Children and Youth, Education and Literacy, Parenting and Families
Throughout the United States, investments in high-quality early childhood education are seen by community leaders as a strategy for improving outcomes in areas such as K-12 education, workforce development, and economic development. Indeed, many research studies conclude that high quality early learning environments produce social, educational, and economic benefits for children and the communities in which they live. As a result, many state and local governments around the country are seeking to capture these benefits by investing in quality improvement efforts. Wisconsin is no different; the 2009-2010 state biennial budget calls for the Department of Children and Families to create a strategy for improving the quality of publicly-subsidized child care. While policymakers increasingly are looking to maximize the benefits of high-quality early childhood education, budget realities often dictate that they do so while minimizing the expenditure of public funds. Thus, this report seeks to inform these decisions in Wisconsin by estimating the costs of achieving improved quality in child care and early learning programs in southeast Wisconsin and analyzing policy options associated with quality improvement initiatives.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States (Midwestern)-Wisconsin (Southeastern)
Community and Economic Development;Computers and Technology;Education and Literacy
Colleges and universities should embrace the concept of increased openness in the use and sharing of information to improve higher education. That is the core recommendation of this report. The report was produced by CED's Digital Connections Council (DCC), a group of information technology experts that advises CED's business leaders on cutting-edge technologies.
August 1970
Geographic Focus:
Children and Youth;Education and Literacy
High school students participating in 16 California multiple pathways programs generally graduated at higher rates, met university requirements in greater numbers, performed better on high school exit exams and were more engaged in school and learning. This report summarizes a 2007-2008 study of the ConnectEd Network of Schools, capturing positive results as well as challenges. Results are not considered conclusive, but provide encouragement and insight as Irvine launches a larger-scale demonstration: the California Multiple Pathways District Initiative. The report is also intended to offer insights to funders, policymakers and practitioners who, like Irvine, see great potential in California multiple pathways to help students build a strong foundation for success in college and career -- and life. The study was conducted by MPR Associates, Inc., a leading education research and consulting firm.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America / United States (Western) / California
Children and Youth, Education and Literacy
This testimony, presented on March 18, 2009 to the Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies, discusses the importance of Head Start/Early Head Start programs that support our most vulnerable infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and their families.
August 1970
Geographic Focus:
Children and Youth, Education and Literacy
Developed by the Institute of HeartMath (IHM), the Early HeartSmarts (EHS) program is designed to train teachers to guide and support young children (3 -- 6 years old) in learning emotional self-regulation and key age-appropriate socioemotional competencies, with the goal of facilitating their emotional, social and cognitive development. This work reports the results of an evaluation study conducted to assess the efficacy of the EHS program in a pilot implementation of the program carried out during the 2006 -- 2007 academic year in schools of the Salt Lake City School District. The study was conducted using a quasi-experimental longitudinal field research design with three measurement moments (baseline and pre- and post-intervention panels) using The Creative Curriculum Assessment (TCCA) instrument, a teacher-scored, 50-item instrument measuring student growth in four areas of development -- social/emotional, physical, cognitive and language development. Children in nineteen preschool classrooms were divided into intervention and control group samples (N = 66 and 309, respectively; mean age = 3.6 years), in which classes in the former were specifically selected to target children of lower socioeconomic and ethnic minority family backgrounds. Overall, there is compelling evidence of the efficacy of the EHS program in increasing total psychosocial development and each of the four development areas measured by the TCCA: the results of a series of ANCOVAs found a strong, consistent pattern of significant differences on the development measures favoring preschool children who received the EHS program over those in the control group who did not.
August 1970
Geographic Focus:
Children and Youth, Education and Literacy, Employment and Labor
Stakeholders from across the early care and education spectrum joined together to investigate what it will take to achieve a strong professional development system for early learning providers that will result in quality care and long-term outcomes for children. This collaborative process revealed a need for foundational work upon which to base a comprehensive, state-wide system of professional development for Washington's early childhood education workforce.
August 1970
Geographic Focus:
Education systems today face two major challenges: expanding the reach of education and improving its quality. Traditional solutions will not suffice, especially in the context of today's knowledge-intensive societies.
The goal of the Open Educational Resources (OER) movement is to equalize access to knowledge worldwide through openly and freely available online high quality content.
UNESCO has contributed to building awareness about this movement by facilitating an extended conversation in cyberspace. Over a two-year period, a large and diverse international community discussed the concept and potential of OER in a series of online forums.
The background papers and reports are now available in print. Open Educational Resources: Conversations in Cyberspace provides an overview of the first steps of this exciting new development: it captures the conversations between leaders of some of the first OER projects, and documents early debates on the issues that continue to challenge the movement. The publication will provide food for thought for all those intrigued by OER -its promise and its progress.
Open Educational Resources: Conversations in Cyberspace is UNESCO's first openly licensed publication - an indication of the commitment of the Organization to the sharing of knowledge and the free flow of ideas.
August 1970
Geographic Focus:
Children and Youth;Education and Literacy;Immigration
Immigrant parents face significant barriers as they try to engage with their children's early educational experiences, including greatly restricted access for many due to limited English proficiency and functional literacy. Parental engagement is critical for young children's early cognitive and socioemotional development, and for their participation in programs that are designed to support early learning. Reducing the barriers to parent engagement in early childhood education and care (ECEC) programs would encourage school success, and help many young children of immigrants close the gaps in kindergarten readiness with their native peers.
Recent years have seen a rapid increase in the size and share of the U.S. young-child population with at least one immigrant parent, posing challenges to policymakers and front-line programs in the early childhood arena. These demographic changes are converging with efforts in many states to expand early childhood services and improve their quality. With one in four young children in the United States living in an immigrant family, efforts to build trust and establish meaningful two-way communication with these families is an urgent priority if system expansion efforts are to realize their purpose.
Many programs face difficulties engaging with immigrant and refugee parents who often require support building U.S. cultural and systems knowledge and in overcoming English language and literacy barriers. These difficulties have been exacerbated in recent years as adult basic education and English instruction programs, which early childhood programs such as Head Start had previously relied on to support parents in need of these skills, have been significantly reduced.
Against this backdrop, this report identifies the unique needs of newcomer parents across the range of expectations for parent skill, engagement, and leadership sought by ECEC programs, and strategies undertaken to address these needs. The study is based on field research in six states, expert interviews, a literature review, and a sociodemographic analysis.
December 1969
Geographic Focus: North America-United States
