Preschool Programs And The Universal Preschool

The article by Erika Christakis, informs future teachers and parents how preschool today may not be benefiting their children as much as they thought. She talks about how preschool has changed drastically over the years as well as kindergarten. She states that “kindergarten may be the new first grade”. Her statement shows how children today are expected more then they were years ago in all grades, especially preschool and at such a young age. Many think this is helping our children or will benefit them in the future if they know more as a child but this may not be the case. The article talks about multiple studies done throughout America to children are learning and how school curriculum changing affects children. A studied showed that children

You just worked a 12-hour shift, you’re tired as your walking to your car, you realize the glass is shattered all over the floor. You take a closer look and see that someone threw a brick through your windshield! The next day you get a call from the police saying the person who vandalized your car was a classmate of yours. You later find out that person dropped out of high school. Therefore, should quality preschools become required? Most students who do attend a preschool end up receiving better social and emotional skills; therefore it helps to develop the structure of brain for future events. Furthermore it should become mandatory for students to attend preschool.

     Preschool is something very important for toddlers. Preschools were established in Europe around the late 1800’s. They were later introduced to the United States in the 1920’s. According to the Encyclopedia of careers and vocational guidance 9th edition “preschools expanded rapidly in the united states during the 1960’s”.

To start off, many students aren’t ready yet for the basis of kindergarten as they never finished, or even attended preschool. Attending a preschool gives children an early advantage, and stimulates an early mind. When a child starts their educational journey at the age of three, they get a two year “Head Start,” for themselves, compared to kids who have not attended preschool. This early advantage is a physical and significant benefit for them as it helps strengthen the child from early on. According to greatschools.org, “To sustain children’s excitement and motivation for learning, high-quality preschool and child care programs introduce early literacy and math skills

The answers to academic success for disadvantaged children may not be smaller class sizes, better-prepared teachers, tougher standards, more accountability, or greater choice as admirable as these goals may be. They may instead center on a single factor: preschool. Lyndon Johnson in 1965 wanted to “break the cycle of poverty” by raising poor children’s levels of competence with the Head Start program. Since it began, the Head Start program has been the most widely applied and most heavily researched prevention effort in the US.

The current state of California’s state-level preschool program (the California State Preschool Program, or CSPP) is currently underperforming, given the population they are serving. Despite California having the 9th highest per-capita income of all states (and being home to some of the highest income counties in the U.S.), the CSPP only manages to achieve six out of the ten outcomes for preschool effectiveness as outlined by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER). In addition, the newly established California Transitional Kindergarten program achieves a mere two out of ten, which ranks it as one of the lowest early education programs in the entire country. The CSPP achieves fewer outcomes than much (on average)

Through various research it has been proven that preschool is an imperative part of a child’s education. If a child is a beneficiary of Head Start services, they will be in a learning environment designed to promote their mental, linguistic, literacy, physical, social and emotional development. Head Start members have been trained to respect their role as "your child's most important teacher" and help them perform their functions effectively. The Head Start program will encourage all parents to participate in the organized activities as parent involvement is a major part of the program.

The article Preschool is For Real by Julie Poppe is based on how we should create high quality preschool. It states that over the years funding for early childhood education has went up and enrollment has increased as well. Teachers today have a lot of responsibility when it comes to teaching preschool. They need to making learning fun and simple, but they also need to follow state guidelines and curriculum. With preschool becoming more popular, states are changing their curriculum. Many researchers have found that preschool is incredibly important to young children but only if the program is of high quality. Poor quality can actually have a negative effect on the children. They article outlines what it means to be a high quality preschool

The program, currently delivered by about 1,700 local organizations – public and private, non-profit and for-profit – provides preschoolers with comprehensive services, such as education and health screenings, with the goal of building their skills across five school readiness domains: language and literacy, cognition and general knowledge, approaches to learning, physical development and health, and social and emotional development. Head Start encourages the role of parents (both mothers and fathers) as their child's first and most important teachers. Programs build relationships with families that support positive parent-child relationships, family well-being, and connections to peers and community. Early Head Start, also managed by the federal Office of Head Start, is directed toward children up to the age of three and their parents. While the program is federally funded and managed, local agencies make decisions regarding service delivery based on the specific needs of their communities; for example, some may opt to include home-based services for families in their programs. Most states have multiple Head Start programs providing services for

The Abbott Preschool Program is administered through New Jersey’s Department of Education and the Department of Human Services. It was designed to provide all of New Jersey’s children an opportunity to succeed. The Abbott Preschool Program Longitudinal Effect Study (APPLES), published in 2013, investigated the impact of the Abbott program on children’s learning through the end of kindergarten. The findings of this study demonstrated that children who attend the Abbott Preschool Program, whether in public schools, private settings or Head Start, improve in language, literacy, and math at least through the end of their kindergarten year.

country becoming profusely diverse. Before entering kindergarten, millions of children in the U.S. will attend some type of preschool, Head Start, or daycare program. Given the current negative climate of our country due to the beliefs and values that have been taught and reinforced regarding race, gender, ability, socioeconomic status, family structure, religion, and political affiliation to people throughout their lives, young children need a program that includes an anti-bias curriculum. “With the rise in the number of working parents and children participating in group programs from an early age, preschools have also become an influential socialization force” (Berthelsen & Karuppiah, 2011, p. 3). It is important to teach children to respect

The Heritage Foundation report noted that 45 early childhood education programs already existed, costing an estimated $45 million each year, and that many of the programs are “duplicative and ineffective, failing to serve the needs of children from low-income families” (Burke and Sheffield, 2013). In addition, the evidence showing that the public sector is a good provider of early childhood education is lacking. The 2001 Gilliam study reviewed state-run preschool programs and found that “less than half of the current state-funded preschool programs have, or are currently conducting, impact evaluations of the effectiveness of their programs” and that “of these

Early childhood education has many benefits and there is the potential for many significant outcomes if universal preschools were put into place. Some feel that children who start kindergarten without previously attended preschool sometimes lack certain skills such as social and communication skills and an inability to follow routines. There were also studies done that found attending preschool could help to close the achievement gap in the grade school years. A child’s first few years of life are most important, and they absorb the most during those years. By providing universal preschool, all children would be benefiting, especially those who are in at-risk families or part of the lower class. As a society, we have a responsibility to help the children in our communities and provide them with the education they need in order to help them succeed in life.

I feel as if a universal preschool program should be monitored closely to make sure that they are achieving the desired outcomes. These programs

It has been well established that early childhood is a crucial time for children’s cognitive development (Bowman, Donovan & Burns, 2001). Preschool curriculum is the entire span of lessons and teachings that a child will be taught during the course of a preschool year (Rock, 2015). Preschool curriculum covers a wide variety of academic, social, physical, and emotional lessons and usually vary from school to school and teaching method to teaching method. Depending upon the school and the preschool philosophy employed by the preschool, the preschool curriculum can be developed by administrators, teachers, and parents.