Tag Archives: School-Aged

Brief: Early Childhood Higher Education: Taking Stock Across the States 

Posted on by

11/2015

By Marcy Whitebook, Ph.D. and Lea J.E. Austin, Ed.D.

This brief is based on findings from the Early Childhood Education (ECE) Higher Education Inventory conducted in several states: California, Indiana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island. This brief highlights the extent to which ECE teacher preparation is currently integrated across the birth-to-age-eight continuum, and on variations in field-based practice opportunities for teachers of young children.

Source: Center for the Study in Child Care Employment

Available at: http://www.irle.berkeley.edu/cscce/2015/early-childhood-higher-education-taking-stock-across-the-states/

Alliance for Early Success: Policy Framework and Guidelines 

Posted on by

11/2015

The Alliance developed and published an initial Framework in 2013 with input from more than 150 experts representing early childhood and K-12 advocates and leaders, researchers, communication professionals, policymakers, and foundation leaders. The 2015 revision reflects input from a high level Advisory Group as well as additional experts in health and family support. Policy options are updated to reflect the latest research and best practice evidence. The most significant change is the inclusion of cross-cutting policy choices that address multiple issues.

The Framework has four policy pillars.

  • HEALTH:  Children are born healthy, stay healthy, and are surrounded by healthy adults
  • FAMILY SUPPORT:  Families help their children explore, learn, and grow in safe and nurturing places.
  • LEARNING:  Children arrive at Kindergarten with the skills and abilities to meet developmental milestones, read on grade level, and reach achievement goals.
  • CROSS-CUTTING POLICIES: Children thrive in families and communities that support their healthy development.

Source: Alliance for Early Success

Available at: http://earlysuccess.org/our-work/policy-framework

The Birth Through Third Grade Learning Hub

Posted on by

7/2015

The goal of the Birth through Grade Three (Birth-Third) Learning Hub is to support communities in their efforts to improve young children’s learning and development. This website tracks, profiles, and analyzes Birth-Third initiatives with the aim of promoting learning, exchange, and knowledge-building across communities.

Building Capacity and Knowledge Across Communities.  An underlying premise of the hub is that the more Birth-Third leaders know about the work of other communities, the better able they will be to design and implement effective strategies. Recent work on education reform in high-performing countries and regions emphasizes the importance of building capacity across communities, capacity built by developing knowledge, relationships, networks, and regional collective commitment. Through case studies, analysis, guidance documents, tools, videos, and collaboration with technical assistance providers, the Learning Hub promotes sharing of promising practices and collaborative problem-solving directed towards common problems.

Real-Time Action Research. In recent years both the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Aspen Institute have released concept papers based on years of research on community change and innovation at scale—innovation at the community-level. These papers–Networked Improvement Communities and Building Knowledge About Community Change–call for action research in service to community change that is applied, timely, informed by practitioner perspectives, and formative in nature. Consistent with the messages of these reports, the Learning Hub aims to synthesize findings across Birth-Third partnerships and provide analysis–informed by the research literature–of common trends, patterns, challenges, and innovations. See this page for a description of Birth-Third strategies. Key topics of interest include the following:

  • Strategy and Planning and Plan Management
  • Standards and Curriculum
  • Assessment and Data-Driven Inquiry
  • Effective Teaching Strategies
  • Developmentally-appropriate Practice
  • QRIS
  • English Language Learning
  • Professional Learning Communities
  • Coaching and Professional Development
  • Home Visiting
  • Parenting
  • Special Needs
  • Transitions and School Readiness

Source: The Birth Through Third Grade Learning Hub 

ED.gov Initiatives: Early Literacy

Posted on by

3/2015

This site is designed to provide educators, administrators, policymakers and community stakeholders with basic information about the importance of effective reading instruction in the early grades, and focuses on the steps schools might take to ensure that kindergarten and first-grade students receive the supports they need to read on grade level by third grade. This site will showcase:

  • the essential components supporting effective reading instruction;
  • tools and resources to help educators and communities improve reading instruction;
  • success stories from the field, including innovative uses of federal funding streams; and
  • other features.

Source: US Department of Education

Available at: http://www2.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/earlyliteracy/index.html

Committee on Supporting the Parents of Young Children 

Posted on by

3/2015

An ad hoc committee will conduct a study that will inform a national framework for strengthening the capacity of parents of young children birth to age 8. The committee will examine the research to identify a core set of parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAPs) tied to positive parent-child interactions and child outcomes, as well as evidence-based strategies that support these KAPs universally and across a variety of specific populations. These KAPs and strategies will be brought together to inform a set of concrete policy recommendations, across the private and publicsectors within the health, human services, and education systems. Recommendations will be tied to promoting the wide-scale adoption of the effective strategies and the enabling of the identified KAPs. The report will also identify the most pressing research gaps and recommend three to five key priorities for future research endeavors in the field. This work will primarily inform policy makers, a wide array of child and family practitioners, private industry, and researchers. The resulting report will serve as a “roadmap” for the future of parenting and family support policies, practices, and research in this country.

The committee will address the following questions:

  1. What are the core parenting KAPs (i.e., knowledge, attitudes, practices), as identified in the literature, that support healthy child development, birth to age 8? Do core parenting KAPs differ by specific characteristics of children (e.g., age), parents, or contexts?
  2. What evidence-informed strategies to strengthen parenting capacity, including family engagement strategies implemented in various settings (e.g., homes, schools, health care centers, early childhood centers), have been shown to be effective with parents of young children, prenatal to age 8? Are there key periods of intervention that are more effective in supporting parenting capacity, beginning in high school or earlier?
  3. What types of strategies work at the universal/preventive, targeted, and intensive levels (e.g., media campaigns, information sharing, text reminders; social support groups, self-monitoring and tracking online; modeling and feedback coaching, intensive home visiting), and for which populations of parents and children? The committee will consider the appropriate balance betweenstrategies tailored to unique parent and child needs and common strategies that can be effective and accepted with parents across groups.
  4. What are the most pronounced barriers, including lack of incentives, to strengthening parenting capacity and retention in effective programs and systems designed to improve developmental, health, and education outcomes for children birth to age 8? How can programs and systems be designed to remove these barriers?
  5. Are there evidence-based models of systems and programs that support parenting capacity and build upon existing assets of families, including underserved, low income families of color?
  6. What are 3-5 research areas that warrant further investigation, in order to inform policy and practice?

Source: Institute of Medicine, National Academies of Science

Available at: http://iom.nationalacademies.org/activities/children/committeeonsupportingtheparentsofyoungchildren.aspx

America’s Youngest Outcasts

Posted on by

2014

America’s Youngest Outcasts documents the number of homeless children in every state, their well-being, their risk for child homelessness, and state level planning and policy efforts. Using findings from numerous sources that include well-established national data sets as well as our own research, we rank the states in four domains, and then develop a composite of these domains to rank the states from 1 (best) to 50 (worst). A page about the District of Columbia is also available.

By rolling over each of the states in the map below, you can open and download the state page from the report that displays some of the key data used in ranking each state.

Source: The National Center on Family Homelessness

Available at: http://www.homelesschildrenamerica.org

Leading Pre-K-3 Learning Communities: Competencies For Effective Principal Practice

Posted on by

As the federal role expands to support increased state investments in school-based prekindergarten programs, NAESP has released an updated, principal competency guide: Leading Pre-K-3 Learning Communities: Competencies for Effective Principal Practice. Developed by a panel of leading practitioners, this standards document defines new competencies, and outlines a practical approach to high-quality early childhood education that is critical to laying a strong foundation for learning for young children from age three to grade three, or Pre-K-3.

Leading Pre-K-3 Learning Communities encompasses what principals believe:

  • Learning starts early
  • Supporting children to be prepared when they start school is essential to helping them get on the right track
  • Developing appropriate skills, knowledge and dispositions is fundamental to children’s future success
  • Getting children on grade level by the time they leave third grade, particularly in reading and math, is essential to ensuring they graduate from high school ready for college, careers and life

This groundbreaking work sets forth a strategy to help principals develop and expand their instructional leadership with a child-centered focus and acquire the practical skills necessary to address the academic, social, emotional and physical development needs of all young children. View the executive summary.

Source: National Association of Elementary School Principals.

Available at: http://www.naesp.org/llc

Therapies for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder – Consumer Summary

Posted on by

September 23, 2014

This guide describes research about the possible benefits and negative side effects of therapies for children who are 0 to 12 years old and have ASD. It was created to help you talk with your doctor, school administrator, social worker, or health insurance representative about programs and therapies.

Source: AHRQ Effective Health Care Program

Available at: http://www.effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov/ehc/index.cfm/search-for-guides-reviews-and-reports/?pageAction=displayProduct&productID=1974

2013 Annual Reports to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

Posted on by

8/2014

The 35th Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 2013 describes our nation’s progress in:

  1. providing a free appropriate public education FAPE for all children with disabilities,
  2. ensuring that the rights of children with disabilities and their parents are protected,
  3. assisting states and localities in providing for the education of all children with disabilities, and
  4. assessing the effectiveness of efforts to educate children with disabilities.

The report focuses on the children and students with disabilities being served under IDEA, Part C or B, nationally and at the state level.

Source: U.S. Department of Education

Available at: http://www2.ed.gov/about/reports/annual/osep/2013/index.html

Quick In-Class Evaluation Captures Vital Signs of Teaching

Posted on by

6/17/2014

A new study shows that a 20-minute classroom assessment can reliably measure classroom instruction and predict students’ standardized test scores. The assessment also provides immediate and meaningful feedback—making it an important new tool for understanding and improving instructional quality, according to researchers at UNC’s Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute FPG and the University of Rochester.

The EAR Protocol—short for Engagement, Alignment, and Rigor—already has been used in more than 100 schools, but this current study is the first to test its objectivity and ability to predict student learning as measured by standardized tests. Developed by the Institute for Research and Reform in Education, the 15-item tool focuses on three aspects of instruction: the engagement of students, how closely schoolwork aligns with state and local standards, and whether coursework is appropriately challenging.

“The assessment captures surprisingly complex and fundamental qualities of teaching,” said Diane Early, a scientist at FPG. “It’s easy to use, and 20 minutes is short enough for administrators to fit into the confines of their busy workday. And it’s adaptable for all grades and subjects, from math and English to art and physical education.”

Source: FPG Child Development Institute

Available at: http://fpg.unc.edu/news/quick-class-evaluation-captures-vital-signs-teaching