chinese parents raise such successful children. We wondered if this was just another form of authoritarian parenting, a style that fell out of favor in the US after WW II.

Do you have any Tiger Moms who are parents in your Program?

IF so do you see any difference in the early years between these children and the others in your program? Are these parents receptive to child development information you share?

If you are over 60, do you see any difference between this parenting and that of your parents?

One final thought: How do you define "helecopter parenting" and how is it different from the "tiger mom?"

A teacher shares.....

Thanks for your ideas. I just want to share an activity that I do in my classroom with matching mittens which is inexpensive. I like using recyclable materials and I seek for free materials. Around this time of the year painting stores, interior designing department at Home Depot/Lowes normally throw away discontinued wall paper and they are great to make mittens/boots for matching games. My children love this game. It also works for matching socks.

I also use holiday wrapping paper as well as holiday cards to make games for the classroom. I bought a wrapping paper with snowmen standing in a row with different hats and scarves with the left over paper I made a patterning game and a matching game. After Christmas I ask parents for their Holidays cards and if I cannot get any from the parents I buy inexpensive holiday cards with winter scenery to make winter puzzles for each child to take home. I ask children to choose one card, to glue the front to the back, draw a line on the from corner to corner then cut on the line. Then children will connect the pieces together to form their own puzzles. This a hit for they can take it home and they can do their puzzle over and over again.

Contributed by Luz Tsiralidis; William Pitt Development Center School Readiness Program