Diversity and Pre-School Equalities

As I followed outside links they lead me to an article in Time US titled Rethinking Pre-K: 5 Ways to Fix Preschool. After searching the site I found Webley’s (2011) research shows that when the first day of school rolls around, the child from the low-income household will be as many as 1.5 years behind grade level in terms of language and pre-reading and pre-math skills.

Being an important statement to me Webley (2011) states: When you look at findings like this, it's not hard to see why educators and government officials believe so strongly in the need for early-childhood education, particularly for low-income children. A half-century's worth of data has shown that reaching kids early helps them avoid repeating grades in elementary school, stay on track to graduate high school, earn more money as adults and spend less time in prison or on welfare. Recent studies have also pointed to third grade as a critical benchmark — if children are not performing at grade level by then, they may never catch up — making the years leading up to that point increasingly important.

I have a hard time understanding why money for prisons, roads, excess government spending is so readily available when it is clear where our tax dollars need to be spent!

Earlier I selected the Pre-K Now Origination to gain knowledge of current changes occurring within the early childhood programs. New information gathered this week from the newsletter that added to my understanding of equity and excellence in early care and education is related to our Latino population. Interesting fact: The future productivity of the U.S. workforce depends on our current commitment to providing high-quality early childhood education programs for all children, but especially for the quickly growing Latino population (Pre-K Now, 2011).

Facts and insights about issues and trends in the early childhood field I gained this week from exploring the newsletter are:
Latino children make up the largest and most rapidly growing racial/ethnic minority population in the United States.
The largest percentage increases in the Latino population during the last ten years have occurred in the South (North Carolina, 394 percent; Arkansas, 337 percent; Georgia, 300 percent; Tennessee, 278 percent; South Carolina, 211 percent; and Alabama, 208 percent)(Pre-K Now, 2011). I high-lighted Georgia my state.


Resources
Pre[K]Now: A Campaign of the Pew Center on the States http://www.preknow.org/ (Newsletter: http://www.preknow.org/signupform.cfm )
Webley, Kayla. Monday, Sept. 26, 2011. Rethinking Pre-K: 5 Ways to Fix Preschool. Time US Retrieved: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2094847,00.html#ixzz1acIaV7oC