The Logical Thing To Do

I wanted to know the importance of early education in a child's life. So I asked, Does Early Childhood Education help children succeed later in life/school? And then other question came up, Does it matter? Will children benefit from preschool? How much do parents know about preschool programs? What do tax payers and school board members think of these programs? I still don't have all the answers but with the few statistics and articles that I read I think ECE is very important.

 According to both the Early Childhood Data Collaborative , 
" Differences in children’s abilities appear as early as the first year of life, and research has shown that targeted interventions during the early childhood years can narrow the "school readiness gap."  
and to President Obama's Fact Sheet, 
 “In states that make it a priority to educate our youngest children…studies show students grow up more likely to read and do math at grade level, graduate high school, hold a job, form more stable families of their own.  We know this works.  So let’s do what works and make sure none of our children start the race of life already behind.”

    President Barack Obama
     State of the Union, February 12, 2013

 having childhood education accessible to lower-income families and moderate-income families makes me believe that is the greatest and most important investment we can make for our nation. Both of these articles explain that it will make a difference in a child's life it they attend an ECE program, by closing the school readiness gap and have more stable families.  


Knowing this information I still wonder why parents don't know all of these important statistics.  The only thing that comes to my mind is that it might be a language barrier. I will keep researching for answers on why some taxpayers and school board members don't support ECE programs as well. Because ECE, is the logical thing to do. 

Our Future

    

 As I continue to research how important Early Childhood Education is, I found this interesting article in the  NEA website, National Education Association. According to the NEA association, it is beneficial for our children to attend an ECE program. The NEA website mentions several studies that show the benefits of ECE in individuals that attended a program. Some of this benefits include; higher income than those individuals that didn't attend a preschool program, less repeated grades, longer marriages, likely to own a home and graduate high school, young people having less problems with the law and needing less help with a special education programs. 

     Just as we had read on the ed.gov website, the NEA believes that it is an investment for our country to support ECE. They both let us know how wages can be different for an individual that attends a preschool program, which then creates a stronger work force. And they both want opportunities for young children and their families. 

    The president of the NEA Dennis Van Roekel said," High-quality early childhood education and full-day kindergarten are fundamental to a student's long term success and shouldn't be determined by their parents' income...[It] is the right thing to do." The NEA supported a legislation that would give opportunities to children from birth to ages 5 and encourage states to support early head start programs. 

After reading more about the importance of early childhood education I wonder, why is it so difficult to have ECE programs? What more studies do we need to prove it? 

Ready.. Set.. Learn..!

    

      In my last blog I reviewed what the Common Core State Standards were and information on what it didn’t include from a different source. It got me thinking and next I wanted to learn about the standards for early childhood education and statistics of early childhood education.

     I found standards in the Early Head Start National Research Center website.  And in this website we can read about the School Readiness Goals for Infants and Toddlers in Head Start and Early Head Start programs. This program addresses and strengthens children readiness from birth to ages five. They are able to achieve this with school readiness action steps. They work with the Head Start Child Development and Early Learning Framework (HSCDELF). This frame work includes 5 important areas: Social and Emotional Development, Language Development and Literacy, Approaches Toward Learning, Cognition and General Knowledge, and Physical Development and Health. Along with the framework they appropriately reflect the ages of children in the program and they also have learning guidelines from the State and requirements and expectations from schools. They set goals in every area of the framework as well. All of this is done to show progress of the development of skills and competencies that children will need to succeed in school.

     Some statistics that I found are in the following video.                        

                                    

     
    
      I also found other interesting facts and statistics in the ed.gov website. One that caught my eye was the statement that is said, “Studies prove that children who have rich early learning experiences are better prepared to thrive in kindergarten and beyond.” This shows me that early childhood does help children succeed later in school and life. The statement said about the future of these children is very interesting,"Every public dollar spent on high-quality preschool returns $7 through a reduced need for spending on other services- such as remedial education, grade repetition, and special education- as well as increased productivity and earnings for these children as adults." Also that U.S ranks 25^th in the world in early learning enrollment and that Children Mexico, France, and Singapore have a better chance of receiving preschool education than here in America. Having all these data why do our kids have less chance to receive preschool education? Why is there still some individuals that don't support preschool? It is our future.

Unfocused

     As I am researching the importance of ECE, Early Childhood Education, in children I see a lot of good feedback. One of the things that I mentioned was that I wanted to know how much school district board members, taxpayers and parents know about ECE. It was brought to my attention the Common Core State Standard.  After reading about the Common Core Standards I was most confused of why ECE was not included. 

     I would like to start with what the Common Core State Standard is. According to their website the Common Core State Standards are guidelines for children from kindergarten to 12th grade of what they should know and be able to do in math, arts and English language arts. With this standards teachers can measure their student’s progress to make sure they are in the right path academically. They mention that these standards were design by experts and teachers across the country to ensure that students are prepared for their success in entry-level careers, freshman-level college courses, and workforce training programs focusing in developing the critical-thinking, problem-solving, and analytical skills that they will need. 

     I see a lack of attention to preschool. The website only mentions the 2% of early childhood education teachers in the Reaction on March 2010 draft of CCSS (Common Core State Standards) Since the CCSS has been implemented to K-12^TH grades the Kindergarten students are expected to have a certain skill level to succeed.  Does in it make sense to pay more attention to preschool?

     I then found an interesting article from The Washington Post. In the article, "A tough critique of Common Core on early childhood education", Edward Miller and Nancy Carlsson-Paige let us know that "the process for creating the k-12 standards involves too little research, public dialogue and input from educators". The article explains that there were 135 people in the panels with no teachers from K-3rd and no early childhood educators. It then says that the CCSS website is misleading in different ways. With the CCSS not having convincing research, not making public comments they said they had, and opposing statements from early childhood professionals.  

     Reading these resources makes me wonder even more how much parents really know about their children education, including my-self! 

Does it matter?

     
Does preschool/early childhood education help young children succeed later in school/life? Does it matter if young children attend preschool? Do my children really benefit from a preschool program? These questions have come to my attention over the past year.

     I am intrigued now and 

I want to know how much people know of early childhood education. Do they know what it is? Have they heard of preschool? I didn't know about preschool programs when I had my children. That is why I never enrolled my kids in a preschool program. Does this mean that there isn't a lot of advocacy for early childhood education programs? And what about the parents that do know about early childhood programs and don't participate. What is their opinion about these programs?  

     I would also like to know what school boards and tax payers (that no longer have young children) really now about preschool. What do they agree with and what do they disagree about? 

     Even though I am working with an Early Childhood program I still have a lot to learn about early education in children and everything that comes with it. I will dig more into this topic. I think a good starting place is asking my co-workers basic questions like why do they think early childhood education is important? Also researching for statistics about early education in children might be an eye opener.

      I learned about Early Childhood Education in November of 2013, when I applied for a position at a school district. At first I thought it was just a job that required translation for Spanish speaking families. The first month of being hired I came to find out that it was more than that. It was all about the little life's that are being touched by incredible individuals that want the best for these children. Now I am part of this wonderful team. Now I advocate for Early Childhood Education.