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Early Childhood Education

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|Topics in Early Childhood Education |Assignment 5 |
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Zandra H. Davis, Ed.S.
Topics in Early Childhood Education
Dr. Patricia Candler
Assignment #5

Introduction Never before has so much attention and detail been given to early childhood education. Parents have even become more concerned about their child’s learning, development, and overall readiness for school. Interestingly enough, early childhood educators are taking on the challenges of serving all students equitably and well. The “No Child Left Behind Act 2001 (NCLB)”, along with policymakers are observing carefully at the outcomes and data reported for students participating in publicly funded early childhood education programs. “Motivated by these concerns and by the growing emphasis on accountability, parents, teachers and policymakers all want more information as they make decisions on how to foster children’s early learning and development”(Loveless,2010). The NCLB was first to introduce the nation to annual standardized testing requirements for students in grades 3-8. There has been a plethora of accountability measures put into place in recent years. One of the main implementations is the findings located in the NCLB act. Evidence and research shows beneficial systematic effects on school mandates. Even though the accountability systems are complex policies that entail a mixture of beneficial and harmful elements, overall, the NCLB act can be attributed to meaningful gains as it relates to lifelong learners. Schools, especially Title I schools, forced to undergo restructuring under the NCLB demonstrated significant gains in both reading and math. However, there have been situations in which proficiency can lead to the diversion of resources from higher –or-lower performing students. It is extremely important for systems to pursue excellence on behalf of every student in every school. If students are expected to be equal across the nation, it is equally important that they receive every available resources as others to ensure success.

Discuss how the move towards accountability and standards has influenced Early Childhood Education. The overall goal and driving force of the NCLB is to ensure that states implement educational standards in core academic subjects, and to hold schools accountable for ensuring that all students meet these standards. There was a certain amount of time given to schools that stated by the end of 2014 that 100% of students will have met or will meet their state standards. This expectation includes students with special needs, students with limited English proficiency, academically challenged and impoverished students. Furthermore, research shows that according to NCLB, schools are required to clearly show adequate yearly progress (AYP) towards the 100% proficiency target every year between 2002 and 2014. According to Morrison, (2012), the NCLB targets six fundamental areas:
*The accountability of teachers and schools for children’s school achievement.
*An emphasis on literacy and reading and that all children read on or above grade level by third grade.
*Schools and teachers use programs and curriculum that work (based on scientific research).
*Professional staff development of teachers to enhance their abilities to teach all children to achieve high standards.
*The use of educational technology in instructional programs and parent involvement in schools and in decision-making procedures. With that being said, NCLB is a noteworthy educational undertaking that will be ongoing and very influential as it relates to teaching and learning for years to come. Furthermore, NCLB also influences the federally funded Pre-K programs. The current trends are placing a major emphasis on early intervention and getting children ready for school. The NCLB act has begun mandating and setting particular guidelines for some federally funded programs.

From your perspective, has this been positive, negative, or both? Based on current research Congress is in the working process of reauthorizing NCLB. From my perspective, I feel like the act has pros and cons. Some of the positive things about NCLB include raising a standard in the delivery of quality instruction, accountability standards set forth in each state, varying academic standards, data-driven differentiated instruction, levels of student proficiency and teacher requirements and mandates. It is additionally advisable for instructional leaders to actively monitor annual yearly progress of each individual student. Instructional coaches, reading coaches, problem solving teams, teachers, parents and students have to all work together to successfully set and implement goals. Achievement gaps have to be closed among minority students. Teachers will continue to utilize scientific research based programs. Ongoing professional development training will be given and talents as educators. However, some of the cons include lack of parental involvement, effective Tier II and Tier III instruction, limited technology and every school being equitable in regards to available resources. In the Title I schools, parental involvement has to take a more innovative approach to begin empowering the parents. It’s been my experience that in the 17 years of being in a Title I school, there is a common denominator between poverty and low academic achievement. When a child’s basic needs are met, they seem to achieve better in school. I feel as though schools with this type of demographic have to be a little more creative with intervention in an effort to increase parental involvement through empowerment. Schools can administer parent needs assessments to find out what it is that low socioeconomic parents are in need of. These needs can be met through parenting classes and community resources. With this in mind, it is also very difficult for children that may be 1 or 2 grade levels behind and are still expected to keep up in their regular classroom and also not receive appropriate intervention. It is quite difficult to intervene and instruct a child on a level where they are not feeling successful. Another issue, in my perspective, is that schools must be consistent in research and resources across the school system. It seems as though schools with the most needs seem to have the least. If systems expect for no child to be left behind, we must ensure that they all are receiving everything they need to be successful. Pressures to raise academic achievement and to also close the achievement gap have taken a massive hold on elementary schools. Now that elementary schools have to raise the demands on children in the early grades, and kindergarten has become more academic, students that enter kindergarten without basic literacy and math skills are at a significant disadvantage. Until recent years, kindergarten was a grade that introduced children to school. Now kindergarten has become just as rigorous as the other grades. In my opinion, the schools in the more impoverished areas are going to continue to struggle. Most of the Title I schools are limited in resources and manpower needed to deliver the appropriate interventions needed to meet all of the individual needs, including parents.
Discuss the impact of accountability on your program/school/center, the teacher, and the students. The impact of accountability on our program, schools, teachers, and the students has become somewhat challenging. The schools are putting more and more pressure on personal with little to no resources to make meaningful gains. There needs to be more uniform academic standards without comparing apples to oranges. By comparing apples to oranges, I mean setting attainable goals internally based on yearly data. It seems to be a bit unfair to compare schools in two totally different demographical dynamics. Priorities have to change in regards to children in high poverty schools. More resources and man power have to be provided to assist the regular classroom teacher in an effort to decrease teacher burnout. Teachers need to have more appropriate improvement targets set, broaden the measures of student learning beyond multiple-choice tests in reading and math to include more subjects and tests of higher order thinking and problem-solving skills. Additionally, efforts of improvement needs to focus more on offering parental choice and provide incentives for highly qualified teachers to educate in high poverty and low performing schools. In regards to the students, there is one great benefit of the NCLB act. The Head Start and Early Head Start programs develop their curriculum in a way to custom fit and meet the needs of children, families, and the community.
Conclusion
In conclusion, recognizing the underlying diversity and varied needs of our nation’s schools did not come with an instruction manual, the task of figuring it all out is contingent upon decisions made by the districts, states, schools and individual teachers. It may seem like there is a lot of pressure in education with explicit instruction, research based programs, deadlines, progress monitoring, testing, rigorous teaching practices, common core standards, response to intervention, diversity, differentiated instruction, inclusion, annual yearly progress, the no child left behind act, and very little parental support. However, school improvement, state and federal mandates are at the forefront of education. States must continue to implement college and career-ready standards and assessments that measure student achievement and growth. Federal and state standards also have a differentiated accountability system in place that not only recognizes high-achieving and high progress schools, but also supports chronically low-achieving schools. Teachers, principal evaluations and support systems will continue to be in place to improve and enhance instruction. With all of the aforementioned practices and interventions, schools, teachers, students, and education will continue to get better. The students are our hope and our future. With that being said, it is extremely important to seek and pursue excellence on behalf of every student in every school each and every day by any means necessary.

References
Brown, C.P. and Feger, B.S.(2010). Examining the Challenges Early Childhood Teacher Candidates Face in Fighting Their Roles as Early Educators. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 31:286-306.
Dahlin, M., Durant, S., Cronin, J. & Xiang, Y.(2010). State Standards and Student Growth: Why State Standards Don’t Matter as Much as We Thought. Washington, DC: Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
Dee, T.S. and Jacob, B.(2011). “The Impact of No Child Left Behind on Student Achievement,” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 30(3), 418-46.
Loveless,T., Farkas,S., & Duffett, A.(2010). High-Achieving Students in the Era of NCLB. Washington, DC: Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
Morrison, G.S.(2011). Early childhood education today (12th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Taylor, E. and Tyler, J.(2012). “Can Teacher Evaluation Improve Learning?” Education Next, 12(4). 78-84.

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