Regardless of the various journeys we take or paths we find ourselves on when we discover CLASS, we all believe in the power of interactions to change children’s lives. While our focus is on classrooms (broadly defined), as educators and passionate education advocates we believe in the right of all children to experience nurturing interactions, both inside and outside any classroom walls.
While preparing for a recent presentation on "My CLASS Philosophy," I had many thoughts running through my head. There was no firm agenda that I was asked to follow, just to share my philosophy. Coming from a business background, I did what I have been trained to do—a SWOT Analysis. According to Wikipedia, a SWOT Analysis or SWOT matrix is:
A recently published issue brief by the Learning Policy Institute examines exactly what it would take to create cooperative early childhood education (ECE) policy change in California. The issue brief presents recommendations to California policymakers on how to improve early childhood education for all children. These recommendations are based on a previous report: Understanding California’s Early Care and Education System.
Greetings! One of my New Year’s resolutions is to blog more than last year. While I’m not the most prolific, when I do post, please know it comes from the heart. And, there’s nothing I’m more passionate about than Head Start and its mission to support young children and families through a program of comprehensive services that can move mountains for our most vulnerable young children.
Is this your program’s first year conducting CLASS observations? Do you have new teachers who have never been observed? Implementing any kind of change in an organization can be challenging, so it’s important to provide many opportunities to discuss the factors behind the change and allow your staff to engage in open-ended discussions.
Here are some conversation points to help your team feel at ease before CLASS observations begin.
Welcome to our newest blog series dedicated to the research we're reading and thinking about.
For our first post in this series, we’re looking at exclusionary disciplinary practices with new eyes as states are submitting their ESSA plans. The Every Student Succeeds Act requires states to discuss how they will help local education agencies reduce their overuse of exclusionary discipline practices. These are actions like suspensions or expulsions that send students out of classrooms. Not only do exclusionary discipline practices negatively affect school climate (something we care a lot about here at Teachstone!), evidence shows that students of color, particularly Black students, are disproportionately on the receiving end.
This post was originally published by the McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership.
I often think about my time working as a director in a child care program and wonder how different things would have been if I had known then, what I know now. As time passes and I gain new experiences and insights on leadership in early childhood education, I frequently ask myself what I would do differently if I could relive that period of time. In my reflection, I have realized that my conclusions are from my point of view. Recognizing that the experience I had as a program administrator affected so many, I thought it would be interesting to learn what my team would like for me to have known.
In this day and age, the likelihood of finding an opinion or theory that everyone agrees on seems impossible. The world of early education is no different. Though most educators and parents agree that Pre-K serves as the foundation for increasing the likelihood of a child’s success later in life, there is still dissent surrounding how Pre-K programs should be managed to maximize this success.
Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) is having its moment in education. SEL and CLASS program developers and practitioners would be well-served to better understand how SEL and CLASS initiatives are intricately intertwined, and how they can help drive positive outcomes in each area.
If you’re reading this blog post, then there’s now a 100% chance that you’ve engaged with Teachstone’s free resources. After all—our blog is just one type of our free resources. You might have also attended a webinar, downloaded an e-book, or even scanned through our research papers.
