 My
conversations with my daughters, friends, or granddaughters often include
a discussion of what each of us is reading. Because of my lifelong love
of books I was especially delighted when the American
Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) announced last week
that doctors should encourage parents to read to their children beginning in infancy, and is partnering with organizations that will provide free books to
low-income parents. This new policy from the AAP not only promotes early
literacy, it enhances parent-child attachment and interaction. As early educators we are all too familiar with the research that shows the daunting 30
million word gap between children from upper- and lower-income
families.
For decades medical providers at 5,000 sites have distributed books and tool kits to promote early reading through our i3 grantee Reach Out and Read. Our military is working with nonprofits to provide the opportunity for personnel separated from their families to send a book and a DVD reading the book to their children. I am also delighted that many of our RTT-ELC
states are helping families connect through books. Happy reading to each of you
this summer!
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Program Spotlight: Funded by RTT-ELC,
Early Achievers Improves Quality in Washington State
Washington State is changing the conversation around early learning to
focus on offering high quality preschool to all children—especially those most at risk
for starting school not ready to succeed.
Washington State has seen an incredible number of licensed child care
providers voluntarily join Early Achievers, Washington’s quality rating and
improvement system, since the state
went live with it in July 2012. Washington has used its RTT-ELC grant to take
the voluntary system to scale.
More than 2,300 licensed
child care facilities around the state have joined to date. This includes 862
centers (nearly 60% of all centers) and 1,305 family homes (33% of all family
homes). The state Department of Early Learning credits this to extensive
outreach by their child care licensors and the state Child Care Aware, as well
as the robust package of supports available to Early Achievers participants. In
addition to licensed programs, Washington successfully created a customized pathway
for Head Start and state pre-k programs in Early Achievers which has boosted
participation across the state.
In addition to scholarships,
coaching, tiered subsidy reimbursement and other financial incentives, the
state has created Training Resource Centers around the state. The Training
Resource Centers allow licensed providers to join state- and federally funded
preschool programs in high-quality trainings offered in the preschools. In the
future, the Training Resource Centers will also offer shared services to
support licensed child care programs in offering high-quality early learning
programs with access to additional supports for family health and support.
Due to
legislation passed in 2013, all state-funded preschool programs must join Early
Achievers by 2015, furthering the state’s efforts to create one system of
high-quality classroom learning.
Technical Assistance
On May 19-20, 2014, ELC TA partnered with the Center for Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes (CEELO) and The National Early Childhood TA Center (ECTA) to host a forum to discuss issues
related to
- state
practices for integrating IDEA programs in state TQRIS/QRIS processes and
- strengthening
partnerships across state agencies for building a coordinated approach for
serving young children with disabilities.
The event was held in conjunction
with the 2014 National Inclusion Institute.
Teams from Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, and Pennsylvania participated in the meeting.
In addition to these discussions, Ruth Ryder, Deputy Director in the Office of Special Education Programs and Libby Doggett, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Early Learning in Office of Early Learning at the U.S. Department of Education attended the meeting and held a listening session to hear what interventions, models, programs, and practices states are using to support inclusive opportunities of children with disabilities and to hear what federal policies and guidance states might need to support the inclusion of young children with disabilities.
 How RTT-ELC States Can Support Infants and Toddlers
In December 2013, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, and Vermont became the newest states to receive Race
to the Top - Early Learning Challenge (ELC) grants. In
addition to planning to use the majority of their ELC funds to strengthen
systems that support all young children, these states’ applications also
included some proposals intended to improve outcomes specifically for infants
and toddlers. Read about what each state is doing here.
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 Ready
to Learn TV show Peg+Cat Wins 3 Emmy Awards
One
of our very own Office of Innovation and Improvement grantees has won
three Emmy awards in the ceremony held in Los Angeles last June. Ready to Learn
TV show “Peg+Cat,” which teaches preschool math skills, won three Emmy
Awards including Outstanding Pre-School Children’s Animated Program, Outstanding
Performer in an Animated Program (Hayley Faith Negrin, as Peg), and Outstanding
Individual Achievement in Animation (Jennifer Oxley, Production Design). Peg +
Cat is a production of the Fred Rogers Company and was created under the Ready
to Learn grant to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and Public
Broadcasting Service (PBS).
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Improving Data, Improving Outcomes
The
Center for IDEA Early Childhood Data Systems (DaSy), the IDEA Data Center
(IDC), and the Early Childhood Technical Assistance (ECTA) Center will be
hosting a national meeting Improving Data, Improving Outcomes in New Orleans,
LA on September 8 - 10, 2014. The meeting combines issues related to the
development or enhancement of Part C, Part B Section 619, and/or coordinated
early childhood data systems; improvement of data quality; and the measurement
and use of child and family outcomes data in order to make data informed
decisions. For more
information, please visit http://ectacenter.org/~meetings/data2014/mtghomepage.asp.
CEELO Roundtable on Teaching Excellence
Slides and
Resources from the CEELO Roundtable, Excellence for Every Child: Improving the
Quality of Teaching Birth through Grade Three, are now available on the CEELO
website Roundtable page. Speaker Libby Doggett invited participants to provide
feedback on their efforts.
State Early Learning Directory
The latest
version of the Directory
of State Early Learning Contacts, updated
from the inaugural publication in August 2013, is now available. State by
state, the directory provides contact information for the SEA lead, 619
Coordinator, Title I Director, Head Start State Collaboration Director, Part C
Coordinator, Home Visiting Lead, and other key learning contacts.
Access to Care
Access
to High Quality Early Care and Education: Readiness and Opportunity Gaps in
America, by Milagros Nores, PhD, and W. Steven Barnett, PhD, describes readiness and opportunity gaps in access to high quality early education. The report describes the “readiness gaps” at kindergarten entry as of 2010, and examines the extent to which there are “opportunity gaps” in early care and education services that may be associated with those readiness gaps.
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Number of Children Enrolled in Preprimary Education:
 From 1990 to 2012, the percentage of 3- to 5-year-olds enrolled in preprimary programs increased from 59 to 64 percent, with all of the growth occurring between 1990 and 2000. In contrast, the percentage of 5-year-olds enrolled in preprimary programs declined from 89 percent in 1990 to 85 percent in 2012.
The percentage of 3- to 5-year-olds in preprimary programs who attended full-day programs increased from 39 percent in 1990 to 60 percent in 2012. This increase in full-day enrollment rate was also observed for 5-year-olds. More recently, the full-day enrollment rate was higher in 2012 (72 percent) than in 2000 (59 percent) for 5-year-olds, but the rate did not change measurably for 3- or 4-year-olds.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2014). The Condition of Education 2014 (NCES 2014-083), Preprimary Enrollment.
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More Than 25,000 Resources Available at Research Connections!
Child Care & Early Education Research Connections provides a continually updated, free, and easily searchable collection of research on child care and early education for researchers and policymakers. The Web site provides access to more than 25,000 resources, including original scholarly research, government reports, fact sheets and briefs, data sets, and instruments.
Schilder, Smith Leavell Publish in Early Childhood Education
Diane Schilder and Ashley Smith Leavell have published an article, “Head Start/Child Care Partnerships: Program Characteristics and Classroom Quality,” in the May 2014 issue of Early Childhood Education Journal. The authors' present findings—drawn from an analysis of survey data from 61 child care centers and observational data from 66 classrooms within these centers— provide evidence of the benefits of Head Start/child care partnerships.
 Discover MyPlate: Nutrition Education for Kindergarten Release
Discover
MyPlate is a nutrition education resource that promotes the development of healthy food choices and physically active
lifestyles for children in kindergarten. Read more and check out the free materials for schools,
childcare, and community groups that work with kindergarten age children here.
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 Science in the Early Years
The Education Commission of the States just released their latest
Progress of Education Reform paper, addressing the importance of science in
early learning and its impact on literacy development. Learn more by reading
the report and press
release.
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Early Childhood Educator and Administrator Surveys on the Use of Assessments and Standards in Early Childhood Settings
The
Early Childhood Educator Survey and the Early Childhood Administrator Survey
allow users to collect consistent data on the use of child assessments and
learning standards in early childhood learning settings. Each survey includes
modules on educator/administrator background information, assessment use, and
learning standards implementation. The full text of this
study is available on ERIC.
Listening to Workers: Child Care Challenges in Low Wage Jobs
The Ms. Foundation for Women, the National Women’s Law Center, and six worker justice organizations have come together to pursue a research
project studying
the challenges low-wage workers face in securing quality and affordable
childcare.
The National Governor's Association Takes Position on Early Learning
The NGA has offered principles to guide Congress and the Administration as they work on advancing early childhood education. Check out the Governors’ Principles for Federal Early Childhood Education Legislature here.
 The WhiteHouse.gov/ConnectED Hub is Live
The White House’s ConnectED “hub” with resources for teachers, students and administrators is live. The ConnectED Initiative was designed to enrich K-12 education for every student in America by empowering teachers with the best technology and the training to help them make the most of it, and by empowering students through individualized learning and rich, digital content.
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 Text4baby:
A Great Source of Information and Advice for New Dads and Dads-to-Be
This
month the White House is partnering with text4baby
to target expecting fathers. Through its free text messaging service, text4baby
is launching
new messages for expecting fathers and fathers with babies under the age of
1. These messages contain important information and tips on how to improve
child health and safety, ways to engage with your baby, and how to support a
mother’s health.
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