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Full-Text Articles in Early Childhood Education
Kindergarten For Equity: A Policy Advocacy Statement, Amy Houlihan
Kindergarten For Equity: A Policy Advocacy Statement, Amy Houlihan
Dissertations
The urgency to close the achievement gap means it is our moral imperative to provide all children with the opportunities necessary to succeed as early as possible. Knowing the critical timing of a child’s brain development from birth to age five, we cannot afford to wait until a child is six or seven years old to begin developing their academic and social emotional capacity. This policy advocacy document supports a statewide mandate for children to attend kindergarten at age five throughout the state of Illinois. With little need for increased resources to accommodate the mandate, the social, moral and ethical …
An Evaluation Of Full-Day Kindergarten Programming, Amy Houlihan
An Evaluation Of Full-Day Kindergarten Programming, Amy Houlihan
Dissertations
The purpose of this program evaluation document is to provide a rationale and structure for implementing full-day kindergarten. The persistence of the achievement gap in the United States requires considerable and deliberate action to narrow and eliminate the gap over time. With the evolving educational landscape and the adoption of the Common Core State Standards, early education, including systematically designed and implemented full-day kindergarten are one way to afford children the opportunity to begin their education on pace to succeed. This program evaluation examines the differences between half-day kindergarten and full-day kindergarten programs including data analysis from the first year …
Ensuring Student Success In Full-Day Kindergarten: Purposeful Professional Development And Professional Learning Communities, Amy Houlihan
Ensuring Student Success In Full-Day Kindergarten: Purposeful Professional Development And Professional Learning Communities, Amy Houlihan
Dissertations
The change leadership model, developed by Wagner et al. (2008), was utilized to assess the context, culture, conditions and competencies of a large suburban school district during the early stages of districtwide implementation of full-day kindergarten. With overwhelming support from families, teachers and administrators, the change plan revolves around ongoing and purposeful professional development for staff building upon systematic work of Professional Learning Communities in order to provide a high quality full-day kindergarten program across twenty-three kindergarten program sites. When districts and schools focus on purposeful professional development and enhanced practice of Professional Learning Communities programs can work to provide …