The organization I chose to follow is NIEER, National Institute for Early Education Research.
The link to their website is http://nieer.org/
Additionally you can follow NIEER of Facebook, Twitter or an RSS feed. I have chosen to follow on Facebook and to subscribe to their newsletter.
NIEER is affiliated with the Rutgers Graduate School of Education which is located in my home state of New Jersey.
When you arrive at the NIEER home page there are six distinct areas of information for you to choose from. The first is The State of Preschool Yearbook 2010, which provides an overview of preschool programs in each state. Effectiveness, enrollment numbers and state spending is reviewed.
The second is the most recent news about anything related to early childhood from across the country with links provide to the original article. Third is a listing to upcoming events and conferences related to early education around the world. Fourth is links to latest research in the field. Fifth is a featured NIEER publication.
Lastly is the link to the NIERR blog, Preschool Matters Today. The January 11, 2012 posting by Steve Barnett, Director of NIERR discusses the lack of economic mobility currently in the United States and how that adds urgency to the current debate over universal public pre-k. This issue is one that caught my attention. Barnett states that recent research by the Brookings Institute found that 42% of children born into the lowest income will stay there as adults. Barnett also reports that the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Economic Mobility Project finds the strongest link to children’s economic, educational and social-emotional outcomes is related to their parent’s education level in the United States.
The great debate over publicly funded pre-k is happening throughout this country especially during these tough economic times. Barnett and other members of the early childhood community are arguing for publicly funded pre-k for all students regardless of income. The benefit of reaching a larger percentage of low-income children is what struck me as strongest argument for universal pre-k.
As we discuss the effects of poverty on developmental outcomes for young children and research has shown that in order to break the cycle we need to raise educational levels of parents, shouldn't we start by giving each child the foundation they need in preschool for later school success changing the outcome for future generations? This week we learned that the fasted growing population in the US is Hispanic but they are also the population struggling the most educationally, with the lowest college graduation rate (Gándara, 2010). If we as a nation chose to offer universal pre-k, therefore reaching a larger percentage of low- income students but also providing school- readiness benefits to all students we can have economic benefits for the entire nation (Barnett, 2012). Hispanic students, regardless of economic status would receive a quality pre-k education giving them they foundation they need for later success. With greater educational success for the largest growing population in the US we can have a positive impact of future economic mobility in this country.
References
Barnett, S., (2012, January 11). Lack of economic mobility add urgency to pre-k debates. Retrieved from National Institute for Early Education Research website http://preschoolmatters.org/2012/01/11/lack-of-economic-mobility-adds-urgency-to-the-pre-k-debates/
Gándara, P. (2010). The latino education crisis. Educational Leadership, 67(5), 24–30.
You know, I work at a publicly funded pre-k in Georgia, and lst year Governor Nathan Deal was about to declare that all pre-k programs in Georgia was going to be half day programs. Teachers, parents, and other supporters of pre-k rallied together and they changed the mind of the Governor. I have seen first hand that the worries of early education has gone from educating the children to focusing on budgets,finances, and cutting out the little people's pay.
ReplyDeleteDear Michele,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that in order to change future generation, we should start by giving our children the education they need for them to be successful. That would be a good start to building a strong foundation for our future up comers. For instance, our children will become our future, so we are responsible for them to be getting the education they need to run this country.
Michele,
DeleteI agree,it is important to raise the educational levels of parents. If parents have the basic tools to provide their children with the basic foundations in life i.e., health care, exposing children to books/a rich language, and work with teachers/educators, it will put them on the track to success.
Nicky
So true...powerful words! You are right, it is indeed important to raise the educational levels of parents. We must be committed to equipping parents and families with the needed resources and tools that will build a foundation for success. This is my philosophy and I strive to promote this in my Head Start program every year. In order to touch a child, we MUST reach the parent..the family.
ReplyDeleteHi Michele,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog about the NIEER newsletter. Isn't it amazing to hear that there is a common thread throughtout the world? We are always fighting for something in the educational world and the people that oversee the programs do not have any idea on how to reach children. I wish that we could have all children, especially pre-K go to public schools. That's why I feel so strongly about implementing a preschool curriculum into my child care. I am working on it now. There is so much information that I need to check out a couple of them. Do you use a specific curriculum at your child care? Nice posting!