Sharing Web Resources

Children’s Defense Fund

Outside Links

                When researching outside links on this website, I went to the resources section of the site.  I found several outside links.  Below are a couple of the ones that I found (with links provided) and researched:

American Academy of Pediatrics:

 Found at -  http://www.aap.org/en-us/Pages/Default.aspx

            This link takes you to the home page of the American Academy of Pediatrics.  This website then has all kinds of information on it.  It has information on health, a section just for pediatricians, and an information spot for parents entitled Healthy Children.  When I clicked on this link it took me to Healthy children.org (http://www.healthychildren.org/English/Pages/default.aspx?nfstatus=401&nftoken=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000&nfstatusdescription=ERROR%3a+No+local+token).  In this section it listed safety and prevention, family life, health issues, and ages and stages(which ranged from prenatal through young adult).

Advocacy Groups:

Found at - http://www.childrensdefense.org/policy-priorities/advocate-family-resources/child-advocacy-groups/

            This link provides an alphabetical listing of groups that are advocates for early childhood education or for children in general.  Each title that is on the page is a link to that organizations website, and if you click on any of them it will take you directly to the site.  Some of the ones I thought were informational were:

·         Alliance for Children and Families

·         Education Sector

·         Feeding America

·         Share our Strength

·         National Immigration Law Center

Thorough Site Research

            The one area of the site that I chose to research thoroughly was the Early Childhood Education part of the website.  I found a great deal of useful information here and a lot that had to do with the issues and trends that we have been studying.  The one informational piece that I read was about Increasing Access to Full-Day Kindergarten.  This provided a link to an article that told about the how the ways of increasing access to a full day of kindergarten would enhance learning and help to close the gap that we are finding in achievement. 

            Another area or information segment that I read was on the President’s FY13 Budget.  In this information it told all about the President’s proposed plan.  He is promising to make good investments in early care and education in the following ways:

·         Increased funding for all funding areas – this includes an $85 million dollar increase to the 2012 funding levels

·         This would allow for 962,000 children to attend programs

·         Provide an increase in the Child Care and Development Block Grant to the tune of $825 million dollars

·         Offering subsidized child care to families who are struggling and may need it. 

·         A $300 million dollar investment for a quality initiative to help states improve the services that are being provided for children in child care settings.  This would include investing in not just the quality programs but the teachers as well. 

·         For the Individuals with Disabilities Act it would provide $20 million dollars towards grants that help children who have special needs.

·         A $50 million dollar increase to early childhood home visiting programs.  This would help to improve healthy developmental outcomes for at-risk families.

            If the president can follow through on all of these policy changes and improvements it sounds as if it is a step in the right direction toward increasing funding to help create early childhood programs that are of high quality and excellence.

Newsletter

            The information that I found in the newsletter related to the issues that we have been studying was entitled Guidance to School on Use of Title I Funds for Preschool.  This was released by the Department of Education and it was an amended version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.  The date on this piece was April 16, 2012.  It was written by Michael Yudin who is the Acting Secretary of the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education.  In this article it talked about how to use Title I funds efficiently to help implement high quality preschool programs.  This was a 32 page document and the following were the issues or information stated in it: 

General Information such as what the Title I program is.  Who is eligible for Title I services and if children with disabilities, migrant children, and homeless children are eligible.  The qualifications that teachers and other employees must have when working in a Title I funded program and whether there are funds set aside for professional development.  It had a section on parental involvement and the relationship between parents and the Title I program.  This section also stated ways in which Title I programs can help to build parental and family involvement.  It also addressed whether or not parents can be involved in professional development that is offered to staff.  Another section was about transition to kindergarten from early childhood settings such as preschool.  This section discussed the schools role in this issue and whether or not Title I programs would help with this.  Coordination with outside federal agencies was discussed and it talked about what outside programs Title I programs must coordinate with such as migrant education families.  It stated as well the ways in which preschool programs may benefit from the Race to the Top initiative.    The final two sections of the paper discussed the way that Title I funds are used and how State Education Agencies can support Title I programs. 

Understanding of Equity and Excellence

            Many of the articles or links that I have researched on this website have added to my understanding of equity and excellence in early childhood education.  The one link that I enjoyed looking at this week was a link on Data and Early Childhood Education and Care.  This link provided information on key child indicators and was given state by state.  You could look up information in your state about:

·         Head Start enrollment

·         Costs of child care

·         Tax Credits for child care

·         The Child Care and Development Fund

·         The enrollment of children in Pre-K programs

·         State by state comparisons of child care centers and their regulations

            This information told me that in the United States only 13.8% of 3year olds and 38.9% of 4 year olds had been enrolled in a pre-kindergarten program such as Head Start or other state funded programs in the year 2008-2009.

            I was also able to go to a link called 2012 Children in States Fact Sheets.  This provided a color coded map telling what states have full-day kindergarten programs and how they are funded.  You can click on any state and find out the information about that state.  I found out that in my home state of Pennsylvania out of 501 school districts, 450 of them offer a full-day kindergarten program.  Of those 450, 350 fund these programs from an Accountability Block Grant.  I also found out that kindergarten is not a required statute in PA and the compulsory age for school is 8 years old.  It said that in PA school districts can set the age at which children can start kindergarten but it cannot be younger than 4.  The most interesting information that I found out that relates to the issues that we have been studying is that many of these school districts use grant money to fund their kindergarten programs.  Due to the cuts in funding in the 2011-2012 school year many schools were no longer able to provide free full-day kindergarten. 

New Insights

            One of the new insights I gained from my website this week was in a link entitled Promising Approaches.  This link provided a list of practices that are offering children and families quality education and care.  It listed these programs in the hope that they would become examples of ideas and practices that we should be following.  The one program that I read about was a program in Mississippi entitled SPARK (Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids).  This is a program that provides support for local communities in issues of quality, transition, and alignment of early education.  This was done in 5 rural communities for 7 years.  During this time the families involved were given books and learning materials, a learning advocate who would go to the home and help with the transition between early learning programs and school, and a technical assistance program that would help with any technical needs.  Of the research that was completed, the data showed a significant improvement in test results of the students involved in the program in comparison to the ones not in the program.  I think that this program shows ways in which support can be given to schools and families that can help raise test scores without just relying on teachers to cram children full of information to take a test in one day.  The paragraph or two that was written about this program did not give as much information as I would have liked, so I plan to do some more research on it and find out more specifics.  I really enjoyed looking over the Promising Approaches link though and I will be going back there to read about some more practices that are modeling effective quality education. 

Resources:
Children's Defense Fund. Retrieved From http://www.childrensdefense.org/