Goals for Public Policy in ECE

When I read the course description, I thought ‘oh no, I don’t know anything about policies in early childhood systems.' I was very intimidated the week prior to the start of this course. I told my husband that I am actually going to have to read the course materials and work at this class.

As I began to read the course description, textbook and other course materials, I realized that I do know about early childhood systems and how they work together for the betterment of the children and families.

Some ECE systems are broken or have parts that don’t work well together such as the high scope web site that collects great start readiness data is the same place that the QRIS system data is collect. However, a GSRP specialist cannot be a QRIS rater even though the training and the data collection forms are the same. A goal would be to have the data collection systems that monitor the quality of early childhood facilities work together. It would save manpower, financial resources and ensure valid rating scores

A goal that I would like to obtain as I continue to grow as an ECE professional is to be an advocate for teachers. To empower teachers to become professionals that upholds the ethics and tenants of our profession. I am finding that college students who can’t pass the state certification test (Professional Readiness Exam or the Praxis part 1) are majoring in early childhood because in the state of Michigan is does not lead to certification. They think it’s the easy way out of college. When in fact, working with young children and families is very difficult work. Our profession cannot be thought of as an ‘easy out’ or second best career choice.

Another goal that I have is empower families in making child care choices. Families need to have the tools to find and afford quality child care. Families are finding it difficult to identify quality child care, especially in poor or working class neighborhoods. I believe that all children should have the opportunity to have a high quality early childhood experience.

 

 

                                                             Reference

Kagan, S. L., & Kauerz, K. (Eds.). (2012). Early childhood systems: Transforming early learning. New York,  NY: Teachers College Press.

Laureate Education (Producer). (2013). Final reflections, part 2 [Video file]. Retrieved from    https://class.Walden.edu. Posted by Children are Great Imitators so Give them something great to imitate at 2:20