Education As an Investment

Education As an Investment

 This week I chose to review the website and newsletter of the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER).  There are many articles of interests to me this week as we are discussing early childhood education being referred to as an “investment opportunity”.  Some of the headlines displayed on the home page are “Head Start parents urge lawmakers to preserve funding”, “Editorial: Smarter—Boosters need plan to save preschool programs” and “Editorial: Early childhood education gets boost form business leaders”.   The overall message is clear, early education programs are in danger of more budget cuts, just as business leaders and politicians are receiving information that investing in early childhood education would show major payoffs in years to come. 

     “Head Start parents urge lawmakers to preserve funding” an editorial in the “Billings Gazette” shares with reader s the fear of budget cuts to the Head Start program nationwide.  According to the article the 2011 Appropriations Bill that has passed the House and is awaiting approval from the Senate recommends cuts to the program that would close 16,000 Head Start classrooms, and would affect 218,000 low-income children. (Kemmick, 2011)  Ron Haskins, co-director of the Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution stated that the Department of Health and Human Services completed a study last year of the Head Start program and concluded that a large number of the programs were so ineffective that “they do little or nothing to boost child development and learning”.(Kemmick, 2011)  According to Haskins, President Obama has ordered a review of all Head Start programs over the next three years, those under performing programs would have to compete for funding with other early childhood programs.

     This article is in direct conflict with what we have been reviewing in class this week.  Research shows that quality early childhood programs are improving the success rates of children in school.  Although there are budget cuts to programs instead of the funding being invested into the early childhood programs, I can appreciate that the government is researching which programs are effective prior to enforcing the budget cuts.  I believe that programs that are not being providing children with quality programs to benefit their development should have their funding cut, or have to compete for the funding.  Of course, I would be interested in how the researchers are determining the “success” of the programs. 

In the article “Early childhood education gets boost from the business leaders”, business leaders in Oklahoma have created a coalition to promote initiatives in early childhood programs.  Blake Wade, the president of the coalition Oklahoma Business Roundtable, stated that “by focusing more dollars in the early years, we stand to save millions in future tax dollars”. (World’s Editorial Writers, 2011)  The business leaders agree that from an economic standpoint, early childhood education is not an instant payback.  Wade states however that, “there is a huge undeniable reward; Oklahoma needs a highly skilled workforce, and that will only happen if children are prepared to learn.”

     This article supports our lesson this week.  Business leaders are becoming active in the education system because they are aware that the workforce has become less adequate over the years.  It is in their best interest to become active in education to help educators reform the system.  This discussion has led me to believe that the “all children need to feel successful” attitude that educators are forced to cater to the children today, is only hurting the students when they arrive in the workforce.  This is going to be an interesting issue to see resolved.  I feel “old school” education will be revived to undo the damage that “learning has to be fun” teaching we are seeing today.

The National  Institute For Early Education Research. 

http://nieer.org/

Kemmick, Ed.  Head Start Parents Urge Lawmakers to Preserve Funding. The Billings Gazette| March 25, 2011. Retrieved March 26, 2011.

http://billingsgazette.com/news/local/article_39630055-2795-508c-a25f-3ffd4f9974f8.html

World’s Editorial Writers. Early childhood education gets boost from business leaders. http://www.tulsaworld.com/opinion/article.aspx?subjectid=61&articleid=20110323_61_A14_Onethi547468

Poverty and Early Childhood Education Around the World

The World Bank: Poverty in Latin America & the Carribbean:  Opportunities for the Children of Colombia

     I visited the website of the Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre’s page and learned about the opportunities for the children in impoverished areas of Colombia.  The three areas of the article that most interested me were; which circumstances allowed the children to access opportunities, access to goods and services for children, and the Urban-Rural Gap.

     In the article, “Measuring Inequality in Opportunity in Latin America and the Caribbean”, Barros shares that there are five opportunities for children to access key services and goods between 1997 and 2003.  Two of the services were directly related to education, while the other 3 were connected to housing.   The Colombian Human Opportunity Index measures the availability of services that are necessary for children to progress in life, such as having running water.  The Index takes into consideration both the unfair distribution of services and the fact that in the last two decades income inequality has remained the same.

Access to Opportunities

     There were several factors that demonstrated that some growth had been made during the years 1997-2003 toward the access of opportunities that children in Colombia have experienced.  Colombia experienced an increased regional access of opportunities by approximately 9%.  This was attributed to the conclusion of 5^th grade on time, primary education, and school attendance for 9-15 year olds, access to clean water, sanitation and electricity between the ages of 0-17.  The HOI assessed that there had been a 17% increase based on the conclusion of 9^th and 11^th grade on time, school attendance to preschool, children 0-5 in un-crowded dwellings, children 0-5 with health insurance, safe environments 0-17 and access to telephones for ages 0-17.  The HOI concluded that there was more growth in the access to opportunities for children in the first three stages of life which could be attributed to the vulnerability of children during infancy.  The growth demonstrated translates from a 26 to a 56 percentage point.  Therefore the adverse circumstances that children face have been decreased by opening the doors of opportunity just slightly.  

     Despite HOI’s advances, the 2008 opportunity gaps between those children in favorable and unfavorable circumstances remain large.  The largest gaps remain in the areas of education, food security, access to water, sewerage, and the internet.

Access to Services and Goods

     In the last decade the largest gains have been made towards providing access to services and goods to the children of Colombia.  Health insurance, preschool attendance, completion of middle and high school on time, sewer, electrical and telephones has been the contributing factors that have slightly improved the conditions for children.  Access to water remained nearly the same over the last decade and the index showed that “security-perception plus victimization” also remained the same.

Rural vs. Urban

     Children in urban areas continued to have better access to opportunities and access to goods and services that are important to success in life, than those in rural areas.  Over the last decade, the gap did shrink by 9 percentage points; however the main disadvantages for rural children continued to be education and Housing.  Education improved in the younger grades; however completion of 9^th grade on time and completion of secondary education continue to fall behind.  In Housing, access to water and sanitation remained low.  Despite the lag in rural areas, they did improve in their completion of primary -8^th grade on time, and there were improvements in access to telephone service, electricity and some sanitation.

     Reviewing this research on poverty in another country allowed me to see that here in the United States the majority of our population has access to all of the goods and services that they mentioned. I feel that reviewing this allowed me to see that although we have put a lot of resources in the reach of our population, many people continue to struggle to maintain the basic needs.  Because resources are available to people, does not mean that they can afford to have them.  Personally speaking, I am one of those middle class families that Dr. Cathy Grace discussed in our media resource this week.  I live in a nice home in a comfortable neighborhood drive a new car, but have to be concerned about if we can afford groceries every month.  There have been times when I have to play what I call the “bill lottery”, to determine what I will pay this month and let go for the next money that comes into the house.  Telephones are not a necessity when money is tight.  One little occurrence, such as a car needing repair or a bill going up, can cause our whole budget to go out of sync.  What I realize is although we are more fortunate than people in other countries. We are only one or two extra bills away from living in poverty ourselves. 

     Professionally, this has given me the opportunity to reflect on how I approach my students.  I feel that I understand the circumstances that they are coming from; however I know that sometimes I do not truly consider how hard their families may be having it right now.  Especially when it comes to purchasing materials for class assignments and projects, we are lucky to have paper and pencil for all students daily.

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTLACREGTOPPOVANA/Resources/840442-1291127079993/IOH_Colombia_2010.pdf

“The Effects of Poverty on the Early Childhood Community” (approximate length: 13 minutes). Conversation with Dr. Cathy Grace (Director of Early Childhood Development, Children’s Defense Fund). Retrieved from Walden University Course Page.

The Harlem Children's Zone

http://www.hcz.org/home

The beginning of the Children's Zone^®

In the early 1990s, HCZ ran a pilot project that brought a range of support services to a single block. The idea was to address all the problems that poor families were facing: from crumbling apartments to failing schools, from violent crime to chronic health problems.
HCZ created a 10-year business plan, then to ensure its best-practice programs were operating as planned, HCZ was in the vanguard of nonprofits that began carefully evaluating and tracking the results of their work. Those evaluation results enabled staff to see if programs were achieving their objectives and to take corrective actions if they were not.
In 1997, the agency began a network of programs for a 24-block area: the Harlem Children's Zone Project. In 2007, the Zone Project grew to almost 100 blocks. Today the Children's Zone^® serves more than 8,000 children and 6,000 adults. Overall, the organization serves more than 10,000 children and more than 7,400 adults.  The FY 2010 budget for the agency overall is over $75 million.

A history of innovation
Over the years, the agency introduced several ground-breaking efforts: in 2000, The Baby College^® parenting workshops; in 2001, the Harlem Gems^® pre-school program; also in 2001, the HCZ Asthma Initiative, which teaches families to better manage the disease; in 2004, the Promise Academy, a high-quality public charter school; and in 2006, an obesity program to help children stay healthy.
Under the visionary leadership of its President and CEO, Geoffrey Canada, HCZ continues to offer innovative, efficiently run programs that are aimed at doing nothing less than breaking the cycle of generational poverty for the thousands of children and families it serves.

I have subscribed to the newsletter for the Harlem Children's Zone and this week the newsletter included information about the CEO, Geoffrey Canada appearing on NBC Nightly News to discuss education, poverty and the budget.  The newsletter also included an article about Prince donating $1 million to Harlem Children's Zone as well as a a video article aobut the early childhood program entitled "Voices from Harlem: Early Childhood".  The video is a short video that allows followers to see how the program is benefiting children and also discusses the Baby College, The Three-Year-Old Journey and the Harlem Gems Pre-K classes.  The children are precious! The center is child centered and demonstrates that children are learning through discovery and exploration.  I hope that everyone will take the opportunity to look at the articles and videos.

My perception…..

In many communities today we are witnessing a decline in the support children have for their educational and developmental journeys.  Over my adult life I have discovered that the ultimate solution to our current educational state is to provide children with the best foundation they can receive from birth to age 5.  The Harlem Children’s Zone is the perfect example of how one organization can start out on a small level and over the years impact the whole community.  I am interested in this program because I see how it has made a difference in a community that society had given up on.  Today, parents are battling to get their children into this program from the moment they are born.  This is a huge compliment to the program.  What would the world be like if all parents were doing all they could to get their children the best education possible?  Parents are dedicated to the success of their children and abide by the guidelines to insure that their students are excelling.  I am excited by this ideal and hope to learn how I can create such an opportunity within my own community.

Establishing Professional Contacts and Resources in the Early Childhood Field

This week our assignment was to make contact with two people in other countries that work or are interested in early childhood education.  Over the course of our class we are to discuss trends and issues that are affecting early childhood education with our two new contacts in order to gain a new perspective of issues as they relate to people around the world.  I am excited to establish my contacts.

To begin making contact with persons from around the world I went to the Global Alliance of NAEYC website provided in our weekly resources list.  I actually chose five email addresses and sent out a brief message explaining our assignment and my desire to establish contact with professionals in other parts of the world.  I have not received a message back from anyone yet, but I am hopeful that I will receive a response soon.

The website that I have chosen to follow for this course is the Harlem Children's Zone.  When I saw this listed as one of the choices I was curious to follow the link.  Last year I saw a documentary on 60 minutes about a school that was started in Harlem where students were accepted through a lottery because so many people wanted their children to enroll in the school.  Parents of newborn were already registering their babies.  This is the type of program that I am interested in starting. I want to develop a high quality program that will make a huge positive impact in our community that everyone will want our children to be accepted.  I am excited to be able to learn more about the Harlem Children's Zone and to share it with my classmates as we proceed through the next 8 weeks.

Harlem Children’s Zonehttp://www.hcz.org/ 


The Global Alliance of NAEYC has e-mail addresses for early childhood professionals worldwide:http://www.naeyc.org/resources/partnership/globalalliance