Week 3, Assignment 2

This week we had to find a book that provided us with information on our topic. I was able to obtain my information by going to https://1.chapman.edu/libray/

It took me some time to find a book that provided information relevant to my topic. I clicked on “Advanced Search” and typed “pre-k” and had many results. I did many other searches, finally I typed in “benefits of Pre-K”. With this search I was able to find the book: Investigating in Kids: Early Childhood Programs and Local Economic Development. Bartik explains in his book the benefits of high quality pre-k programs result in reduction in crime, when they get older. The author’s conclusion is that high quality early childhood programs can provide a state’s residents with substantial economic benefits. If we provide children with high quality Early Childhood Education they will benefit in area of cognitive, language, and motor skills. Children that attended Pre- kindergarten enter Kindergarten with some familiarity with print, letter sound and recognition, and have some developed writing skills. Overall, Pre-Kinder Education is crucial in order for children to succeed.

Week 8, Assignment 2

Writing the literature review taught me that it is very important to do proper research. In the future I will do more research on the topic, and to follow CRAP. The writing process should not be difficult if you have the proper research, if you have done your research following instructions and following CRAP acronym.  While researching this topic, I was able to gain further knowledge of the Early Childhood Education Programs. Not only did I learn about the programs in my state, I also gained knowledge of other programs in other states. The question I feel, I did not answer was how much money the Los Angeles Unified School District was going to save by elimination the SRLDP.  I tried to find the answer; I could not find a figure. I learned a lot about the different forms to gather research information.

Week 7, Assignment 2

This week I did further research on Early Childhood Education and its benefits. I included two websites and one peer reviewed article from the Early Childhood Research and Practice Journal. The Pre-Kindergarten program at the school I work at was cut last week. It was replaced with a new ETK program; the websites I listed is from the state of California explaining the new TK program.  The search path I took to locate them was to go to http://www.google.ca/advanced_search, and type in Transitional Kindergarten.  This is where found the two websites explaining the programs, and answering all questions. The article I listed I found in oajse.com, I clicked on “Education”, and went to #46 Early Childhood Research and Practice. I believe the two websites are credible because they are part of the California government, and the Early Childhood Research and Practice Journal is a peer reviewed journal.  These websites and article address the importance of Early Childhood Education. There is a question that remains unanswered; I would like to know how much the School District is saving on cutting these programs.

Research question:

Does cutting Early Childhood Education help the district’s budget, or does it setup our children for failure?

 

Ansari, Arya; Winsler, Adam. Journal of Educational Psychology. Nov2014, Vol. 106 Issue 4, p1066-1079 Montessori Public School Pre-K Programs and the School Readiness of Low-Income Black and Latino Children.  Retrieved from: https://eds-a-ebscohost-com.libproxy.chapman.edu/ehost/command/detail?vid=10&sid=9a616a57-518a-4f22-93a2-0c0c951eb10f%40sessionmgr4004&hid=4105&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPWlwLHVpZCxjb29raWUsdXJsJnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=99764866&db=aph

The Journal of Educational Psychology states the importance of a good quality Pre-K program for young children. The study conducted on Low-Income Black and Latino children proved that all children made gains in areas of cognitive, language, and motor skills when attending public school pre-K programs, regardless of curriculum. The study found that Latino children excelled in Montessori program, these children entered the program at risk of school failure. The study also found that Black children did not benefit from the Montessori program. The Montessori philosophy might not benefit all low-income children equally.

 

 

 

 

Bartik, Timothy, J. (2011) Investigating in Kids: Early Childhood Programs and Local Economic

Development. Retrieved from https://eds-a-ebscohost-

com.libproxy.chapman.edu/ehost/ebookviewer/ebook/bmxlYmtfXzQxMzIyNV9fQU41?sid=59df

4b8e-8b4f-47d2-a3db-04f2afd6ecb8@sessionmgr4005&vid=0&format=EB&lpid=lp_391&rid=0

 

The book Investigating in Kids: Early Childhood Programs and Local Economic Development touches the subject of the importance of early childhood education.  Timothy Bartik explains in his book the benefits of high quality pre-k programs result in reduction in crime, when they get older. I am interested to learn more on how Federal-and state-subsidized child care serves more than 2 million children per year.  If we provide our young children with tools to overcome learning obstacles, we will prepare them with self confidence that they will use for a lifetime. There was a study done in Chicago, the Chicago Child-Parent Center Program did a study that proved as of ages 20 and 21 the CPC program reduced the percentage of high school dropouts by 11 percent. The author’s conclusion is that high quality early childhood programs can provide a state’s residents with substantial economic benefits.

 

Hatcher, Beth; Nuner, Joyce; Paulsel, Jean. Early Childhood Research and Practice Journal Fall 2012 Volume 14 Number 2. Kindergarten Readiness and Preschools: Teachers’ and Parents’ Beliefs and Across Programs. Retrieved from http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v14n2/hatcher.html

This article states that chronological age, developmental stage, specific academic and social skills, and home/school connections are associated with readiness. Readiness programs have changed from play based to academic module. This new approach increases readiness of children for kindergarten in social/emotional and academic aspects. Children will enter kindergarten having some familiarity with print, letter and sound recognition, and beginning writing skills. It is important for children to learn certain behaviors in pre-kindergarten such as following rules and routines, taking turns, and communicating personal needs and feelings.

 

Lloyd,David; Joseph, Larry. Early Childhood Research and Practice Journal. Fall 2013 Volume 15 Number2

Retrieved from: http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v15n2/lloyd.html

 

The Early Childhood Prevention Initiative Program was established in 1989, this program was created in order to provide at-risk children access to a preschool education. This program also provides family support services for at-risk children less than 3 years of age and their families. This kind of support is needed not only in Illinois, but all over the country. In 1989 when the ECBG (Early Childhood Block Grant) first started 8% was used to serve children under the age of 3. Legislation enacted (Public Act 96-0423) requires raising the set-aside by at least 20% by 2015. This article helps me better understand that not only are the Early Childhood Programs in my city in danger, but that there are similar issues all over the country.

 

 

Schilder, Diane; Smith Leavell, Ashley. Early Childhood Education Journal. 03 May 2014.

Head Start/ Child Care Partnerships: Program Characteristics and Classroom Quality

Retrieved from: http://link.springer.com.libproxy.chapman.edu/article/10.1007/s10643-014-0640-y/fulltext.html

 

The school where I am currently employed at is in danger of losing its 4 SRLDP classrooms.  If the program is cut, approximately 100 children in our school will be left without a pre-kindergarten education. This article states that educational standards for Head Start Programs are higher than those for childcare providers. Children attending Head Start are more likely than their peers to receive comprehensive services such as health and mental health services and engage in enriching educational experiences. If we invest more money in high quality early childhood programs there will be a long term cost savings. It will reduce the cost of grade retention and special education placements. This study also found changes in the staff, such as language and literacy activities, which are more difficult to change than aspects of the physical environment, such as space and furnishings.

http://www.tkcalifornia.org/about-tk/about-tk.html

As of last week, the school I currently work at no longer has the SRLDP (School Readiness Language Development Program). The Los Angeles Unified School District eliminated 4 classrooms that offer this program, leaving approximately 100 children from our school without a pre-kindergarten education. The Spanish Readiness Language Development Program was replaced by a new program ETK (Early Transitional Kindergarten. Instead of having 4 classrooms, we only have 1 classroom with 24 students. The program is full to capacity, with a waiting list of over 30 children.

http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/gs/em/kinderfaq.asp

This website provides all the questions regarding transitional kindergarten, from age of the child to teaching credentials. None of the Los Angeles Unified School District has the ETK information posted. This is a new program that took over the pre-kindergarten program last week; the Los Angeles Unified School District has not yet updated their website. Many parents are outraged with the new change in our pre-kindergarten; I have been dealing with these parents since last week.

 

Week 6, Assignment 2

Plagiarism is a very important subject; it has been embedded in our brains since elementary school. I remember writing my first research paper in 5^th grade, and my teacher reminding us every day about plagiarism and its consequences. This week I learned about the shared culture and Creative Commons, it is a license that covers anything that copyright covers. Creative Commons is nonprofit that allows the use of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools. You can use all material such as photos, songs, and blog-post as long as you give credit to the person that came up with the idea.  Another topic of this week was how to cite words and how to cite ideas. When you cite words, you quote and cite. When you cite ideas, you cite the source and give them credit for their ideas.  We also learned about the upload of YouTube videos, and how they are scanned in order to make sure there are no copyright violations. If you attempt to upload a song onto YouTube that has copyright, YouTube detects the copy and immediately informs the studio that owns the song. The studio then makes the choice of what to do next. All videos uploaded to YouTube get scanned, this means over 20 hours of video per minute. The copyright owner/owners set the rules on what to do with their song or video, if there is a copyright violation.

Week 5, Assignmen 2

One of the new arguments I have been introduced to is that educational standards for Head Start teachers are higher than they are for child care provider. The Los Angeles Unified School District is trying to hire new teachers for the Pre-K program in our school. They want to hire teachers that have an Associates Degree and a Child Development Certificate; pre-k teachers will no longer need a Bachelors Degree. Qualitative case studies have found that child care providers in partnership with Head Start view the partnership as beneficial because development opportunities are offered to teachers. Teachers are able to continue their studies and take courses in order to better understand the child. I am not reconsidering the research question I chose. This topic is dear to my heart, if the SRLDP (School Readiness Language Development Program) closes at our school; it will leave 100 children without a pre-kindergarten education. I graduated in 2004 with my Associates Degree, I returned to school last fall, this class has helped me further develop my research skills. Lots has changed with how we find research, we no longer have to go to the library and spend hours finding information.

Week 4 Assignment 2

This week I gained more knowledge of the benefits of early childhood education, the article that I researched touched the topic of Lower-Income Latino and Black Children. Early Childhood education is dear to my heart, I work at an elementary school in danger of loosing its Pre-K program. I learned that both Black and Latino children improved their cognitive, language, and motor skills while attending public school pre-k programs. This advance occurred regardless of the curriculum, both minorities improved. The search strategies that I found helpful was to "connect" under Academic Search Premier, I searched "benefits of Pre-K" and it provide me with Montessori Public School Pre-K Programs and the School Readiness of Low-Income Black and Latino Children. It was frustrating, the first time I did the search I had over 500 articles. The second time I tried I only had 2 articles.

Week 2, Assignment 2: Blog Post

This week I learned how to better use the World Wide Web to find information. I researching and writing about the School Readiness Language Development Program (SRLDP). This program first began in the '70s, as an outgrowth of the Civil Rights movement. This program is in danger of closing, Superintendent Ramon Cortines of LAUSD met with Governor Jerry Brown to discuss the SRLDP. There is still no news on the program and its future. If this program closes over 13,000 children will be without a Pre School education.

The research strategies that I used to get my information were to through EBSCO. I learned that I have to take better notes; I forgot how I obtained certain information. I want to further research the negative effects that cutting the SRLD Program would have on the low income communities and its children. I also want to research where the funds would go if this program gets cut.