SRCD Review

#1 Search Led to the Press Releases of the SRCD

While digging around the site, I chose to focus on the press releases. I found a great paper written on working memory. Some highlights of that:

Working memory once thought to be affected by both that parents’ education—one common measure of socioeconomic status—is related to children’s 

performance on tasks of working memory, and that neighborhood characteristics—another common measure of socioeconomic status—are not. 

Neither parents’ education nor living in a disadvantaged neighborhood was found to be 

associated with the rate of growth in working memory across the four-year period. Lower parental 

education was found to be tied to differences in working memory that emerged by age 10 and 

continued through adolescence. 

The study suggests that disparities seen in adolescence and adulthood start earlier in childhood 

and that school does NOT close the gap in working memory for children ages 10 and above. Generally, 

children whose parents had fewer years of education don’t catch up or fall further behind by the end of 

adolescence, when working memory performance reaches mature levels.

So what do we learn? For me, my heart breaks a little for my students. While a very small percentage hold high school and college diplomas, most parents have only finished 2-3 years beyond elementary school, in their home country. Strike one against my students. 

What else do we learn? The neighborhood in which my students live is not as important as their parent's education. So if they are living in subsidized housing with parents that continued their education in their home country, but cannot transfer that into prosperous employment in the US, they still have a fighting chance. PLUS for them.

Working memory is neither stationary or reliant upon school. 

#2 Outside Links

I found a great link this week. http://www.childtrends.org/

This is the place where research across the country is housed for early childhood programs. Lot's of good information here, and lot's of work being compiled. I like it that the mission of the organization is clear, the reports are clear, and the data is listed. Too many NonProfits seem to exist, just to exist with links to others doing work in the field. Not this one...

Highlights:

• In 49 states and the District of Columbia, child-level data across different ECE programs are not all linked. Only one state – Pennsylvania – can link child-level data across all ECE programs and to the state’s K-12 data system. Most states cannot answer key policy questions about all children served in publicly-funded early care and education programs because ECE child-level data is not linked.
• 30 states reported securely linking ECE child-level data to states’ K-12 data, compared to 20 states that link ECE child-level data to social services data and 12 states that link ECE child-level data to states’ health data. A number of states are engaged in planning processes to create these linkages between state health (22 states) and social services (18 states) data systems.
• State coordinated ECE data systems are more likely to link data for children participating in state pre-kindergarten and preschool special education than children in Head Start or subsidized child care programs. More states securely link preschool special education data (25 states) or state-prekindergarten data (23 states) than link federal Head Start (9 states) or subsidized child care (12 states) data.
• 36 states collect state-level child development data from ECE programs and 29 states capture kindergarten entry assessment data. Aggregate data on developmental screening and assessment, including kindergarten readiness assessment (collected by 29 states), can be useful at a state level to track, over time, the trends in children’s developmental status and need for early intervention and/or special education services. More information is needed about the proportion of programs participating in these state systems and how this development and assessment information is being used.
• 32 states have designated an ECE data governance entity to guide the development and use of a state coordinated longitudinal ECE data system. Over one-half of states have established an ECE data governance structure to assist with strategic planning, secure data sharing across public agencies, and ensure appropriate, secure use of data. These governance entities are well positioned to coordinate data across the multiple state agencies that administer a patchwork of state and federally funded programs.

(Many counties across the states do not link ECE data with elementary data)

#3  This website contains information that adds to my understanding of equity and excellence in early care and education, which is clearly stating that we need to link resources, data, research, and social services information. We have a long way to go if we want equity across the states.

What new Info Did I find related to our current study? WALAAA! This one is a great set of lists of Five..Check them out, not all are about early childhood. Some are related to parenting, families, and culture. __________________________________________________________________________________ Child Trends 5 is a new monthly publication from Child Trends. April 26, 2013 President Obama's early learning initiative proposal includes strategies to increase access to high-quality preschool and expand the Early Head Start - Child Care Partnership program serving infants and toddlers. While Congress will debate plan funding and implementation, research provides solid guidance for bolstering quality across the diverse array of early care and education settings and programs. As the country considers a historic expansion of early care and education opportunities for young children, Child Trends offers a list of five ways to improve their quality:  Focus first on children's safety, health, and happiness.  Regardless of setting, children's safety, health, and happiness are the non-negotiable elements of quality care and education. Minimizing risk and maximizing children's opportunities to engage with teachers, caregivers, other children, and the world around them are essential strategies for promoting physical health and social-emotional, language, and cognitive development. Rigorous licensing regulations and regular monitoring of programs are essential. Yet a review of existing state regulations indicates that current protections for children are inadequate.

Support the early care and education workforce.  The administrators, teachers, and caregivers working with young children each day are at the center of creating high-quality early care and education. The current workforce has a low education level, and average annual incomes for some workers are under the federal poverty level for a family of four, despite efforts to promote higher qualifications and access to professional development. Further efforts should target improvements in the quality and content of early childhood education preparation programs; opportunities for supervised internships and student teaching; ongoing professional development that is rigorous and relevant; compensation parity; andcoaching, consultation, and mentoring that facilitates the application of new knowledge to everyday practice.

Use observations and assessments to support every child's needs across all developmental domains.  High-quality programs regularly collect information about children's physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development. The National Research Councilhas published guidance on choosing and using child assessments that are appropriate for children's developmental, cultural and linguistic characteristics. The results of assessments should guide communications with parents, teaching strategies, curricula, and activities to help each child learn and develop in the way that works best for him/her. Ideally, such assessments would also align with states' guidelines on what children should know and be able to do upon kindergarten entry.

Create a culture of continuous quality improvement.  High-quality early care and education programs never stop improving. Continuous improvement starts with program leaders who engage themselves and staff in reflecting on strengths and growth areas through self-assessments, feedback from colleagues and parents, and data collected about the quality of their program, classroom, or child care home. Professional development and technical assistance can be linked to growth areas, and programs as a whole can annually update goals, objectives and strategies for improving services. State Quality Rating and Improvement Systems offer quality standards, professional development supports and incentives to guide the quality improvement process.

Build partnerships to support quality. Quality early care and education programs are supported by a larger early childhood service system that includes access to health care andmedical homes for young children, social-emotional development and mental health services that focus on prevention and intervention, comprehensive parent engagement that is responsive to parents' needs, and family support services to help families access resources and build their capacity to support their children's development. An effective early childhood system is dependent on strong partnerships among early childhood settings and across service-delivery systems; coordination of resources; and alignment of standards, which are critical for promoting quality early care and education programs that can meet the full range of children's and families' needs.