News: June 2012 Archives

SK: City Public Schools Eliminate Full-Day K
Source: Star Phoenix, June 20, 2012

Excerpt: "Full-day, every day kindergarten has been eliminated in Saskatoon's public schools in an effort to balance the books. The $1.3-million trim is part of a $222.5-million budget approved by Saskatoon Public Schools' board of education Tuesday night as it attempts to cope with growing enrolment and rising expenses, which it says provincial funding isn't keeping up with."

Excerpt: "A handful of dedicated early childhood educators are currently trying to inform the public about a made-in-B.C. plan to address the utter inequality of support that is available to families with young children.  We call it child care. But the kicker is that "The Plan" asks for the child care portfolio in B.C. to be taken out of the Ministry for Children and Family Development and put into the Ministry of Education, for these same, already stretched-to-the-max school trustees to administer. I know it sounds crazy, but it is the only good solution we have.  Of course, the school board will need more money, a great deal more money and of course it has to come from taxes but we are at a place in B.C. where there is no other sensible choice. Currently we all pay taxes for our province’s children to learn for 12 years of formal education, but the human brain is already 90 per cent developed by age five. So we are really missing the boat when it comes to education."

Back to top>

Edleun Group, an Albertan Company, is Building a National Network of For-Profit Child Care Centres
Source: Alberta Venture, June 14, 2012

Excerpt: "On June 30, 2012, Loyalist College will close its Centre for Early Childhood Education (ECE), a lab school providing placements for Loyalist College ECE students. This decision affects four full-time College Support Staff members and many families in the area. Parents are understandably angry at the closing of what has been termed a “superb child-care centre” in the words of one parent."

Back to top>

Canada is Defaulting on its Generational Debt
Source: Vancouver Sun, June 4, 2012

Excerpt: "Ottawa is shortchanging First Nations schools in Alberta $15 million a year compared with similar provincial schools, says a new joint study by provincial, federal and First Nations staff. The numbers came out during a  Journal analysis that also found an average 39 per cent of children and young adults on reserves across the province are taking a pass on school altogether. The federal government and most First Nations reserves do not track the number of students who are not enrolled in school. But by comparing the academic nominal roll count, graduation lists and data from the national Indian Registry, more than 11,000 students between the ages of four and 21 are missing, creating a large and growing uneducated population in the province."

Back to top>

SK: SIAST Students Makeover Regina Daycare
Source: Leader-Post, May 31, 2012

Excerpt: "Can finger-painting, cup-stacking and learning to share set you up for a stellar career? Research says yes, according to Dr. Celia Ayala, chief executive officer of Los Angeles Universal Preschool, a nonprofit that funds 325 schools in Los Angeles County, Calif., using money from tobacco taxes. "When they enter kindergarten ready to thrive with all the social, emotional and cognitive skills, they perform at grade level or above," she said. "When they don’t, that’s where that achievement gap starts." Kids without that early boost have been shown to be more likely to get special-needs services, be held back a grade or two, get in trouble with the law and become teen parents. Preschool alumni have a better chance, she said."

Back to top>

1 Minute Action: Sign On For a Child Care System in Canada
Source: Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada (CCAAC), June 18, 2012

Excerpt: "In the lead-up to the upcoming UN Child Rights Review this fall, where representatives of the Governments of Canada will respond to the Committee's ongoing review of developments in our country, we all have an opportunity to advance our call for a Child Care System in Canada. You can help build momentum by adding your organization to the list of endorsers for the Declaration. Forward this information to your networks and spread the word."

Encyclopedia on ECD: Update on Attachment Topic
Source: Centre of Excellence in Early Childhood Development, June 2012

Description:  A new parent information sheet, "Parent-child attachment: A bond of trust " has been added. "When your baby cries or shows other signs of worry or distress, he is communicating his discomfort to you. If you react quickly to your infant needs by being loving and caring, he will feel more trusting and more secure with you. This is the basis of attachment. This emotional bond is essential to become a well-rounded individual. To learn more on Attachment, a topic recently updated by Dr. Marinus van IJzendoorn, read the experts’ texts and the synthesis in the Encyclopedia."

Back to top>

Description:  This topic has been updated by Mary K. Rothbart, PhD, Topic Editor. "Temperament refers to individual characteristics that determine the individual’s affective, attentional and motor responses in various situations. For example, temperament can affect young children’s mood and emotions, how they approach and react to situations, their level of fear, frustration, sadness and discomfort. These responses also play a role in subsequent social interactions and social functioning."

Report description: "This report describes the ongoing evaluation of the integrated platform of services being demonstrated at the New Brunswick Early Childhood Development Centres, and presents selected outcomes from the first two years of implementation.  Research outcomes are expressed in terms of benefits of an integrated model of services; impacts on children, families, staff and service providers; as well as some of the challenges encountered at the community and provincial levels. Findings from the four provincially funded demonstration sites have served to inform services and the development of policies and procedures at other sites (Carleton/York/Victoria (CYV) sites and La Boussole in Kent/Richibucto) that are at earlier stages of program implementation. The concluding section of this report provides recommendations with respect to policy and promising practices at the community and provincial levels. While these practices represents a predominately educational perspective, plans for year three data collection include the administration of key informant interviews with partners from Family Resource, Early Intervention, VON, Talk with Me, and Public Health, among others, to highlight promising practices that are emerging within these partnerships."

Back to top>

Examining How Place-Based Strategies Can Bridge Gaps in Services for Families
Source: Early Ed Watch, New America Foundation, June 7, 2012

Excerpt: "So-called "place-based strategies" have been gaining attention for their cross-cutting approaches to delivering housing, education and healthcare in a particular neighborhood or geographic area. The aim is to identify gaps in funding and avoid duplicating efforts. While it is premature to say that the approach is making a difference for young children, it is not too early to examine how various communities are using place-based funds and combining resources from different place-based programs."

CERIS Director Discusses Parenting and Discipline Across Cultures on TVO
Source: CERIS, June 2012

Description: "CERIS Ryerson Director Mehrunissa Ali talked to TVO about the cultural aspect of parenting and discipline in a Canadian context. In an expert panel to introduce a new TVO series “The Slap" Dr. Ali shared her perspective and research on parenting and the situation that newcomers find themselves in a new society with potentially different norms."

Back to top>

Description: "In this report we describe how conflicting expectations, misaligned system requirements, and programmatic firewalls on the federal level create formidable barriers to the operation of a well-coordinated system of high-quality early childhood education for children from birth to 5 years old. This lack of coordination means that our federal investments are neither operating as efficiently nor as effectively as possible. As a result we are missing the opportunity to increase the number of young children who enter kindergarten with the skills, knowledge, and dispositions necessary for school and lifelong success."

Not the Ceiling, but the Floor: Innovative Harlem Early Childhood Education Effort Complicated by Varying Government Regulations
Source: Centre for American Progress, June 1, 2012

Excerpt: "This case study was produced in conjunction with the Center for American Progress’s accompanying report on these issues, “Increasing the Effectiveness and Efficiency of Existing Public Investments in Early Childhood Education.” This report establishes a set of policies and administrative changes on the federal level that will begin to address disparities in require- ments for publicly-supported pre-K, Head Start, and subsidized child care programs."

Back to top>

Excerpt: "Welcome to the First EDI on the Go! the newsletter on the EDI projects in Canada and across the world. A teacher-completed instrument called the Early Development Instrument (EDI) was developed at the Offord Centre for Child Studies at McMaster University, to measure children’s ability to meet age appropriate developmental expectation at school entry. The Early Development project focuses on the outcomes for children as a health relevant, measurable concept that has long term consequences for individual outcomes and population health. The data derived from the collection of the EDI facilitates and encourages community, provincial, national and international monitoring of the developmental health of our young learners."

Implementing Observation Protocols: Lessons for K-12 Education from the Field of Early Childhood
Source: Center for American Progress, May 2012

Back to top>