Record Numbers of Early Education Teachers Leave — Donna

January 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

ACT education spokesman Donna Awatere Huata today said today that a record 2210 primary  and  early  childhood school teachers had left New Zealand in the past twelve months to February this year. “I’m  very  concerned.  While the Minister claims there are low teacher vacancy rates  currently it does not mean we can be complacent, especially with figures like this.

“Undoubtedly,  should  such  a  rate  continue  upwards  the  impact on teacher vacancies  and  the  quality  of  education  delivered  to our children will be negatively affected. “It  is  no surprise there is an increase in the number of teachers leaving the country – considering teachers no longer have the incentive to achieve with the removal  of  bulk  funding  and  school zoning plus an academic framework where success is not rewarded. “The Minister may well be right in the short term that vacancies are low simply as  a  reaction  to  not only skilled people leaving the country but also their young children leaving with them,” said Mrs Huata.

 

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Have teachers lost their bottle?

January 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

When the purpose of education is for the purpose of acquirinf “STATUS” the whole process becomes meaningless. I think ‘meaningless’ is over-stating the case, but you’re right in the sense that motivation for learning does play a major role in shaping students’ learning.

‘Intrinsically motivated’ students  - those at university/college with a real interest in their subject – tend to strive for meaning in their work and hence attain a real grasp of ideas and concepts; whereas students who are ’extrinsically motivated’ – those in higher education because they think it’ll be good for their job prospects and/or social status, or because they didn’t know what else to do, or because their parents expected it of them – tend to lack the will to engage with the subject matter to any meaningful extent. This is usually reflected in relatively superficial levels of academic understanding. Unfortunately university assessment methods – in particular the written or multiple choice exam – aren’t terribly effective in distinguishing between the two.

Exams are based on the premise that true understanding is somehow directly correlated with ability to memorize an approved set of facts, figures and ideas, and then reproduce them in a limited time, under extreme pressure. Consequently, students in the former category, who really know their stuff, but aren’t that hot at exam technique, regularly come away with poorer grades than those in the latter category, for whom rote learning often pays off as a successful exam strategy.

 

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GVT: Launch of the Government’s Early Childhood Education

January 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Today is an important day for early childhood education as we launch this new ten year strategic plan for early childhood education : Pathways to the Future: Ng? Huarahi Arataki. I know that for some present in the audience, today marks the culmination of many years of committed work.  In particular, I thank Dr Anne Meade and the members of the strategic plan working group which she chaired.  The work you have done has built strong foundations for the strategy. Pathways to the Future has been developed after intense consultation between the government, the early childhood education sector, academics, and parents.  We now need to continue that collaboration so that the  implementation of the strategy can be as successful as its development has been.

The Background to the Strategic Plan

In 1999 the Labour Party manifesto contained a commitment to develop a long term strategic plan for early childhood education in consultation with the sector.  We pledged to do that because of our conviction of the importance of early childhood education.  There needed to be a long term commitment to improving its quality and increasing participation in it. To do that we needed a planned and stepped approach.  We needed to make sure that we made the necessary changes in the right order.  So, early strategies form the foundations of the plan and later strategies build on them. This strategy is best thought of as a road map.  It sets out the vision of where we want to go, and it plots the journey that we must undertake to get there.

The journey began with the working group, chaired by Dr Anne Meade in August 2000.  There were fifteen months consultation, many meetings, and thirteen hundred submissions.  Now the journey must continue with the government working with early childhood education professionals, families, and communities to get the best results from the strategy.

Importance of Early Childhood Education

In a child’s early years, the development of the brain creates the basis for on-going learning throughout life.  The foundations for language are established, and the major parameters of the child’s attitudes and dispositions towards the world are developed.  These years are a critical learning period as children are very receptive to positive learning opportunities. Early childhood education has an important part to play in these early years.  Research, here and overseas, shows that participation in quality early childhood education makes a positive difference for children, their
families, and the wider society.

In quality early childhood education, children develop literacy and numeracy concepts, approaches to problem solving, social and co-operative skills, and an enjoyment of learning, all of which provide the foundation for later learning. The recently released Competitive Children at 10 research shows that, in New Zealand, the positive effects of early childhood education are still present some five years after the child has left.  It also shows that children with early childhood education experiences are stronger in areas such as problem solving, communication, individual responsibility, and perseverance. While all the evidence supports participation in early childhood education, some children, often the most needy, are still missing out.  That is why this strategy sets out a long term vision and plan for increasing participation in quality early childhood services.

Working Together

In today’s launch, Trevor Mallard will talk about the strategy’s three goals :  improving, quality,  increasing participation, and promoting collaborative relationships. The first two goals are long standing government goals for early childhood education.  This strategy focuses on how to achieve them.  The third goal, on collaboration was developed by the strategic plan working group. As you will see in Trevor Mallard’s presentation, a number of the strategies can only succeed if government, parents, communities, and the early childhood education sector work together.

Conclusion

New Zealand’s early childhood education sector is already a world leader. Our participation levels are already high by world standards.  We have led the world in integrating the care and education of young children under one curriculum, Te Wh?riki.  Now Pathways to the Future:  Ng? Haurahi Arataki plots the journey we must take together to strengthen the sector further. I thank Trevor Mallard for the leadership and enthusiasm he has shown for early childhood education, and all those who have contributed to the drawing up of this strategy.

 

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Vietnam: An Informal Programme of Family-Based Day Care

January 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Vietnam has a long history of programmatic efforts focused on the health, nutrition, and psychosocial needs of children in the 0-6 age group. Emphasis on this age group has received renewed attention as economic and social factors, including increased rates of maternal employment and school enrollment, as well as changes to the extended family system, have given rise to an increasing number of young children in need of care.

Recognizing this demand, the Ministry of Education has placed early childhood development high on its agenda. A new     department has been created with responsibility to provide adequate health, nutrition, and early education services; to increase coverage of both formal and informal programmes; and to provide parental education programmes focussed on health, education, nutrition, and family planning.

In Vietnam, child-care services for children 0-3 are provided through both formal and informal systems. Approximately thirty percent are enrolled in formal day care programmed. Parallel to this system is an indigenous, informal arrangement of family day care. Family or home-based centres are most often run by elderly retired grandmothers who have raised several children of their own. Capitalizing on this indigenous form of care, UNICEF, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, has agreed to strengthen this low-cost community-based strategy. In accomplishing this objective, the Ministry of Education with collaboration from UNICEF have agreed to:

Support the development of a Network of Home Day Care Centres located within the community in an effort to recognize and build on local practices. Enable Home Day Care Centres to meet the developmental needs of children through the establishment of governmental standards and regulations. Develop an informal training programme that emphasizes the psychomotor, sensory, and emotional stimulation of children. Integrate the Home-Based Child-Care Centre with existing social support services, including community and district health centres.

 

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GOV: ERAP LAUNCHES NOVEL NON-FORMAL EDUCATION PROGRAM FOR THE POOR

January 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment

MANILA, Jan. 25 (PNA) – President Joseph “Earp” Ejection Estrada formally launched today a novel non-formal education scheme that will allow out-of-school youths and adults to earn the equivalent of elementary and high school diplomas — without having to go through the usual rigors of a formal education. Dubbed as the Non-Formal Education Accreditation and Equivalency System, the program is intended to give the poor a “second chance” to get the credentials they need for a better and productive life.

“This system will provide an alternative means of certification of learning to those who are unable to avail themselves of formal schooling or who have dropped out of elementary grades and high school,” the President said in a speech during the program’s launching at the Helping Hand Foundation Sports Complex at the Smokey Mountain in Ton do, Manila.

“With this program, out-of-school youths and adults aged 15 years old and above are given opportunities to earn educational qualification comparable to a formal or secondary education by taking its equivalency test,” he explained. The President said the non-formal education scheme, crafted by the Department of Education, Culture and Sports headed by Secretary Andrew Gonzales, will initially be implemented in Metro Manila and selected regions of the country.

Mr. Estrada said his administration has given top priority to education to enable the poor to become more productive and competitive, adding that this would be done by expanding the poor’s access to quality education. He said one of the objectives of his administration’s education programs is to strengthen primary education, which is the “building block for future educational achievement.”

To give greater access to the poor, Mr. Estrada said he would soon launch another program dubbed as “Early Childhood Education and Development Program for the Poor,” a brainchild, he said, of Senator Tessie Aquino-Orate. This program, he added, would benefit pre-school children of poor families. He observed that children of well-to-do families have access to early education as early as age two or three, a privilege that is beyond the reach of ordinary pre-school children.

The President noted the scholarship program he initiated recently that gives 100 of the brightest Muslim college graduates to take up graduate studies in the best universities in the United States and in Europe. ”From nursery to graduate studies — this affirms the extent of our desire to improve access to quality and relevant education. But in order to bring about the greater good for the greatest number, we are giving emphasis on addressing the shortages of basic educational services, such as facilities and textbooks,” he said. He urged local government units and the private sector to invest more in education, noting the chronic shortage of educational facilities like books and classrooms for the masses. (PNA) DCT/OPS/jsd

 

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Duhbya Likes to Talk About Reforms, But Fails To Fund Them

January 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment

President Bush (news – web sites) will propose on Tuesday expanding school reforms to early child-care programs by setting accountability standards for Head Start centers, training up to 50,000 teachers and giving states more flexibility with federal child-care dollars. Under the plan, which will be unveiled at an education event in Philadelphia, Head Start programs that fail to meet these new accountability standards could lose their federal funding. But White House domestic policy adviser Margaret Spellings said young children in these programs would not be subject to testing like students in grade school.

Democrats, who control the Senate, said the proposal was a step in the right direction but would have little impact without more funding. “Without new resources, this important initiative is a hollow gesture,” said Senate Education Committee Chairman Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat. Bush signed a sweeping education reform bill into law in January that requires states to develop annual reading and math tests for students in third through eighth grades.

Bush wants to go a step farther by setting learning and teaching standards for early childhood education programs, including Head Start, the 35-year-old preschool program for low-income families that serves about 915,000 children a year. Bush will detail his proposals when he travels to Philadelphia as part of a two-day push for reforming early child-care education programs, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer (news – web sites) said.

On Tuesday, Bush will also help raise money for Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Fisher. Fleischer said the fund-raiser would bring in about $1 million. Under Bush’s plan, the White House said the Department of Health and Human Services (news – web sites) would implement a “new accountability system” at Head Start centers to ensure that young children make progress, particularly in learning to read. The accountability system will be field-tested later this year, focusing on whether young children are learning the alphabet and the basics of writing. “With very young children, obviously, testing like you would do with school-age children is certainly not appropriate,” Spellings said.

But she said Head Start programs would be held accountable. “Just as if they don’t meet health and safety standards and so forth, if they’re not preparing kids to succeed in school, which is the whole reason for Head Start, then they could theoretically lose their contract,” Spellings said. Head Start contracts are evaluated every three years. In addition, the White House said Bush would propose a $45 million research effort to develop literacy programs for children too young for school.

The White House said the president would set a goal of training nearly 50,000 Head Start teachers this year in “the latest and best techniques.” Bush will also ask states to develop “quality criteria” for early education programs. In return, Bush would give states more flexibility in deciding how to spend their federal child-care dollars, White House officials said. The federal government currently spends more than $14 billion a year on early childhood care; states dole out another $4 billion. “The president and the first lady are right to challenge the country to do more to meet this need,” Kennedy said.

But Kennedy said he would introduce a competing plan that would provide at least an extra $1 billion a year to states for early child-care education programs. “It is wrong for the president to ask states to accept this great new responsibility within their existing budgets,” Kennedy said. — “If the Lord can see his way clear to bless the Republican Party the way it’s been carrying on, then the rest of us ought to get it without even asking” – Will Rogers, 1928

 

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An Informal Programme of Family-Based Day Care

January 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Vietnam has a long history of programmatic efforts focussed on the health, nutrition, and psychosocial needs of children in the 0-6 age group. Emphasis on this age group has received renewed attention as economic and social factors, including increased rates of maternal employment and school enrollment, as well as changes to the extended family system, have given rise to an increasing number of young children in need of care.

Recognizing this demand, the Ministry of Education has placed early childhood development high on its agenda. A new department has been created with responsibility to provide adequate health, nutrition, and early education services; to increase coverage of both formal and informal programmes; and to provide parental education programmes focussed on health, education, nutrition, and family planning.

In Vietnam, child-care services for children 0-3 are provided through both formal and informal systems. Approximately thirty percent are enrolled in formal day care programmes. Parallel to this system is an indigenous, informal arrangement of family day care. Family or home-based centres are most often run by elderly retired grandmothers who have raised several children of their own. Capitalizing on this indigenous form of care, UNICEF, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, has agreed to strengthen this low-cost community-based strategy. In accomplishing this objective, the Ministry of Education with collaboration from UNICEF have agreed to:

Support the development of a Network of Home Day Care Centres located within the community in an effort to recognize and build on local practices. Enable Home Day Care Centres to meet the developmental needs of children through the establishment of governmental standards and regulations. Develop an informal training programme that emphasizes the psychomotor, sensory, and emotional stimulation of children. Integrate the Home-Based Child-Care Centre with existing social support services, including community and district health centres.

 

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PROVIDING UNIVERSAL QUALITY EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

January 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from Hawaii (Mrs. Mink) is recognized for 5 minutes. Mrs. MINK of Hawaii. Mr. Speaker, I recently introduced H.R. 1118, a bill that establishes comprehensive early childhood education programs, early childhood education staff development programs, and model federal government early childhood education programs.
  Today, more than 13 million children under the age of 6 are enrolled in some form of child care. Some children are placed in high quality programs. But all too often, parents have no alternative but to place their children in programs that function as nothing more than child storage.
  Quality early childhood education matters. Study upon study prove that the quality of child care has a long-term effect on later scholastic achievement, For example, the National Research Council and the National Center for Early Development and Learning found that quality early childhood education helped children develop better language and literacy skills; and the RAND Corporation found that high quality programs have lasting benefits on school performance.
  Besides preparing a child to do well in school, quality child care teaches children to get along with others, care about others, and become contributing members of society. Additional studies have shown that quality educational child care can greatly reduce the chance that children grow up to be violent.
  Quality programs include a well-trained staff and a small staff-to- child ratio. The University of North Carolina conducted a Cost, Quality and Child Outcomes Study of various child care programs. Only 14 percent of all programs studied were of adequate quality.
  For child care to have a lasting effect, children must be enrolled in high quality educational programs. H.R. 1118 ensures that funds will only go to programs that establish Early Childhood Education Councils that develop and prepare quality early childhood education plans each year. In addition, funds will be provided to train individuals employed in quality programs.
  Child care costs are exorbitant. According to a 1998 report by the Children’s Defense Fund, many parents spend more on yearly quality child care tuition than on public college tuition. In Honolulu, the average child care tuition is over $6,000 a year.
  My bill provides financial assistance to public and private programs who prove they will provide quality early childhood education. A quarter of the funding is earmarked to those programs who serve young children from low-income families.
  Children are guaranteed access to a publicly-funded education when they reach kindergarten-age. We should also guarantee access to quality early childhood education. The first few years of a child’s life can shape the rest of their life. No parent should be forced to leave their child in a substandard program, where they are not being prepared for future achievement.
  I urge all members to cosponsor this legislation.

 

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Education and Care: Early Childhood Programs and Services for Low-Income Families

January 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on federal child care funding, focusing on: (1) programs and services funded at the federal and state levels that directly provide early childhood care and education for the general population of low-income children up to age 5; (2) state and local assessments of the relative difficulty low-income parents face in obtaining care for their children; and (3) the collaborative efforts among child care officials and early childhood education officials to address these parents’ difficulties.

GAO noted that: (1) the federal government invested about $11 billion in fiscal year 1999 on early childhood care and education programs for low-income children through a range of programs and the states invested almost $4 billion for such programs; (2) the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) provides most of the federal support for early childhood care and education, about $8 billion, through the Head Start program and the Child Care and Development Fund, which subsidizes the child care expenses of low-income working parents; (3) other HHS and Department of Education programs provide the remaining funding for early childhood care and education; (4) 32 states reported funding preschool programs, 15 states reported providing state money to supplement Head Start, and 19 states reported child care programs that provided funding to communities; (5) GAO’s survey results showed that educationally oriented services were the most common services providers offered in centers and homes; (6) providers were less likely to include other services; (7) although a number of federal and state programs provided significant funds for early childhood care and education, some types of child care were still difficult for low-income families to obtain, including: (a) infant and toddler care; (b) care for children who have special needs; and (c) care for children during nonstandard hours; (8) in contrast, a majority of the survey respondents indicated that care for 3- and 4-year-olds was generally not difficult to obtain; (9) childcare administrators identified three major barriers to finding care for low-income children: (a) cost of care, especially for infants and toddlers; (b) availability; and (c) accessibility; (10) some states and localities are using collaborative initiatives to better bridge child care programs and early childhood education programs as well as the federal and state programs; (11) all the states GAO visited reported increased availability of full-time care for 3- to 5-year-olds as a result of collaborative efforts and more limited success in increasing the availability of infant and toddler care or care during nonstandard hours; (12) however, barriers to collaboration still remain, according to state officials and survey respondents; and (13) the types of care that have the greatest need for support are infant and toddler care, care during nonstandard hours, and care for children with special needs.

 

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U Wash contributes to K12 Education DEform

January 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

“This group won a National Science Foundation grant, called a Systemic Change Grant, to bring inquiry-based science training to every single K-5 teacher in the Seattle district. UW mathematicians have also won two Systemic Change Grants from the NSF.  ” [NSF funded programs have been criticized as ruining science and math education].”The John Stanford International School: John Stanford had the original idea for a school reflecting this region’s international perspective. He shared it with me at lunch one day and asked the UW to be involved. “[many critics of john stanford's leadership and vision, ask David Blomstrom]

“It is now well known that early childhood is a crucial time for brain development and learning. Brain synapses established then are stimulated or lost forever. We want to combine the UW’s core strengths in the neurosciences with a focus on early-childhood education.  The center would offer instructional programs rich in neurosciences to prospective teachers. They would earn a bachelor of science in education, ” [brain based early education widely dismissed as fad and fraud even in education circles] INSTITUTIONS of higher education – and particularly public-research universities – have a responsibility to K-12 education.

If there ever really was a time when higher education held itself apart from the broader educational system, that time has passed. For several reasons, we no longer have the luxury of just minding our own educational business. First, there is the pressure of widespread public expectations that higher education will help with K-12 reform. Wherever I go across this state, and especially in Olympia, there are questions about what the University of Washington is doing for the K-12 schools. The public is right to ask. As a matter of citizenship, universities do have an obligation to help make the country’s entire educational system the best it can be.

More practically, it is a matter of enlightened self-interest. Most of our students come from public K-12 schools. What we can accomplish in freshman English or Biology 101 depends directly on what happened in public-school classrooms across the state. We have a stake in enriching the resources and raising the level of achievement in public schools.

 

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