Excellence and Equity in Michigan Preschools

Thankfully, I just got a response from an International Contact in the United Kingdom who has promised to be helpful in subsequent assignments.
But for the now, I am still working with Janella who has told me about preschools in Michigan. First, it gladdens my heart that efforts are being made in revitalising preschool program in Michigan through Michigan Sandbox Party and Great start Readiness. Michigan Sandbox party is a community-based organization of early childhood professionals who try their best in making sure that every child in Michigan gets quality education by soliciting for investors in early childhood.
On the other hand, Great Start Readiness is a competitive grant awarded by the state government to the Highscope research team. This is to assist poor and at-risk Michigan families in sending their children to school. And from research, it is observed children who attend Michigan Great Start Readiness Programs (MGSRP) do well  in subsequent classes. I appreciate so much the fact that MGSRP is ranked one of the best programs amongst states due to its curriculum and teachers qualification .

Ironically, the data shows that not every child in Michigan has the privilege of attending MGSRP maybe due to lack of enough fund, as the fund granted by the government is competitive. This buoys down to the fact that inequity (due to teachers' qualification, government policy, availability of funds, and community locale) in early childhood education is eminent in Michigan.

Obviously, issues of funding, lack of enough infrastructure are the order of the day in Michigan preschools. But it is encouraging that these issues are being tackled on a community basis.

I sincerely do hope inequity will be a thing of the past as soon as possible!

Retrieved from: http://michigan.gov/mde/0,4615,7-140-43092-20374--,00.html

                           http://www.michigansandboxparty.org/about-us/history-background

 

Sharing wWeb Resources

Just right on time, I received a newsletter from zero to three that discussed about a virtual rally organised focusing on babies and toddlers development. One major emphasis was that learning starts as early as at birth. Therefore, government and individuals should pump in more money into early childhood so as to achieve a quality program. The rally yielded a positive response as about 40,000 people showed interest in asking the government to invest in early childhood and be more concerned with every child's growth and development. Indeed, quality early childhood program has come to stay seeing people are showing so much interest and support. Even as I aim at becoming a policy maker in EC Field, I can see how influential this position could be and I hope to make policies that would be beneficial to every child and family.

I join ZeroToThree in celebrating the military month (November) and pray God to uphold and protect military families.

It is very sympathetic that only 4% of  eligible children attend head start (zeroto three). This makes it clear that only the government might not be able to achieve a quality early childhood program that will serve all children. Hence, I think policy makers should make policies that will include privately owned children centres insisting on quality standards, While the government makes plans to build more centres.

Brain development is a research project of neuroscientists. On almost every page of the zerotothree has it that the first three years of human is the fastest growing stage where the brain develop so quickly. Emphasis are made on types of toys to buy; building on emotional development; improving on play and creating more positive experiences from birth to age 3 in order to build healthy and creative brains.

From the issue of funds, I can see that parents are identifying with this issue which might give it a  quick attention and consideration. As a result, quality early childhood will sweep around the whole nation with every child benefiting.



Resource
www.ZEROTOTHREE.com

Poverty in China

I am yet to receive any confirmation mails from my international contacts. But I hope to exchange information with Janella, a classmate as we continue with this course. She lives at Michigan and works in Early Head Start.

A study on poverty in China(the most populous Nation in the world) reveals that even the poor are interested in giving education to their children even if not the best standard.This could also account for the reason why poverty is reducing in recent times. Rural poverty decreased from about 30.7% to about 3.7% and just about 4 - 8% live in poverty in Urban areas in 2001; and in general, 5% of the whole population live below the poverty line. Like in most countries, the major reason for poverty in China is unemployment.

 

An information I find consoling and encouraging is that urban poverty rate in China is reducing due to the introduction of the economic reforms over the last two decades.

 Also they acknowledge the fact that investing in early childhood education is a way of reducing poverty.

 Interestingly, the government allocates a piece of land to every rural family, relief some families of paying agricultural taxes when farm produce is poor and then provide food, clothing and shelter for the very poor families. But the government needs to consider children from the rural areas in terms of education as poor children in rural areas account for the majority part of poor children as a whole in China. Unfortunately, poor children in rural areas are prevented from going to school due to some extra cost fees placed on education, hence in order to cope about 70% of them cut down on their food intake, borrow from friends and relatives, rather than wait solely on the government.

It is obvious to me now that poverty is a global issue. Though it is conspicuous in most African and Asian countries, I am beginning to see that poverty exists in every community and the role of the government is crucial in eradicating poverty.

References
http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/index.php?action=country
http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/index.php/action=documentfeed/doctype=pdf/id=83/

Sharing web resources

Zero To Three (www.zerotothree.org) as a non-profit organisation deals with issues about infants/toddlers, parents and families, EC professionals and policy makers. They recognise the fact that the first three years of one's life has so much effects on the later years, hence Zero To Three help parents and EC professionals in bringing about children's development at this early stage.

 One of the news letters I read this week talked about how states can be involved in infants/toddlers education. Achieving and sustaining a quality program has been emphasized in our program, hence I thought it useful to use this check list in observing what states are doing for children in the US and to get ideas that I could use in my country in order to help raise the standard of infant/toddler care. Knowing states have a major role to play in achieving quality in early childhood field, EC professionals must maintain a flow of communication with the government to ensure issues are well handled.

This week I decided to work on traumatised (or war affected) children in our application. It aroused my interest when I saw an article on Zero to Three stating what some states are presently doing with regards to this issue. Though not necessarily children that were involved in war per se, but children who have been maltreated one way or the other are being catered for by some states. It gladdens my heart that some states train EC professionals for this task. Knowing that traumas cause developmental set backs for children, then it is worth tackling.




References
ZERO TO THREE (2013). Ensuring assessment services for all maltreated for all infants and toddlers. Retrieved from http://www.zerotothree.org/policy/docs/ensuring-assessments-and-services.pdf



ZERO TO THREE (2009). Infants and toddlers in the policy picture. Retrieved from  http://www.zerotothree.org/public-policy/building-early-childhood-systems/checklistsinglesmar5.pdf

Establishing Professional Contacts

I tried making contacts with early childhood professionals in Nigeria, Ghana, The Netherlands, India and Canada by sending mails to the listed contacts in the resources. Unfortunately, I got mailer-daemon responses  from Canada, Ghana and The Netherlands. I am yet to receive responses from Nigeria and India contacts. I sincerely do hope that I get positive responses because I have been longing to have mentors in this field.

I have always received newsletters from ZEROTOTHREE but this time I registered with my Walden email address and hope to establish a formal contact with them. I subscribed also for newsletters from  National Institute for Early Education Research NIEER and sent a mail (asking for a professional contact) to National Black Child Development Institute.

In future, I will prefer exploring the NIEER website because I enjoy reading about research works and they've got some interesting topics on early childhood.