These are important pieces of information as they greatly affect whether the programs Kristof suggests later in the article would be effective and the subsequent cost of these programs. Another crucial piece of information is how the United States has, “...over the past 50 years,... faltered in supporting and educating children overall as other countries have moved ahead” (Kristof). The article says this quote but does not precisely explain how and why the United States has fallen behind, just that it has. When comparing various policies and spending of the United States and other countries, the article often fails to give a potential reason as to why they could be so different.…
In Kandice Sumner’s Ted Talk, she suggests that we should give equal education to communities regardless of their wealth. Kandice is a teacher and passionately explains to us why American Education is not helping people in poor communities. She tells us a story about her childhood. Since both her parents were educated and placed a lot of value in education and Kandice was lucky enough to be in a desegregation program where she was driven on an hour long bus ride to a school in the wealthier neighborhood. During her school years, she noticed several things concerning her schooling and the schooling of her peers.…
In the article “Not kidding around; a push to make kindergarten mandatory has the backing of educators and lawmakers who say it’s vital to development” by Kurt Chirbas, he talks about the option of making kindergarten mandatory. Additionally, he speaks of the importance of kindergarten and the level of educational teachings kindergarten is getting to. Chirbas says that kindergarten is becoming what first grade use to be and is starting to engage in activities to help skills like reading, writing, and mathematics. On another note, he also talks about problems with mandatory kindergarten, and one of those is costs. Studies have shown that a large majority of students attend public kindergarten; the cost of educating the rest of the students would…
James J. Heckman, in his (and Pedro Carniero’s) book Inequality in America: What Role for Human Capital Policies?, is correct in stating that tuition policies are not the major issue in completing education when it comes to low-income families but rather the child’s experiences and skill-development in their early years. Word for word, he is quoted as saying “We cannot rely on tuition policy applied in the child’s adolescent years, job training, or GED programs to compensate for the neglect the child experienced in the early years” (qtd in Spring 104). Many case studies highlight the importance of preschool, which Joel Spring summarizes in American Education as, “[Preschool is] designed to give children from low-income families a head start…
A wise man once said, “The problem with our education system is not that parents do not have a choice. The problem is that inequities continue to exist.” Patsy Mink. A very sagacious man indeed. “...equity refers to the principle of fairness,” declares author Stephen E. Abbott.…
The American education system has tried to keep up with the rapid changes to the way children learn and how they respond to the curriculum, but it is difficult to give the same level of education to every student across the country due to the rising income inequality. Programs like Head Start and Early Head Start, New York’s Middle Class Child Care Loan Initiative, and the Every Student Succeeds Act all aim to diminish or eliminate this gap. While the first two programs attempt to close the income achievement gap, they don’t solve many of the important problems faced by students of lower financial standing. The Head Start programs seek to address many early learning problems before children even reach kindergarten, and continue working with them until they are five years old to ensure that they are learning the skills necessary to achieve in school. Making this program more widely available to children would allow families to have peace of mind and know that their children are being conditioned to succeed.…
I am a student at Pasadena City College. I am taking the Child Development 20 (Introduction to Curriculum Planning) this semester. For this class, I am required to complete five observations. I am currently working at Canyon Early Learning Center in Monrovia as a teacher’s aide. I work with preschool children at this site.…
A quality education is the key to upward mobility in America. From kindergarten through college, it provides the critical foundation that has helped so many of us advance our careers and provide opportunities for our children. That’s why I am focused on making sure every student is able to access a world-class education regardless of their financial resources. As a reporter, I focused on school policies that delivered results, and in Congress I will be an advocate for good public education that provides parents, teachers, and students with the resources and support they need. Universal Pre-K Study after study has shown that the early years of a child’s life are the most critical to future success.…
Evan proves that high income students are more engage in school because one’s parents support one with school supplies while lower income students doesn’t have access to books and extra tutors. According to Evans “Low-income homes contained fewer books, toys, and other developmentally appropriate learning opportunities relative to middle- and upper-income homes. Half of low-income, American children between three and five years of age have 10 or more children's books in their home” (Evans). Achievement Gap can’t be close because there are many issues such as economic issues.…
The Department for Children, Schools and Families have recognised that Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) are the building blocks for future success in life for children, subsequently the Early Years Foundations Stage if required to make provisions for this (DfCSF, 2008). Similarly the Department for Education have outlined a National Curriculum where ‘All schools should make provisions for personal social health and Economic education (PSHE), drawing on good practice’, likewise identifying a need for the development of SEL in schools (National Curriculum, 2013). There are multiple theories that propose how SEL occurs. Although Neurological, Psychological and Social theories imply the learning occurs in different ways, each theory ultimately…
Society’s high standards do not make the path to success any easier for children. So the better prepared a child is, the better chances of children succeeding in their education and life. Having early education experiences sets children up for academic success because it gives them time in a structured educational environment before entering kindergarten. Early education improves the lives of children, ultimately leading to academic success, so regardless of income all children have a right to a free preschool program. As a society, we should do what works best for our children and make sure that they do not start their educational path…
Introduction What are the opportunity costs of not providing an excellent early education? Even though the importance of early childhood learning may appear obvious to everyone who has witnessed the effortlessness with which growing up multilingually helps children to speak multiple languages fluently later in life, the beginning of children’s efforts in public education are somehow vague; some children do not visit even pre-school, others already start out learning in pre-kindergarten. This text will act as a point of reference about the opportunity cost of not providing an excellent childhood education, or conversely, the external benefits of educating someone else’s children. It will serve as a contributing source to the ongoing societal discussion about how much education is necessary to create an informed society and to embolden individual children to find their own way in life, which requires a basic level of education.…
Trying to better understand how school and district administrators describe high quality practices in early childhood classrooms serving Latino immigrant students, I called upon a theoretical stance that valued the administrators as experts on their own approach to direct their organization (Varence & McDermot,1998). The administrators in my study are treated as members of a shared culture who are in the tradition of ethnography, experts of their own lives (Adair, 2009). I draw from two theoretical perspectives: socio-cultural and politics of education to understand how administrators describe high quality early learning. In choosing a and Rogoff repertoires of practice to help me understand the participants’ answers to my research question.…
Equity in education is proven to close the achievement gap and in order to make that happen, teachers and schools have to start now. “If we are serious about closing what I call the 'opportunity gap, ' it has to start with high-quality early-learning opportunities in disadvantaged communities that have been denied for too long (Duncan, 2013). It has been too long for students to be denied the right to go to college because they did not have the resources and opportunities compared to other students. The U.S education system promises to help prepare all students for college and graduate high school.…
1. Quote: “Why are there rich people and poor people, abled and disabled, urban and rural, multilingual and monolingual, highly educated and poorly educated?” My thinking: I can imagine that in the suburban district a lot of parents can afford additional fees to contribute to their child’s education which in rural and urban areas they have little to no money to contribute due to trying to maintain a home. With students who are abled and disabled, you have more one on one attention to help you with your success.…