Three Goals, One Waiting

Public policies for early childhood systems reflect the knowledge, experiences, and perspectives of professionals of many different calibers.  Some actually have direct experience with early childhood education and development, while others may only have a viewpoint from outside the spectrum, but have a passion for it.  Either way, efforts for early systems come from a variety of sources, and need links or commonalities in their intent. 

I work in a Title 1 school, and one concept I personally find confusing is the coexistence of increase in learning expectations for students and the decrease of extra support for early childhood educators, particularly those in Title 1 schools.  Novice early childhood teachers are overwhelmed, often to the point of either discontinuing their employment or transferring to teaching different age groups.  One example is the decrease in the use of teachers’ aids in kindergarten and first grade.  Research exists that confirms there is a correlation between class size and student academic achievement and social development (Allhusen et. al., 2004).  The rate at which student population is increasing is not being paralleled by new teacher employment in the early grades, which makes for an average high student/teacher ratio in each class.  With this in mind, administrators and policy-maker should consider the need for increased support for said teachers.

Another concept that concerns me is the decrease in parent involvement.  With monetary struggles in the economy, parents are finding themselves increasingly busy, thus less available for volunteering at schools during and outside of business hours.  As mentioned above, teachers need help with their class sizes increasing.  Help is not as available as it once was through Title 1 funding.

One professional goal I am establishing for myself in this course is to find an avenue or create a system to increase parental support for teachers in early childhood classrooms.  Perhaps awareness of increasing standards and class size may help encourage this support, which may require a parent-training program or standards-awareness session, or something of the like.

Another goal I see developing is one regarding novice teacher professional development on parent involvement.  Many new teachers have access to a plethora of trainings about standards, teaching methods, disciplining practices, classroom management techniques, and assessment practices, but may not see as many opportunities for training about effective ways to increase parental involvement in early childhood.  As someone with over twelve years of teaching experience in early childhood and also someone who has seen a dramatic increase of parent involvement over the years in my own class, I feel I may be able to extend my research into current parent involvement training programs for new teachers.

My last goal is to keep my focus narrow.  “Parent involvement” is a very broad, general topic which could take a lifetime to see great change in.  For the purposes of this course, I will spend much time deliberating on which facet of parental involvement to zero in on.  At this time, as my overall project focus for my program relates to teacher support, I am inclined to lean towards policies that allow parents easier access to ways to be involved.  I am still unsure exactly about how to decide.

Reference

Allhusen, V., Belsky, J., Booth-LaForce, C. L., Bradley, R., Brownwell, C. A., Burchina, M., & Weinraub,

M. (2004). Does class size in first grade relate to children’s academic and social performance or observed classroom processes? Developmental Psychology, 40(5), 651-664