HOT TOPICS
Listen to NIEER Assistant Research Professor Dr. Allison Friedman-Krauss on Total Information AM’s episode, Access for children with special needs. Dr. Krauss discusses NIEER’s The State(s) of Early Intervention and Early Childhood Special Education: Looking at Equity. This is the first equity-focused report to look state-by-state at the two federally funded programs for young children with disabilities. The report is designed to be a data-centered information resource to help state administrators, policymakers, and advocates make sense of what’s happening in the field right now, allowing them to take action on behalf of families and children who need support.
NIEER ACTIVITY
Evaluation of Early Childhood Programs and Child Development in Indiana, from 2021-2022.
NIEER conducted a landscape evaluation of early childhood programs in Indiana between the spring of 2021 and the summer of 2022. The evaluation focused on understanding program components, quality, and children’s learning and development across a variety of programs in the state.
Commissioned by Early Learning Indiana (ELI), this study aims to provide Indiana programs and policymakers with research-based information on the quality of early childhood programs and the learning and development status of young children birth to five in the state.
Early Care and Education use among Young Children in New Jersey in 2022
New Jersey’s families rely on a wide range of early care and education (ECE) arrangements – formal and informal, paid and unpaid – to meet the needs of their young children. NIEER surveyed a representative sample of New Jersey households in June 2022 to gain a better understanding of these arrangements and how well the ECE needs of children and families are being met. Our primary goal is to provide information that informs policies to better support young children and their families.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CHILD CARE AND EDUCATION POLICY
Weekly Feature
Longitudinal Studies in ECEC: Challenges of Translating Research into Policy Action
This overview of a thematic series of articles presented in the International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy focuses on the insights gained from long-term studies of early childhood education and care (ECEC) on children’s learning and development. Using longitudinal study findings to shape evidence-based policies is discussed as an approach to translate research into actionable policy. The authors address pertinent questions for policymaking, aiming to raise awareness about study design quality and applied methodologies.
Publish in the International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy (IJCCEP)
- It’s FREE – article processing charges for all articles published in the journal are fully sponsored.
- The journal is indexed by Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) and by Scopus.
- All articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 license. Authors will retain copyright.
ECE RESEARCH
A recent systematic literature review was conducted to explore the research on scientific curiosity and wonder in early childhood education and care. The authors note that only a limited number of studies explored how children’s curiosity and wonder can be observed and nurtured. The term “curiosity” was more commonly used in the literature compared to the term “wonder” and only a few studies offered a comprehensive understanding of these two terms beyond acknowledging their natural occurrence in children. These two terms were most often used as a means to facilitate natural science learning or considering them as responses stimulated by scientific exploration. The authors suggest studying how these qualities in early childhood education and care can enhance children’s innate motivation for scientific learning.
Marketing Strategy for Early Childhood Education (ECE) Schools in the Digital Age
This study aims to provide insights for early childhood education institutions to develop successful marketing tactics that align with present-day demands. The researchers suggest that to formulate marketing strategies in the digital era, various factors such as market characteristics, market needs, utilization of social media and online platforms, data security, quality of educators, and student requirements need to be considered to enhance reputation, improve the quality of education provided, and foster increased parental and community engagement in promoting education.
In a study conducted within a nationwide network of high-quality center-based early childhood education (ECE) programs, researchers investigated the impact of “high-quality toddler care” on enhancing outcomes for children from low-income families. Employing a quasi-experimental analytic approach, the researchers aimed to isolate and estimate the effects of enrolling in such care at different ages on school-readiness skills. The researchers suggest that their research findings confirm the advantages of enrolling in high-quality early care and education for an extended duration.
Play Preferences of Preschoolers According to the Design of Outdoor Play Areas
Researchers in this study point to the necessity to shift away from a conventional design approach to playground design and towards more child-centered designs that prioritize the needs and contributions of children throughout the design process. The study reveals the need for children to interact with nature, solve problems, manipulate and build things, as well as be challenged physically and intellectually through play.
OPPORTUNITIES AND JOB OPENINGS
Communities of Practice Facilitator/Program Manager, CAYL Institute
Senior Vice President, Professional Learning, Start Early
Executive Director, Partnership for America’s Children
Managing Director, Policy and Professional Advancement, NAEYC
Director, Maryland Early Childhood Leadership Program
Early Childhood Associate/Senior Associate, School Readiness Consulting
Principal Associate – Early Childhood Advising & Strategy Focused, School Readiness Consulting