Children's Champions Update
February 18, 2010
*Affiliate Leaders take NAEYC Recommendations Directly to US Congress
*NAEYC/NGA Brief on Building a Professional Development System
*New Children of Immigrants Data Tool
NAEYC RECOMMENDATIONS ON MAJOR FEDERAL LEGISLATION ONLINE
On February 3, affiliate leaders of NAEYC of almost every state in the country met with their Congressional delegations in Washington, DC on key birth-to-eight recommendations for federal legislation. The recommendations relate to funding issues, the reauthorizations of the Child Care & Development Block Grant, Child Nutrition Act, Elementary and Secondary Education Act (also known as No Child Left Behind), and the need to move the Early Learning Challenge Fund quickly in the Senate. These recommendations flow from NAEYC's Call to Action. You can read the specific NAEYC recommendations and the Call to Action at
www.naeyc.org/policy/federal/recommendations
STATE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SYSTEMS
The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices has published Building an Early Childhood Professional Development System, a brief coauthored by NAEYC and based on the NAEYC state policy blueprint. This Issue Brief identifies the initial steps governors can take to build a comprehensive early childhood professional development system for all program staff and personnel who work with young children, including:
- Coordinate early childhood professional development policies;
- Implement research-based standards for early childhood professional development;
- Ensure access to professional development opportunities; and
- Gather and use data on characteristics of the early childhood workforce to improve professional and program quality.
CHILDREN OF IMMIGRANTS
The Urban Institute has developed The Children of Immigrants Data Tool, a comprehensive interactive resource for exploring the lives of the nation's 16.4 million children with foreign-born parents. The online tool uses recent American Community Survey data and enables users to generate detailed charts of the characteristics of children age 0 to 17 nationwide and by state.
Users can create charts and tables featuring one or more of 21 demographic, social, and economic characteristics, including citizenship and immigrant status of children and their parents; children's race, ethnicity, and school enrollment; parents' education and English proficiency; and family composition, income, and work effort. The tables can be downloaded in Excel. To help improve the Data Tool, users can provide feedback by email or by completing the brief online survey at the end of a session.
A companion publication, "Children of Immigrants: National and State Characteristics," highlights key national data and variations across states.
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