Blog Assignment: Sharing Web Resources

Follow some of the outside links that you have not yet explored. Where do they lead?

The National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies (NACCRRA) is an organization that was founded as a non-profit membership organization in 1987 as a 501(c)3, is centered on “a nation that supports the development and learning of all children.” Their vision is to encourage national support for the development and learning of children of every age. Their mission is to “Promote national policies and partnerships to advance the development and learning of all children and to provide vision, leadership and support to community Care Resource and referral.” They envision that all children will be placed in a safe, healthy, and developmentally appropriate environment that will enrich their lives, provide them with the tools that they need to enter school “ready to learn,” and prepared to engage in the world as productive citizens through guidance, direction and decision-making. They work with over 700 state and local Child Care Resources and Referral agencies in the United States (U.S.) and help families in 99 percent of all populated zip codes have access to high-quality, affordable childcare. This is done by providing best practice guidance, resources, policy analysis, training, technical support, national partnership opportunities and national advocacy in the areas of child care and early learning. It leadership includes projects that increase access to affordable child care, quality, and undertakes research, advocates for child care policies that positively impact the lives of children and families (www.naccrra.org).       

 

Thoroughly search one area of the site. What do you find?

 

I searched information on in the public policy link and found that The Health and Human Services Commission is seeking permanent authority for a Department of Early Care and Learning within HHS, which encompasses the Office of Child Care and the Office of Head Start. HHS is providing sufficient administrative funding to ensure adequate oversight and technical assistance to the states. It is seeking authorization for the Office of Child Care to impose penalties when state plans fail to meet minimum protections for children, including poor

State monitoring practices (www.naccrra.org).

 

If you receive an e-newsletter, follow a link related to one of the issues you have been studying. What new information is available?

There was an article entitled “Barbara Mikulski Calls on Senate to Pass Bipartisan Reauthorization of Child Care and Development Block Grant to Help American Families Access Safe, Affordable Child Care they can Count on.” This article mentions affordability and access to childcare that is reliable for children and their families. U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), is a senior member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. This Senate pushed for the passage of the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act of 2014, which is a bipartisan bill that will improve the quality of child care for the more than 1.5 million children and families, including 19,000 in Maryland. The bill ensures that CCDBG providers meet certain health and safety requirements related to prevention and control of infectious diseases, first aid and CPR, child abuse prevention, administration of medication, prevention of and response to emergencies due to food allergies, prevention of sudden infant death syndrome and shaken baby syndrome, building and physical premises safety, and emergency response planning. The legislation gives families more stability in the CCDBG program and works to improve early childhood care also by requiring states to focus on infant and toddler quality initiatives. Finally, the bill requires mandatory background checks for child care providers in the CCDBG program (www.naccrra.org).      

Additionally, find out if the site you selected at the beginning of this course offers any information about the issue of this week:

The site that I selected at the beginning of the course revealed addition information that included  the need to both recognize and normalize the strengths of children diverse cultures, languages, knowledge, and ways of being and doing in our communities. These can be greatly different from the very remote parts of Australia to the outer suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne. New quality initiatives must protect children against overshadowing day-to-day care, nurturing and relationships and individual children’s development, to the imperatives of assessments, standards, and ratings. High-stakes ratings and easily measurable outcomes must be balanced against on-the-ground individual needs of each child and the cultural context of family and community (http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/).

Does the website or the e-newsletter contain any information that adds to your understanding of equity and excellence in early care and education?

There was information on best practices that informed me that the public is engaged in influencing the development of policies to support childcare quality initiatives and funding for child care and CCR&R at the ,state, local, and national levels. Parents have access to quality consumer education, referrals and parenting education. Stakeholders educate policymakers about improvements needed to ensure all children have access to quality childcare (www.naccrra.org).         

What other new insights about issues and trends in the early childhood field did you gain this week from exploring the website and/or the e-newsletter?

 

In addition, Senator Mikulski is for fighting to expand access to early learning against the Republican-proposed $1 billion cut to Head Start and she voted against proposal to turn Head Start into a block grant program (www.naccrra.org).      

 

Walden University M.S. in Early Childhood Studies

Criteria for Blog Assignments

 

Quality of Work Submitted	Satisfactory   4/4 points	3/4 points	2/4 points	1/4 points	Unsatisfactory   0/4 points
Adherence to Assignment Expectations   The extent to which work meets the assigned criteria.	Assignment meets expectations and reflects graduate-level critical, analytical thinking.   All key components are included: Initial post submitted with 2 comments to other students’ blogs.	Initial post submitted with 1 comment to other students’ blogs.	Initial post not submitted with 2 comments to other students’ blogs.    OR   Initial post submitted with no comments to other students’ blogs.	Initial post not submitted with 1 comment to other students’ blogs.	Does not fulfill the expectations of the assignment.   Key components are not included:  Initial post not submitted with no comments to other students’ blogs.

 

It is expected that all blog assignments will be submitted according to the assignment due dates indicated. As with discussions, it is important blog posts are completed within the week assigned so that others have a chance to both read and respond to your posts.  For that reason, late assignments may receive a maximum score of 2/4. Exceptions may be made at the discretion of the faculty member and in accordance with the Late Policy.

Getting to Know Your International Contacs-Part 2

Share the new insights and information you have gained from these conversations (or the podcast and Harvard website)

Information that I gained from the conversations or the podcast “Excellence and Equity of Care and Education for Children and Families Part 1,” Program Transcript, include prescribed standards in the early childhood environments, the issue of school readiness, and the question of achievement gaps.

Standards set the pattern or a goal in the presence of early childhood care, and education professionals. It points out the direction that children are guided towards what their educators want children to acquire through their experiences in early childhood education programs. On the other hand it fails to take into account the children’s knowledge level, locale, prior knowledge before entering school, and the holistic approach to educating the child. But it informs you of their needs.

School readiness focuses on the whole child. Recently leaders in the education field have gotten off track and are centered on academics.  The demand for standards and stricter academic assessment when it comes preparing early learners for school has an impact on viewing young children holistically, when support for intellectual maturation and social-emotional maturation are looked upon as equally important to the well-being of children.

Head Start was created to deal with achievement gaps. Children are under pressure to be knowledgeable about a certain amount of a particular subject which has a trickling down effect. Educators are stressed to drill children to memorize their ABC’s a head of an activity that designed to build long lasting relationships in kindergarten and in preschool which places extra pressure on non-educators. Children should be taught understanding and communication failing to do so is unhealthy for them. Social skills should be rooted early and we will not lose too much. We fail to provide children with the tools that they need to cope, to survive, to communicate, to ask for help, to maneuver everything else that we put in front of them.  It is critical to remain sincere and remember we must be committed to working with children and not see them as empty cups or objects and understand that we aren’t in the role of fixing them. We should get to know them and build relationships with them, and do what is right for them.

Describe in particular the additional information about issues of equity and excellence you acquired from your international sources

From the Harvard article “Global Children’s Initiative,” three new ideas or insights that I gained about early childhood systems around the globe is that there is an organization that serves as a founding partner for the global agenda the Mother Child Education Foundation (ACEV) located in the country of Turkey. The goals of the organization are to build a portfolio of activities in the domains of development, mental health and children in crisis and conflict circumstances. With these domains, group will design and implement new projects; facilitate continuing cross-disciplinary collaboration; and engage additional faculty, students, and reach out collaboratively beyond the Harvard community.

With early childhood development, the first priority is to adapt the successful work in the United States in order to strategically select the audience that they desire with the intent to boost and reframe global discussion around investments in the early years for children. The plan is t educate leaders of key  international agencies, publish and disseminate papers to establish strength-based scientific framework for global work, and systematic collaborative research that will recognize effective means to translate the science of child development for global policymakers. 

With child mental health, there is an vital need to identify the scope of this issue for the development of children globally, and to develop evidence-based approaches in policy and serve delivery that welcomes cultural diversity context.  A Harvard University faculty team is working together to develop a focused agenda in research, education, and public engagement to deal with substantial gaps in knowledge and service delivery. There are three initial projects that are aimed at fixing the problem that include assessing the state of child mental health services in Shanghai, China, developing and evaluating family-based strategies to prevent mental health problems in children affected by HIV/AIDS in Rwanda, and addressing child maltreatment and mental health outcomes in three Caribbean nations (Barbados, the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, and Suriname, and they are strengthening their policy relevance by designing each project to include economic component to analyze allocation effects in the supply and demand for services.   

With children in crisis, the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health, and the Global Children’s Initiative is currently seeking potential synergies to work with children that have emergent circumstances to foster interdisciplinary collaboration. This collaboration will incorporate science-based, developmental perspectives into the assessment and management of the well-being of children. This will be done in a range of natural and man-made crises, with the focus on long-term adaptation and their immediate circumstances. The focus will be on theses domains that include exploring comparable approaches to surveying child status in post-earthquake Haiti and Chile and bringing the science of child development into strategies for addressing acute malnutrition.

Information that I gained about issues of equity and excellence from my international resource include vital bottlenecks and barriers that hinder progress in making the country of Kenya, South Africa an inviting environment for care and educational development for children’s. Some inequalities in the country begins with the basic right of children as they struggle with geographical and wealth inequalities founded on uneven patterns of development and marginalism, pervasive gender inequality, that adds to lopsided economic and power for women in the decision-making area, challenges in implementation of policies that target the very poor, insufficient budgetary allocations for certain programs and sectors.     

Walden University M.S. in Early Childhood Studies

Criteria for Blog Assignments

 

Quality of Work Submitted	Satisfactory   4/4 points	3/4 points	2/4 points	1/4 points	Unsatisfactory   0/4 points
Adherence to Assignment Expectations   The extent to which work meets the assigned criteria.	Assignment meets expectations and reflects graduate-level critical, analytical thinking.   All key components are included: Initial post submitted with 2 comments to other students’ blogs.	Initial post submitted with 1 comment to other students’ blogs.	Initial post not submitted with 2 comments to other students’ blogs.    OR   Initial post submitted with no comments to other students’ blogs.	Initial post not submitted with 1 comment to other students’ blogs.	Does not fulfill the expectations of the assignment.   Key components are not included:  Initial post not submitted with no comments to other students’ blogs.

 

 

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2013). Issues and trends in the early childhood     

        field: Economists, scientists, and politicians supporting the EC field. [Video podcast]. 

      Retrieved from http://www.waldenu.edu/ Baltimore, MD: Author.

Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. (2010). Global children's initiative.  

       Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/activities/global_initiative/

"Establishing Professional Contacts"

Part 1

"Establishing Professional Contacts"

The two individuals that I chose to contact and get information from were not available on these two sites.

World Forum Foundation. "A foundation whose mission is to promote an on-going global exchange of ideas on the delivery of quality services for young children in diverse settings." http://www.worldforumfoundation.org/wf/about.php

World Forum Foundation Radio. Includes links to podcasts of conversations with early childhood professionals.
http://www.worldforumfoundation.org/wf/radio.php

After failing to contact someone from the websites above I chose to this site to complete the assignment:

The Global Fund for Children: An organization which provides capital to communities worldwide to improve the lives of children.
http://www.globalfundforchildren.org/

The globalfundforchildren is an organization that provides capital to global communities to improve the lives of children. They now are encouraging change by helping young teen aged girls in Nigeria join an organization called KIND. This organizations mission is to strengthen organizations and create initiatives dedicate to the advancement of women and girls. This organization is calling for full participation in the political process and social development because of the violence and poverty. They are teaching them about transformational leadership and leadership qualities and that change begins with them. There is a need ot reach political leaders and policy makers and those who care. They are asking questions about such as who is a leader? They helping these girls build a positive self-concept of themselves by sending messages that say” You are more than you think you are,” (The Global Fund For Children, 2014).

Part 2: Expanding Resources

Early Childhood Australia: The Australian Early Childhood Advocacy Organization
http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/

In Australia, Early Childhood Australia (ECA). released a newsletter on May 5, 2014 entitled “Professional development fund a boost to early childhood sector” that informed the public that there was a $200 million professional development fund made available for approved long day care providers that will help improve the quality of teaching. Teaching provided in centers. The Long Day Care Professional Development Program (LDCPDP) spokesperson said that the program which will allocate services up to $10, 450 of funding per educator for professional development purposes. This will cover the cost of educator’s adequate training and development in rural remote areas, attract and retain teachers, help educators attend mid-week sessions to meet required staff to child ratios. Funds were pulled from the Early Years Quality Fund, which is set aside for raising wages of early childhood teachers (Early Childhood Australia [AUS], 2014).     

The ECA website provides links to many great informative sources that discuss the health, and well-being of children around the world.  (http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/).

Walden University M.S. in Early Childhood Studies

Criteria for Blog Assignments

Quality of Work Submitted	Satisfactory 4/4 points	3/4 points	2/4 points	1/4 points	Unsatisfactory 0/4 points
Adherence to Assignment Expectations The extent to which work meets the assigned criteria.	Assignment meets expectations and reflects graduate-level critical, analytical thinking. All key components are included: Initial post submitted with 2 comments to other students’ blogs.	Initial post submitted with 1 comment to other students’ blogs.	Initial post not submitted with 2 comments to other students’ blogs.  OR Initial post submitted with no comments to other students’ blogs.	Initial post not submitted with 1 comment to other students’ blogs.	Does not fulfill the expectations of the assignment. Key components are not included:  Initial post not submitted with no comments to other students’ blogs.

It is expected that all blog assignments will be submitted according to the assignment due dates indicated. As with discussions, it is important blog posts are completed within the week assigned so that others have a chance to both read and respond to your posts.  For that reason, late assignments may receive a maximum score of 2/4. Exceptions may be made at the discretion of the faculty member and in accordance with the Late Policy.

References

The Global Fund For Children [Video podcast]. (2014, December 4). [With Tiana]. Retrieved from https://www.globalfundforchildren.org/empowering-young-women-in-nigeria/