Sharing Web Resources- Expanded

Again, I chose to review http://www.nieer.org. Upon following some of the outside links, I ended up at two different places. In the "Latest News" heading, I clicked on a top story that led me to The Wall Street Journal. Lisa Fleisher (2011) wrote an article entitled "Audit Faults City Spending on Pre-K". She discusses how millions of dollars of Department of Education funding for Pre-K programs is going unspent. Access to early childhood education is a large issue and all across New York, many other counties are facing similar situations. State funding laws limit spending on Pre-K to half day programs which don't address the needs of the families. So, these programs are not being utilized by families, who favor all day programs. The journalist brings to light some of the difficulties facing school districts who are trying to offer F.A.P.E programs, but cannot offer what is needed because of funding restrictions.The second site I was directed to was the heading of "Upcoming Events." I clicked on conferences and was taken to http://www.naeyc.org where their annual conference was being promoted.

I thoroughly explored under the tag: Facts and Figures. Within this section there were several subheadings, including hot topics, latest research, presentations, FAQ's, fast facts, expert database, and related links. In the first subheading of hot topics, there were a list of current resources that were expressing views on current issues in ECE. The second subheading of latest research is self-explanatory. It gives you links to the latest research findings in ECE. The presentation subheading is a list of presentations on different ECE topics such as intentional teaching, by staff at NIEER. The FAQ's subheading lists answers to several ECE questions. The questions are listed by popular topic such as assessment, teachers, outcomes, etc. The fast facts subheading is a section that provides clear and concise information on ECE topics. One topic they discussed here is about regional differences in ECE. The expert database is just that; a list of experts in the ECE field. Here you can find their contact information that includes their phone numbers and links to their email. The final subheading of related links is also pretty self-explanatory. It is a list of links, organized by ECE categories.
The newsletter that went out on October 7, 2011 had a link to a news article in the ECE news roundup section of the letter. Listed their was an article by Jennifer Jordan of The Providence Journal, Providence RI. The article titled "R.I. applying for federal grant to improve early childhood education" relays information about how low income children are coming in behind their middle and upper income peers in several different areas. "“We know that high-quality early childhood education is an excellent investment,” said Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist. “The contribution it makes to each child’s success is tremendous.”

Children with good pre-kindergarten schooling have:

Better health.

Stronger classroom skills.

Better emotional development.

Higher high school graduation rates.

Lower incarceration rates.

Lower unemployment.

Greater lifetime earnings.

Yet Rhode Island has not kept up" (Jordan, 2011).

This article and the article form The Wall Street Journal both discussed equity and access. Young children and families are not getting what they need from early childhood education and it is often the lower income families and young children who are being left behind. There was another fabulous article in the newsletter that gave another economical argument for ECE. The article by Judith Scott-Clayton (2011) titled "From Kindergarten to College Completion", quotes a nobel laureate economist named James Heckman as saying "skill begets skill" in his argument for allocating funds to early childhood education to increase the quality of college education.

I have learned from reviewing this section of the website and from the newsletter that early childhood education investment and equal access are huge issues and hot topics throughout the field. Many professionals from many different fields are voicing their opinions and placing great weight on the research to aid young children and families in their battles for education, equality, and access.

Resources:

Fleisher, L. (2011, October 14). Audit faults city spending on pre-k. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204002304576629503210610690.html

Jordan, J. (2011, October 5). R.i. applying for federal grant to improve early childhood education. The Providence Journal. Retrieved from http://www.projo.com/education/content/early_learning_grant_10-05-11_8KQLKUA_v91.70e3b.html

National Institute for Early Education Research (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nieer.org

Scott-Clayton, J. (2011, October 7). From kindergarten to college completion. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/07/from-kindergarten-to-college-completion/