The organization I chose to follow is the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER). Their mission statement is:
The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) conducts and
communicates research to support high-quality, effective early
childhood education for all young children. Such education enhances
their physical, cognitive, and social development, and subsequent
success in school and later life.
I signed up for the online newsletter last week, but as of today I have only received a welcome email. I checked the website and noticed that the email newsletter only provides "periodic updates." While on the website today I found where I could subscribe to email updates on Research and Publications Alerts and Preschool Matters...Today! Alerts. I am hoping these emails will be distributed on a more regular basis.
What caught my eye on the website this week was the announcement of the publication of the 2012 State Preschool Yearbook. This book is an annual report profiling state-funded prekindergarten programs in the United States. This latest Yearbook
presents data on state-funded prekindergarten during the 2011-2012
school year as well as documenting a decade of progress since the first Yearbook collected
data on the 2001-2002 school year. Tracking trends long term is key to
understanding the progress of early childhood education across the
country and improving educational opportunities for America’s children.
The publication is extensive and I have not had an opportunity to review it, but one of the major issues that was pointed out in the summary was the following:
Twenty-eight percent of America’s 4-year-olds were enrolled in a
state-funded preschool program in the 2011-2012 school year, the same
percentage as the year before. This stagnation in enrollment growth was
compounded by an unprecedented funding drop of $500 million nationwide.
The findings in this Yearbook raise serious concerns on the quality and availability of pre-K education for most of American young learners.
I think this publication will be useful to all my colleagues. I am including the link below so you can go straight to the page:
http://nieer.org/publications/state-preschool-2012
13 July 2013
I finally received an email from NIEER Online News. It is basically a bunch of links to newspapers, journals and other websites that have information dealing with early childhood. For example, there is a link to the Zero to Three website that talks about their recent online event called Virtual Rally 4 Babies. There are several newspaper articles that seemed interesting like New Georgia Early Learning and Development Standards for pre-K is announced and Senate Panel Approves Big Early-Childhood Education Boost. I look forward to reading these articles.
Jamie,
ReplyDeleteI hadnt heard of this organization. I am all for any organization that helps to build high quality early chidhood programs. There are so many childcare center and programs that are not "high quality", they are just babysitters to me. But many parents do not know what to look for when enrolling their child in these programs. Great Information!!
Jamie,
ReplyDeleteI find it incredible that despite all the research available that shows the long term benefits of having access to and participating in quality programs during the early learning years, funding for early childhood programs continue to be cutback. I am curious to hear more about how the research done by organizations such as NIEER are being used if at all by policymakers.
I took a brief look at the presentation by the Director of NIEER at a congressional briefing this past April following the release of the State of Preschool publication you mentioned. He concludes his presentation with the four points of action needed - Commit to good pre -K for all, set high standards, increase funding for quality, monitor and evaluate performance. I just keep wondering why despite the available research being presented to them, policymakers aren’t acting on it. Good choice of organization. Looking forward to learning more about their work.