Inquiring into Early Childhood Education Focusing advocacy efforts NAECTE Nov. 3rd, 2010 Anaheim CA

Focusing advocacy efforts How do we benefit from collective knowledge and wisdom? How do we improve the school experiences of our most vulnerable children? What are foundational processes for young children? What if we really used research to guide our practice? Uniting the best Respecting our teachers talents and skills..too many poor teachers and poor outcomes led us to this prescriptive curriculum we suffer from PreK-3 Vulnerable children -cristina’s pov-blending data sets and changing the lens-pushing for teacher as researcher Rethinking foundational processes research

Unite the best….. Developmentally Appropriate Practice Early Childhood Education Elementary Education Special Education Developmentally Appropriate Practice Family Engagement Attention to culture and language Focus on quality Supportive learning environments Professional Development Content Knowledge Progress Monitoring Grade Level collaboration-PLC’s Pay Equity Unique Needs of Children Multi-age groupings Multi-year relationships

Improving school experiences for vulnerable children In order to change the outcomes, we have to change the experiences We need new lenses through which to examine practice and promote the teacher as researcher We need to move beyond an evaluative approach to a collaborative, inquiry-based approach. Talk about these three things as a way to improve school experiences

Percent Retained in NC by Ethnicity and Gender (K-3) in 2007-08 This chart is new, so you have not had a chance to see it before the webinar. Overall 7,093 girls were retained and 10,349 boys were retained which is about 4.4 % of boys and 3.2% of girls The data in this slide for 2007-08. For both boys and girls, American Indian children are retained more frequently than other children. This is especially true for American Indian boys. Rates for African American and Hispanic boys and girls are roughly comparable and are substantially higher than for either Asian or White children. For example African American boys are more than twice as likely to be retained as Asian boys and almost 60% more likely than white boys. Similar patters are shown for African American girls compared to Asian and White girls. Hispanic boys and girls are even more likely to be retained than African American children.

Reading Assessments: students at or above grade level

Transition experiences for young children

What activity settings support minority boys?

Inquiry focused on the impact of race and poverty on the classroom experiences of minority boys Arbitrary rules The easily injured child Links between literacy and relationship MOVE!!!

Re-Think Foundational Processes Attachment Self-Regulation Memory Representation

Using Research to Guide Practice Prescriptive and Didactic Curriculum Teachers may feel a need to provide a narrower, more prescriptive and didactic curriculum for African American and Latino children as a means of directly addressing the achievement gap (Lee & Ginsburg, 2007). This strategy may be backfiring by giving African-American and Latino/Hispanic children less time to explore materials on their own and fewer scaffolded teaching interactions, inadvertently exacerbating the achievement gap by reducing children’s autonomy and minimizing the press for higher-order thinking (Early et al., in press). Print 4 copies of each slide on the research

Teaching Approaches by Grade Level

Using Research to Guide Practice Exposure to academic oral and written language Low-income children hear fewer words and are engaged in fewer extended conversations. Children in higher income homes will be exposed to 45 million words compared to only 13 million words for a child in a low income family (Hart & Risley, 2003) The difference in reading materials in the home accounts for approximately 89% of the reading achievement gap between poor and non-poor students at age 14 (Fryer & Levitt, 2002). 10. Betty Hart and Todd R. Risley, Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children (Baltimore: Brookes Publishing, 1995); and Betty Hart and Todd R. Risley, “The Early Catastrophe: The 30 Million Word Gap by Age 3,” American Educator 27, no. 1 (2003). The Hart-Risley findings have sometimes been misreported as meaning that the vocabularies of children of professionals were larger than the vocabularies of adults on welfare (not than the much smaller vocabularies that adults on welfare use when speaking to children). See Geoff Nunberg, “A Loss for Words,” Fresh Air from WHYY, NPR, September 3, 2002, www-csli.stanford. edu/~nunberg/vocabulary.html; and Gerald W. Bracey, “The 13th Bracey Report on the Condition of Public Education,” Phi Delta Kappan 85, no 2 (2003): 148–164.

Literacy Composite by Grade Level

Using Research to Guide Practice Research suggests that when parents, families and communities are engaged in deep and meaningful ways in actually shaping, defining and developing their children’s schools and educational experiences, child outcomes improve. (McCarty, 2002; Murrell, 2002; Native Hawaiian Education Council, 2002; Scheurich, 1998)

Using Research to Guide Practice Connections between home and school Minority families were found to have limited involvement in traditional at-school activities (e.g., Back-to-School nights, PTA, volunteerism, school governance committees). However, they… Taught their children to value education Offered verbal support to do well in school Assisted with homework Involved their children in other youth groups, such as church groups (Lopez, 2001)

How do we get our teachers where we need them? Generate the inquiring mind Promote professionalism Help them articulate their practice Let data and research drive practice Do unto others…..parallel processes No matter the topic

Contact Information Sharon Ritchie FPG Child Development Institute UNC-Chapel Hill www.firstschool.us sharon.ritchie@unc.edu