Download or read book From Neurons to Neighborhoods written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2000-11-13 with total page 610 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How we raise young children is one of today's most highly personalized and sharply politicized issues, in part because each of us can claim some level of "expertise." The debate has intensified as discoveries about our development-in the womb and in the first months and years-have reached the popular media. How can we use our burgeoning knowledge to assure the well-being of all young children, for their own sake as well as for the sake of our nation? Drawing from new findings, this book presents important conclusions about nature-versus-nurture, the impact of being born into a working family, the effect of politics on programs for children, the costs and benefits of intervention, and other issues. The committee issues a series of challenges to decision makers regarding the quality of child care, issues of racial and ethnic diversity, the integration of children's cognitive and emotional development, and more. Authoritative yet accessible, From Neurons to Neighborhoods presents the evidence about "brain wiring" and how kids learn to speak, think, and regulate their behavior. It examines the effect of the climate-family, child care, community-within which the child grows.
Download or read book The Early Childhood Care and Education Workforce written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2012-02-10 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Early childhood care and education (ECCE) settings offer an opportunity to provide children with a solid beginning in all areas of their development. The quality and efficacy of these settings depend largely on the individuals within the ECCE workforce. Policy makers need a complete picture of ECCE teachers and caregivers in order to tackle the persistent challenges facing this workforce. The IOM and the National Research Council hosted a workshop to describe the ECCE workforce and outline its parameters. Speakers explored issues in defining and describing the workforce, the marketplace of ECCE, the effects of the workforce on children, the contextual factors that shape the workforce, and opportunities for strengthening ECCE as a profession.
Download or read book Improving Job and Care Quality in Child Care written by Andy Olds and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Working for Quality Child Care written by Dan Bellm and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although child caregivers make a major contribution to children's development and to the health and well-being of their communities, they remain underpaid and undervalued. Written for entry-level and experienced child care teachers and providers, this book presents information on the child care occupation and includes tools to help teachers and caregivers make their jobs better. Chapter 1, "Working in Child Care Today," presents a brief history of the field, provides an overview of current conditions, profiles child care in four developed nations, and examines connections between home- and center-based caregivers. Chapter 2, "Working Relationships in Child Care Programs," presents procedures for assessing the work climate, discusses working relationships with parents, describes ways to show respect for diversity in child care settings, discusses shared decision making, and contains questions for parents to ask about family or center-based child caregivers. Chapter 3, "Your Child Care Work Environment," describes high quality work environments, details model work standards, describes ways to improve the work environment, and discusses employment rights. This chapter also presents information on school-age care and discusses links between child care quality and the adult work environment. Chapter 4, "Leadership and Professional Growth: In Your Workplace and Beyond," provides activities to develop skills as a leader and an advocate and provides information on advocacy organizations for child care teachers and providers. Included in each chapter are group and individual activities to apply the material to individual caregivers or programs. Two appendices present model work standards for family- and center-based child care programs, and discuss the legal impact of antitrust laws. Each chapter contains references. (KB)
Download or read book Quality Matters written by Carol Copple and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Making Work Pay in the Child Care Industry written by Dan Bellm and published by Early Childhood Work Force. This book was released on 1997-01-01 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on the finding that the most important determinant of child care quality is the presence of consistent, well-trained, and well-compensated caregivers, this report discusses strategies to improve compensation in child care. It analyzes structural and social barriers to investing in decent-paying child care jobs; profiles a wide range of federal, state, and local initiatives to increase child care compensation; and outlines a recommended agenda for further action by states and communities. After an executive summary, Part 1, "Introduction," describes the results of a national study identifying program options that create high-quality jobs for adults and high-quality services for children; identifies barriers to investing in child care jobs, including over-reliance on parent fees and exclusion of child caregivers from leadership positions; and delineates guidelines for effective training and employment, including addressing requirements of child care work and trainees' needs and positioning new providers for career mobility. Part 2, "Promising Practices for Improving Child Care Compensation," describes federal initiatives to improve compensation, such as those within military child care and Head Start; discusses initiatives to link training with compensation; presents state efforts to improve reimbursement rates for programs meeting the National Association for the Education of Young Children accreditation guidelines; describes center-based initiatives such as unionization and business partnerships; and outlines programs providing health insurance to child caregivers. Part 3, "Next Steps," offers recommendations for system-wide reform at the state level, linking training and compensation, health insurance, and reimbursement rates and quality improvement grants. (Contains 23 references.) (KDFB)
Download or read book By a Thread written by Marcy Whitebook and published by W.E. Upjohn Institute. This book was released on 2004 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Demand for child care services has grown steadily over the last few decades due to demographic trends, public policies, newly discovered links between brain development and early environments, and the number of parents entering the labor market for reasons such as welfare reform. As a result, most U.S. children under five spend time on a regular basis each week in nonparental care. Despite the growing demand and the increased recognition of the importance of early childhood development, the child care industry suffers from high turnover among both staff and leadership, thereby imperiling the overall quality of care provided by child care centers. In "By a Thread: How Child Care Centers Hold On to Teachers, How Teachers Build Lasting Careers," Marcy Whitebook and Laura Sakai examine how child care programs and their staff subsist in a field characterized by low pay, low status, and high turnover and what the impacts of these factors are on the quality of child care provided. Their study is based on an in-depth survey of 75 mid-size, relatively high-quality child care centers located in an economically thriving region. They collected data on salaries, training, and educational background for all teaching staff employed at the centers at three points in time, 1994, 1996, and 2000. These data provide a detailed picture of the entire teaching workforce at the 75 centers in 2000, and allow a comparison of the workforce in that year to those in 1994 and 1996. This inside look paints a disturbing picture of a dedicated yet poorly-paid, high-turnover workforce. Part I of the book focuses on staff departures and center quality. In it, Whitebook and Sakai relate the types and magnitude of turnover occurring among teachers at child care centers to the level of quality provided there. They present empirical evidence on the correlation between center quality and staff stability as well as the perspectives of teachers and directors in their survey who reflect on the challenge of attaining and maintaining high-quality care. In Part ii, Whitebook and Sakai rely on in-depth, quantitative evidence to examine the experience of child care employment. They point out interesting relationships between the characteristics of the child care workforce and those who have chosen to leave, stay, or join on. They then discuss work and family decisions that impact child care workers' career decisions, including the rewards listed by workers as reasons they remain employed in child care. The authors conclude with three policy recommendations that echo the suggestions made to them by the teaching staff and directors interviewed in their survey. They recommend: (1) expanding the focus of k-12 education reforms to include preschool years; (2) creating national legislation that encourages state and local investments to improve compensation for child care workers; and (3) considering whether child care workers might strengthen their hand when it comes to negotiating compensation packages through formal organization. The following chapters are included: (1) An Overview of the U.S. Child Care Industry; (2) Here Today, Gone Tomorrow; (3) The Role of Staffing in Improving and Sustaining Center Quality; (4) Turnover and the Quality of Child Care Services; (5) Who Leaves? Who Stays? Who Joins? (6) Work and Family Issues as Factors in Career Decisions; (7) Rewards and Stresses of Child Care Work; and (8) Conclusions and Recommendations.
Download or read book Improving Child Care Services written by United States. Congress. House. Select Committee on Children, Youth, and Families and published by . This book was released on 1985 with total page 966 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Child Care Education and Job Training written by Holly Firlein and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 7 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Research-in-Brief is one in a series of publications highlighting the Institute for Women's Policy Research's (IWPR) most significant research contributions to policy issues affecting women across IWPR's twenty-five year history. Recognizing that education is the gateway to opportunity, the IWPR has been a significant source of research on education and training, including work on early care and education, girls' experiences in the K-12 system, high quality workforce development opportunities, and postsecondary attainment. IWPR's work has explored the importance of education for improving women's earnings, the importance of access to quality early care and education for mothers' labor force outcomes, methods for improving job quality among early care and education providers, the role of child care in spurring and sustaining economic development, the importance of low-income women's access to postsecondary education as a poverty reduction tool, strategies for increasing the success of student parents in college through providing child care and other supports, and increasing women's representation in higher paying, traditionally male careers such as in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields.
Download or read book Improving the Quality of Child Care written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Labor and Human Resources and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Working Families and Growing Kids written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2003-05-15 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An informative mix of data and discussion, this book presents conclusions and recommendations for policies that can respond to the new conditions shaping America's working families. Among the family and work trends reviewed: Growing population of mothers with young children in the workforce. Increasing reliance of nonparental child care. Growing challenges of families on welfare. Increased understanding of child and adolescent development. Included in this comprehensive review of the research and data on family leave, child care, and income support issues are: the effects of early child care and school age child care on child development, the impacts of family work policies on child and adolescent well-being and family functioning, the impacts of family work policies on child and adolescent well-being and family functioning the changes to federal and state welfare policy, the emergence of a 24/7 economy, the utilization of paid family leave, and an examination of the ways parental employment affects children as they make their way through childhood and adolescence. The book also evaluates the support systems available to working families, including family and medical leave, child care options, and tax policies. The committee's conclusions and recommendations will be of interest to anyone concerned with issues affecting the working American family, especially policy makers, program administrators, social scientists, journalist, private and public sector leaders, and family advocates.
Download or read book Improving Child Care Services what Can be Done written by United States. Congress. House. Select Committee on Children, Youth, and Families and published by . This book was released on 1985 with total page 1038 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Essentials written by Marie Masterson and published by Essentials. This book was released on 2018-08-31 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The basic information family child care providers need to run a successful program in a warm, welcoming setting for children and their families
Download or read book The States of Child Care written by Sara Gable and published by Teachers College Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the U.S. economy continues to falter and families face ongoing wage stagnation and widening income inequalities, there is an urgent need for a better, integrated approach to child care. This accessible, up-to-date account of the chronic issues plaguing child care reform offers viable solutions drawn from a model state child care system in the state of North Carolina. Original data from interdisciplinary research illustrates the complex landscape of U.S. child care, as well as the ambiguous relationship society has with the sobering statistic that 64% of women with children under six are employed and in need of reliable, high-quality care of their young children. Book Features: The history and demographics of U.S. child care policy.Analysis of several persistent forces impeding the emergence of a national child care system.Contemporary ideas about motherhood, employment, and providing child care for pay.An extensive review of research on child care and child development.Recommendations focusing on policy integration and workforce development. “In The States of Child Care, Sara Gable gives voice to the perspectives of parents, practitioners, and advocates to help readers deepen their understanding of our past, what needs to change in the present, and what strategies they can use to make progress now.” —From the Foreword by Marcy Whitebook, Director, Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, Berkeley, CA Sara Gable is an associate professor and extension specialist in the Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology at the University of Missouri.
Download or read book Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2015-07-23 with total page 587 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.
Download or read book The Effects of Professional Development Efforts and Compensation on Quality of Early Care and Education Services written by Amy E. Lowenstein and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Time to Care written by Joan Lombardi and published by Temple University Press. This book was released on 2008-11-20 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A blue print for improving child care in America.
