Week 4 - National Institute of Early Childhood Research 

NIEER.org is an amazing resource.  It is filled with all pertanent information pertaining to early childhood development.    It went into to great detail about the research presented at the 2012 national seminar.  At the 2012 national seminar of the Education Writers Association (EWA), NIEER Assistant Research Professor Milagros Nores joined a panel on early learning research, which also included Steven Hicks from the U.S. Department of Education, Lindsey Allard Agnamba of School Readiness Consulting, and Thoughts on Public Education co-writer Kathryn Baron as moderator. Dr. Nores spoke on the benefits of investing in prekindergarten programs and the current state of preschool education in the U.S.  Economically speaking effective early childhood programs are fiscally advisable.   Part of this study focused in on the preparation of teachers.  Many teachers are not properly prepared and in some cases not state certified to teach preschool.  Last week I attended a professional development at the early childhood center at Philadelphia School district that focused on the characteristics of an effective pre school teacher.   The PD was based on the results of years of research.

In the economy section of the newsletter they spoke of the history behind NJ's effective early childhood programs.  I live very close to New Jersey and honestly had no idea what they had implemented.  In 1998, the New Jersey Supreme Court took a then-unprecedented step. It ordered the state to provide high-quality pre-Kindergarten programs to all 3- and 4-year-old children in 31of the state’s highest poverty districts, also known as Abbott districts after the long-running Abbott v. Burke school finance case. Universal pre-K is only one of numerous mandates the court placed on the state and the Abbott districts in its 1998 ruling, but that requirement has had a far-reaching effect on the state’s early education system.  Today, New Jersey has built a robust, diverse provider system to deliver high-quality universal pre-K in the Abbott districts, has taken steps to expand pre-K services for at-risk children in the state’s other 560 districts, and has done more than perhaps any other state in the country to link these early learning investments with early literacy reforms in the K-12 system, creating a seamless, high-quality PreK-3^rd early learning experience for the state’s most disadvantaged youngsters.  This is clear evidence just how important it is to develop a plan that is universally effective for all.