Head Start

The last time the National Association for the Education of Young Children took a position on teaching with technology it was 1996.  The Web was only a few years old, portable music meant the Sony Walkman, and Einstein was still that physics genius with the mustache, not a line of DVDs for babies.

Last month, the Government Accountability Office published a report examining the compensation and credentials of teachers and child care workers in early education. While many of the findings echo long-held concerns within the early childhood world, the implications are stark: State and federal programs do not sufficiently address the problems of workforce quality for young kids.

Those of us who frequent the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Administration for Children and Families (ACF) website may have noticed some major changes.  A bar at the top of the site announces the Department’s transition to a brand new ACF site.

On January 26, 2012, the Early Education Initiative presented its findings and recommendations from New America’s latest paper on teacher effectiveness, Watching Teachers Work: Using Observation Tools to Promote Effective Teaching in the Early Years and Early Grades.  Lisa Guernsey, director of the Early Education Initiative, led the presentation as part of a panel discussion at the New America Foundation's office in Washington, D.C.  Susan Ochshorn, founder of ECE Policy Works in New York and c

It’s that time of year when the education policy team here at New America prepares a list of questions about the Obama Administration’s proposed federal budget. The budget, released yesterday, is not expected to become law anytime soon – many pundits say there is no chance Congress will pass it. But it does set important benchmarks for what the Administration would like to see in education spending.

Here are our two questions that relate most directly to early education:

President Obama released his fiscal year 2013 budget request to Congress this morning, and once again, early learning gets a boost. The president proposes increased funding for Head Start, child care grants and for IDEA: Special Education Grants for Infants and Families, as well as additional funding for the Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge.

Several new projects and papers have emerged lately that emphasize the need for building continuous systems of high-quality education from pre-k through the third grade. Because PreK-3^rd reform ideas are so comprehensive and multi-faceted, they can be challenging to grasp at first; it’s not always easy to know where to begin. So we’re glad to see a host of different organizations pulling resources together to help. 

Here are some of the latest:

As digital media and new technologies start to capture the attention of early educators, it’s important to ask: Do we know whether any of these gadgets and gaming programs actually help children learn? 

In an opinion piece for The Los Angeles Times yesterday, Susan Ochshorn and I argued for injecting some fresh ideas into the national education debates by looking at new approaches for observing and evaluating teachers.

Watched a teacher lately? Anyone? Anyone?