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eNotes
A News Service from the Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center
Current and past issues of eNotes can be viewed and searched online at http://www.ectacenter.org/enotes/enotes.asp
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eNotes
The Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences requests public comment on the information collection request, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act, for an Office of Management and Budget review of the Preschool Curricula Evaluation Research (PCER) Program.
The purpose of the PCER program is to implement rigorous evaluations of preschool curricula that will provide information to support informed choices of classroom curricula for early childhood programs. This research program supports research that will determine, through randomized experiments, whether one or more curricula produce educationally meaningful effects for children's language skill, pre-reading and pre-math abilities, cognition, general knowledge and social competence. The respondents for this research initiative include children, teachers and parents. The data collected from these respondents will provide critical information about preschool curricula to policy makers and early childhood practitioners.
For complete information go to http://www2.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/other/2005-3/090805a.html
It is believed that early child care experiences have a long term impact on infants and toddlers. Researchers at the FPG Child Development Institute studied the immediate effects in children's stress levels and social behavior when transitioning to a new class and teacher. They also asked whether other variables (such as quality of pre- and post-transition classrooms and caregiver interaction) related to those effects. This snapshot summarizes the study and its findings http://www.fpg.unc.edu/~images/pdfs/snapshots/snap25.pdf
A recent article by Steve Barnett, Director of the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIERR), traces the growth of preschool from its beginning to the present day. While encouraged by the steady growth in state-funded preschool programs over the past decade, Dr. Barnett also notes some growing pains - limited access and less-than high quality programs - that still need to be addressed. Read more in the National Association of Elementary School Principal's Sept/Oct issue of Principal magazine, available at http://www.naesp.org/Publications.aspx5
A list of resources related to children who have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina, collected from the Department of Education, the National Head Start Assocation, and other National organizations is now available on the NECTAC Web site at http://www.nectac.org/announce/katrina.asp. This Web site will be updated regularly as new information becomes available.