News Briefs (October 2006)

About Preschool and Childcare:

Structuring the System that Will Change Early Childhood Education
More than twenty states are adding over one billion education tax dollars to their budgets towards a Universal Pre-K System this year. This system will ensure that quality community centers stay open, that poor children get a better start, and that parents play a bigger role in the education of their children.

To read Pre-K: Shaping the System That Shapes Children, from the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, click here.

Prekindergarten May Be Key to Narrowing the Achievement Gap
In a recent article in the Harvard Education Letter, Michael Sadowski describes how pre-kindergarten, not just preschool, may be the key to narrowing the achievement gap for economically disadvantaged students. Sadowski encourages attention to the individual child in the classroom, rather than attention to generalizations about students from different backgrounds.

To read this article, click here.

Report Highlights Strategies for Narrowing the Achievement Gap
A new report from the National Center for Children in Poverty discusses strategies for helping close the achievement gap that keeps children who live below the poverty line below the developmental norm for their age. Strategies include providing teachers with hands-on support to promote early literacy and math in the classroom, using a research-based curriculum, and developing new ways to measure teacher effectiveness.

For more information, and to download a full report in PDF format, click here.

Computer and Internet Use of Students Pre-K-12
A new report from the Institute of Education Sciences indicates that most students start using computers and the internet early on, with about two-thirds of children in nursery school and eighty percent of kindergarteners using computers. Use of both technologies, however, is divided among demographic and socioeconomic lines, and many disadvantaged children use computers and the internet only at school.

To download Computer and Internet Use by Students in 2003, click here.

Literacy News:

Early Identification of Reading Problems
Get Ready to Read! is one of several early reading screening tools featured in an article in the New York Times. The article discusses how children at high risk for severe reading problems can be identified in preschool and helped before they ever begin to read.

For more information, click here.

Definite Link Between Social and Academic Development Found
A new article from The Journal of Child Development identifies a definite link between social and academic development, and explains how both aspects of development must be nurtured during the early education process in order for students to be successful later on in school and in life.

To read Contemporaneous and Longitudinal Associations Between Social Behavior and Literacy Achievement in a Sample of Low-Income Elementary School Children, click here.

PBS Show Launches Episode on Learning Disabilities
Last month, PBS stations in Washington, D.C. and New York City premiered the latest episode of Reading Rockets: Launching Young Readers, entitled Reading and the Brain. The episode, hosted by Henry Winkler, explored new research that linked early brain development and reading -- and the critical importance of good teaching, especially during the preschool and early school years.

To watch the episode online, click here.

To find a broadcast schedule near you, click here.

Tennessee Parents and Volunteers Join Together to Foster Literacy
In early September, volunteers from across the country read to more than 23,000 students aged pre-K-6 Murfreesboro, Tennessee at their third annual program to foster literacy in Rutherford County.

For a full article, click here.

Conferences:

Conference on Young Children with Special Needs and Their Families: Advancing Knowledge, Expanding Opportunities
From October 19-22, in Little Rock, Arkansas, the Division of Early Childhood of the Council of Exceptional Children will host a conference on the issues faced by those who work with young children with special needs. 

To read more about this conference, click here.

For more information about this conference, click here.

NAEYC Annual Conference and Expo 2006
From November 8-11 in Atlanta, Georgia, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) will host a conference focusing on the practical experience and applied research that work to achieve healthy development and education for young children.

To read more about this conference, click here.

CEIEC Annual International Early Childhood Conference: Honoring the Child, Honoring Equity
The Centre for Equity and Innovation in Early Childhood (CEIEC) is hosting a conference with the theme of  "Cultures, Challenges and Change in Troubling Times," on November 16-18 in Melbourne, Australia. The conference will focus on equity and social justice issues in the early childhood field.

For more on this conference, click here.

Early Childhood: Evidence into Practice, "Rethinking Current Interventions and Strategies"
From November 23-24, in Melbourne, Australia, the Queen Elizabeth Center will host Early Childhood: Evidence into Practice, a conference that will discuss new understandings, interventions, and strategies in early childhood education and parenting.

For more on the conference, click here.