Final Blog Assignment

Over the past 8 weeks I have learned the following in regards to international early childhood.  No matter where you come from we all are experience the same issues.  Poverty is an issue that we all face whenever we work with children and families.  By having the connections and resources in the international aspect I am able to better understand diversity and being able to communicate with others.

One of my goals is to continue to learn more about the early childhood field internationally so that I can open my mind and communicate about diveristy and equality in the field. 

International Contacts - Part 3

Since I have not heard from my international contacts I have been doing the alternative assignment.  I visited the following website http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/. 

This website contains information in the early childhood field.  I took away these three important facts.

1. The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization holds world conferences.  There next conference will the be the World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development. It will be held in November 2014 in Japan.  It would be interesting to attend a conference where educators and policy makers from all over the world gather to meet. 
2. They have case studies on many different countries that include Brazil, New Zealand, Slovenia, Sweden and Jamaica  (published in 2010).  It is always good to read about what is going on in different countries in the field of early childhood education. 
3. There are many policy briefs inregards to many different topics.  One of the concerns I had is that many of the briefs were from 2004 or older.  It makes me wonder what their focus is now to their organization. 

Sharing Web Resources

From the PreKNOW website I was taken to the website www.ffyf.org.  This website is the First Five Years Fund.  It is a website that I have never been to before so I was kind of excited to explore.  The article that I looked at was about a letter of support from 500+ state legislatures urging the congressional budget committee to invest in early learning.  This article was mention in the article from the PreKNOW website. 

Becuase I was not familiar with them I decided to look at their mission statement about who they are:

Our mission is to create a smarter, stronger, healthier, and more productive America through early childhood education for disadvantaged children. Study after study by developmental specialists, neuroscientists, physicians, economists, and social scientists show that early childhood education is one of the most effective investments Americans can make in their children and their economic future.
The First Five Years Fund is committed to moving this knowledge into wide scale practice through comprehensive, quality early childhood education systems, programs, and supports. Through knowledge, data, advocacy, and collaboration, we help elected officials, business leaders, and philanthropists see early childhood education as a solution for dramatically improving education, health, social, and economic outcomes—in the short- and long-term. We help them understand how to craft policies, leverage existing funding, add new revenue, develop programs, and incentivize the most efficient and effective ways to invest in the development of America’s greatest resource—its children.

International Contacts Part 2

I reviewed the website http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/activities/global_initiative/,

Havard has many different activities going on in regards to the developing child.  They have a National Scientific Council on the Developing Child and a National Forum on early Childhood Policy and Programs that caught my attention when browsing through the website.  Both of them out publications that can reviewed. 

I also liked the information on Toxic Stress.  This is helpful to use both in the classroom and in the home.  The information should be shared with families especially first time parents that may not have the knowledge or experience with young children. 

THe Ecology of Innovation was also a new way for me to look at the Early Childhood field.  It is a good visual for understanding the policy and practice of the ECE field. 

Sharing Web Resources

Information from www.pewstates.org

I found a research paper Early Childhood Home Visiting.  This was is something I am going to need to use as our program continues to have funds cut and costs increase we are going to need to be able to look at different options while still providing some type of early childhood services in our rural communities.  Home Visiting is an option that we have looked into and may possibly be moving to during the next school year. 

http://www.pewstates.org/research/reports/solving-social-ills-through-early-childhood-home-visiting-85899444614

This website has a ton of information that would help anyone wanting to write grants.  I like how you can click on a state and you can find relavant articles and information on specific states.  As I continue to explore this website I feel that it has changed over the years from when it use to be PreKNOW. 

I feel that this website no longer focuses on the early childhood field.  They have information on ECE but there focus is not on ECE.  Home Visiting is one of there current campaigns.  One of the issues though is that not all families are able to participate in a home visiting program.  I have signed up for their newsletters and have not received any newsletters from there and I cannot find an archive of their newsletters. 

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 1

I was not able to get a response back from my international contacts this week so I reviewed the Childhood Poverty Research Policy Centre (http://www.childhoodpoverty.org). 

One interesting thing I found in going through the website is that they only have information or a focus on China, India, Kurgyzstan and Mongolia.  I wonder they these four countries and how they were choosen. 

This thought really made me think about what we are doing here in the United States:  Achieving positive policy change for poor children therefore means action at local, national and international levels.  What are we doing here in the United States to change?

This stat stood out for me:  121 million school aged children in developing countries do not not attend school at all while one third do not complete four years of primary education, the minimum needed for basic numeracy and literacy.  WOW!  How can we go about change? What does this look like in your state? 

Sharing Web Resources

PreK Now or otherwise known as Pew Charitable Trusts is the organization I will be focusing on.  Their website is http://www.pewstates.org/. 

There mission statement is:

The Pew Charitable Trusts is driven by the power of knowledge to solve today’s most challenging problems. Pew applies a rigorous, analytical approach to improve public policy, inform the public and stimulate civic life.
We are an independent nonprofit organization – the sole beneficiary of seven individual trusts established between 1948 and 1979 by two sons and two daughters of Sun Oil Company founder Joseph N. Pew and his wife, Mary Anderson Pew. From its first day in 1948, Pew’s founders steeped the new institution with the entrepreneurial and optimistic spirit that characterized their lives. Early priorities included health care and biomedical research, the Red Cross and a pioneering project to assist historically black colleges.
As the country and the world have evolved, we have remained dedicated to our founders’ emphasis on innovation. Today, Pew is a global research and public policy organization, still operated as an independent, non-partisan, non-governmental organization dedicated to serving the public. Informed by the founders’ interest in research, practical knowledge and a robust democracy, our portfolio has grown over time to include public opinion research as well as environmental, health, state and consumer policy initiatives.
Our projects lay the foundation for effective policy solutions by informing and engaging citizens, linking diverse interests to pursue common cause and insisting on tangible results. As part of that mission, we provide nonpartisan reporting and research, advocacy, and technical assistance to help states deliver better results and achieve long-term fiscal health by investing in programs that provide the strongest returns.
We bring policy makers and experts together to develop solutions that are driven by facts, and conduct reporting and in-depth research across the 50 states and the District of Columbia, using evidence to determine which policies work and which do not. When the facts are clear, we and our partners advocate for practical reforms in areas such as elections, corrections, children’s dental health, and voluntary home-based programs for new and expectant families. We also conduct research and advocate for policy solutions at the local and national level, including ways to provide consumers with better information about financial products.

What I find interesting is that PreKNOW has changed it's focus over the years.  It finished it's ten year project in 2011 (everything is now archived).   The Pew Organzation still has a lot of research on how different things can impact the families we serve.