Early childhood product

Thanks for making an appointment with me today! My name is Kacy and I’m responding to your paper from St. Louis, MO. I understand you reached out to one of my colleagues about receiving this response earlier, and I apologize that I was unable to make that happen. Please note that our policy is to return papers within 48 hours of the appointment date, and you can reserve appointment slots up to two weeks in advance. You only need to upload your paper to the form by 5am ET the morning of your appointment. So in the future I’d recommend saving an appointment spot at least two days before you require the response.

I’ve taken a look at your appointment form and your requests, and I’ve provided some specific feedback in the margins of your draft. Before we get into that, however, I’d like to give you some more general comments on everything I read in your submission today.

A lot of the comments I’ve included here have to do with clarity in sentence structure. I can tell you’ve got something important to say about this accreditation process, but I’m not quite sure what it is. It’s important to make your argument really clear for your reader – even though it might seem overly obvious to you (cause you’re the expert!).

I’d recommend you check out our interactive modules (I’ve linked to them in my comments below) before getting into your revisions. In particular, the grammar modules could be very helpful in making sure you’re able to fully convey all of this important information to your reader. All right now let’s dive in to your draft!

Lua Shanks

January 29, 2020(revised)

Walden University

EP004: Evaluating Program

Part 1. Program Assessment Tools

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) aims to promote early quality learning for the young children, from newborns to eight years of age (citation?). Quality is achieved by enhanced constructive relationships involving policy and practice (Helm, Katz & NAEYC, 2011). This enhances child growth both communally, psychologically, physically, and cognitively. Furthermore, the program ensures that young children are bred and educated in an environment that is devoted to upholdingfull child ability implementation. Comment by Kacy Walz: Should this be “enhanced through”? Or maybe “by enhancing”? The wording currently is a bit confusing. Comment by Kacy Walz: Normally if a source has a specifically named author (or in this case authors) you would not include the name of the organization in the in-text citation. Check out the link from my previous comment for more information about citation formatting. You might also like our interactive APA modules. Comment by Kacy Walz: Using “enhances” again seems a bit repetitive. I’m also not quite sure what you mean by “this”? The subject of the previous sentence (relationships) is plural, so if you were replacing it with a pronoun that pronoun should also be plural. Check out this page for more information about noun/pronoun agreement. Comment by Kacy Walz: What program are you referring to? Is the NAEYC a program or an organization? Comment by Kacy Walz: How do they ensure this aspect? Do they manage housing/hospitals?

For a kindergarten to obtain NAEYC certification, it is necessary to meet the NAEYC program values. These values include; promoting positive relationship among children and adults; instituting strategies that augment learning and growth; exercising proper and resourceful teaching strategies; instituting an planned appraisal for children's learning; supporting children's health and nutrition; recruiting competent teachers; enhancing high-quality relations with families; influencing communal resources to support program objectives; keeping an healthy physical environment; and applying program management practice policies to make sure high-quality experiences for children, parents and staff (naeyc, 2008). Comment by Kacy Walz: A semicolon doesn’t work here because you’re not separating two independent clauses. Instead you could use a colon. Comment by Kacy Walz: This should either be “a positive relationship” or “positive relationships” depending on what you mean here. If you’d like more guidance on article usage, check out this page of our website. Comment by Kacy Walz: Check out my earlier comment for a link with some information about article usage. Comment by Kacy Walz: Even though this is a semicolon, it’s acting like a comma in this list. So here it’s working as a serial (or Oxford) comma. Comment by Kacy Walz: You’ve capitalized this acronym so far in your paper. Should this also be capitalized? Or should the other instances appear in lower case? Either way, you want to maintain consistency so your reader doesn’t get confused.

The NAEYC early learning program accreditation principles and assessment criteria intend to ensure high quality of children's each daydaily practice in early learning programs. This enhances high standard results in children. It helps create a mutual framework for the high standard required which is supported by the profession’s shared understanding of eminent practices. The accreditation maintains high quality learning and care in the program curriculum for young kids. Additionally, the NAEYC aids parents to find the most excellent early childhood experience for their young ones. Since each child is entitled to high standards of the early learning experience, The Naeyc Accreditation ensures that the early learning programs contain all aspects of quality learning in the class and other contexts. These standards make sure that the programs are secured, well prepared, and devised towards children’s superior results. NAEYC accreditation recounts to the children's promptness and good results in school; maximized educational achievement rates and well lifestyles (naeyc, 2008). Comment by Kacy Walz: This minor revision helps clarify that you are talking about practices you use each day. But if I have misunderstood your meaning here, ignore this change! 😊 Comment by Kacy Walz: Are you referring to standardized tests here? Will your reader know what this means? Comment by Kacy Walz: Who or what is setting this standard? How is it required? This is an example of passive voice, and in APA style you want to avoid passive voice in favor of active voice (as passive voice can lead to confusion for your reader).

From this point on I’m going to read through your draft without providing specific bubble comments so that I can comment on the writing as a whole. You can use the notes and resources I’ve included thus far as you work to revise the remainder of this paper. Please be sure to fully apply these suggestions prior to making another appointment.

An accredited program promotes constructive relationships between all children and adults. It also inspires every kid’s sense of personal worth and belonging to society, and fosters every kid’s ability to take part as a responsible member of the society. Additionally, an accredited NAEYC program will ensures it establishes a strategy that complies with its agendas for kids and that enhances learning and development in social, emotional, physical, language and cognitive areas.

Correspondingly, an assessment based on the principles of effective practice will ensure that the program implements teaching practices that are developmentally, culturally, and linguistically suitable. The teaching practices should address each kid’s learning and growth in the context of the program’s strategic goals. The assessment will as well ensure that the program uses various assessment strategies to offer data on kids’ learning and growth. These evaluations should occur during the interaction between teachers and parents.

Additionally, by using the NAEYC accreditation standards to assess a program, one will ensure that the program enhances health and nutrition for every child and secures children and staff from sicknesses. Similarly one will ensure that the program supports staff that has the appropriate qualifications and wisdom that is required to enhance children learning and development and to supports parent's requirements. In addition, one will as well ensure that the program promotes a positive relationship with every child's family to enhance children’s development.

Part II. Using Accreditation Standards to Evaluate an Early Childhood Program

Considering program assessment using the NAEYC accreditation principles, a parent will be capable to determine if the program’s context is secure in offering suitable and secure indoor and outdoor physical contexts. One will as well find out if the program has the ability to effectively use the policies, procedures, and systems that reinforces stable staff and powerful personnel, fiscal and program authority so that all young children, families, and staffs have great experiences (naeyc, 2008).

NAEYC engaging Diverse Families self-assessment checklist is a vet productive tool in program evaluation. This program gives families a chance to take part in the decision making process on issues related to the education of their kids. The program educators collaborate with families to create objectives for their kids' learning and education both in school and at their homes (Akin, 2013). It creates an opening for parents to give their needs personally or in writing. This assists the educators to recognize what the parents’ desires for their kids.

I carried out my research in Bolivar County Head Start Center. It is among the early preschools in the nation to attain accreditation by the National Association for the Education of Children (NAEYC). It is a child-centered program that focuses on fostering the love of learning byplay. Tompkins provides each child with a learning framework that is established to enhance children’s creativity, confidence, and independence. Tompkins supports the growth of children's social, emotional, physical and intellectual skills in a way that aligns the needs of every kid. Children are motivated to decide which activity to carry out, individual expression and explore materials.

Constructive early childhood education relies on relationships and interactions with children’s families and communities. Thus it is crucial to build positive partnership with children’s families and to involve families in the preschool context. Family engagement in the first years of life can support a child’s readiness for school along with continued academic and long term success. According to former research, children whose parents have been present achieve positive results particularly in the long term period (Aldarab & Almohtadi, 2013).

Based on my research conducted in Bolivar County Head Start Center, it is a great strategy to enhance family engagement. The program assists families to feel highly welcomed in the preschool. Families and teachers have related agendas in children’s growth. Therefore, it is essential to develop and maintain a relationship between home and school that will enhance children’s learning and development. At Bolivar County Head Start Center there are numerous strategies that promote family engagement. The school calls families to the classroom before the child’s start date; teachers ask the families about the children’s needs and interests; ask family to send a video to their children that teachers can use during difficult moments of transition; attach photographs of children and their families in the classroom walls where kids can easily see them, and invite families to take part in the assessment process.

As a way of encouraging and supporting family participation in the program schedule the program encourages family members to visit the classroom at any time; invite parents to take part in classroom tours; offer jobs to family members in the preschool routine; asking family members to help plan a classroom dinner night, and request specific family members to be speakers on a specific topics. Similarly, when staff is suspicious of a child’s developmental delay they document an explanation of the concern with suggested steps and resources for diagnostic evaluation. These strategies are according to the NAEYC accreditation since they establish and maintain collaborative relationships with every child’s family to enhance children’s growth in every aspect (Akin, 2013).

Safe, responsive, and nurturing environments are an essential part of establishing the learning and growth of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Such environments also assist to prevent challenging characters and serve as a main factor of inventions for infants and young children. Based on the research that I carried out, Bolivar County Head Start Center ensures a secure physical environment by; contains space for play activities inside and outside the classrooms, I observed that they were a space for eating, playing, toileting and sleeping; has various areas for various activities such as play and science; has playing materials that are convenient for kids’ ages, abilities, and interest; has a well-planned daily schedule and has provision for children to feel and develop a sense of community. These strategies are in line with the NAEYC accreditation standards. This is because the program maintains a safe physical environment for its students (Abu-Jaber & Ghieth, 2010).

Assessment of children's progress has been greatly valued in Bolivar County Head Start Center. According to the program director, the assessment assists the teachers to plan in accordance to children’s capabilities. Additionally, assessment enhances the ability to offer personalized activities for students in the contexts of growth. Their assessment system includes both formative and summative evaluations, measures to test for possible developmental or academic concerns and measures of the quality of the learning context. According to my respondent, their assessment is developmentally, culturally and linguistically appropriate for the children being evaluated. It involves measures that are valid, dependable, unprejudiced and ethical. They as well enhance the teaching and learning happening in the early childhood program. According to the NAEYC standards, evaluation for a child's progress should occur with the context of reciprocal communications with the parents and with the conditions of the cultural beliefs where the children was bred. These assessment outcomes should benefit the kids by informing sound decisions about the kids and the program enhancement (naeyc, 2008).

The opportunities and strengths of their program, involves families being given information in the family’s native language on various topics such as health, individualized learning plans, parent and children’s rights together with resources. In addition, families that have children with special needs are given alternatives for scheduling of staff, time, place, and invitees. The program staff employs various mechanisms such as home visits, and family conferences to facilitate dialogue with children families (Helm, Katz & NAEYC, 2011). Thereafter the families are asked to interpret the results as per the required results. The program is able to gather and give program information that includes program polices and operating procedures in a language they can understand.

Furthermore, educators update families concerning the program’s systems for children formal and informal progress assessments. They notify them the purpose of these assessments, the procedures employed when carrying such assessments, and procedures used to gather family efforts and information. Moreover, they express timing of assessments, and manner in which the assessment results obtained will be shared with families. Nevertheless, the program workforce communicates with families on daily routines concerning children’s activities and development milestones. They also provide shared care emerging issues and related issues that affect the wellness and development progress of their children (Helm, Katz & NAEYC, 2011).

The teachers also nurture families to be advocates of their children. These workers support families on a regular basis as a contribution to families’ decisions concerning their children goals and plans for behavior and services. They encourage families to hire concerns and foster collaborative working to find mutual satisfactory resolution which he staff incorporates into class practice. The staff encourages and promotes families to formulate effective solutions about services that the child needs and encourage them to be activists of the needed services (Helm, Katz & NAEYC, 2011). The educators provide families with information concerning programs and services from other organizations. They sustain and encourage efforts of families in negotiating health, psychological health, assessment, and learning services for their kids.

According to my findings in my research in Bolivar County Head Start Center, I would recommend the preschool to enhance their reciprocal relationships with the families. This can be done by upholding each family's right to make decisions for and with their children. If ever the family's priorities conflict with the teacher's knowledge, the teacher should collaborate with the family to determine common agendas and work towards creating mutually acceptable strategies. The program should as well create time to learn more about the families they work for. This involves learning about the families' languages, customs, activities, values, and beliefs so that they can provide a culturally and linguistic learning environment. This may require the teachers to reach out to families who may not give feedback to traditional strategies to interact with them.

The program should as well create a caring, equitable context of learners. The teachers in the program should identify each child's strengths and support the full inclusion of every child. This involves assisting the kids to know, identify and support each other as valued members of the society. The teachers should as well ensure that no child feels bullied or invisible. The teachers should as well create a trusting relationship with the children and nurture the relationships among them while developing their knowledge and skills. This will involve treating every child with the respect which will be achieved by eliminating language that is judgmental.

In addition, they should make proper use of the public resources such as collective services, cognitive and physical health organizations and learning programs including museums, neighborhood, and libraries. Also it is necessary to have lively participation in timely infancy programs through a wide collection of persons and organizations in manners that are consequential and have relevance to the lives and education of kids. The staff should mirror the cultural and ethnic populace of the children in the program.

I interacted with the director of Bolivar County Head Start Center by interviewing him whereby I asked him questions he was prepared for. According to the information shared by the director, I felt that they should enhance their reciprocal relationships with the families. Though the center has some strategies that they have set aside to help improve family engagement, I feel that they should be more constructive so as to improve the number of families willing to take part in their children's learning. Additionally, I also observed that some children remained in the classrooms as others were out playing. Thus I recommended that the teachers should create an equitable context for the learners, through this all the kids will feel appreciated which will improve their self-esteem which will, in turn, make them feel comfortable to play with others.

To suffice it, NAEYC Early Learning Accreditation Standards and Assessment tools guide all programs on how to improve. These standards together with others give a definition of quality early education programs helping juvenile children birth via Kindergarten. This supports program liability, and allows programs provide high quality learning experiences for an individual child.

References Comment by Kacy Walz: These references look pretty good! I only noticed a few minor formatting issues. If you have any questions or want to double-check your list, you can check out our resources for reference lists. I particularly like the Common Reference List Examples page and use it almost daily.

Aldarab, L &Almohtadi, M. (2015). What is the reality of preschool in Jordan? Journal of Education and Practice, Vol 9, pp 180-187.

Akin, E. Z. (2013). Examining the beliefs of Turkish preservice early childhood teachers regarding early childhood curriculum., Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 27(3), 302-318. Vol 27, Issue 3, pp 302-318

Helm, J, Katz, L&National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). (2011).Young Investigators, The project approach in the early years, 2nd Edition, New York, NY: Teachers College Press

Helm, J. H., & Katz, L. G. (2011). Young investigators: The project approach in the early years (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Abu –Jaber, M &Ghieth, E. (2010). Kindergarten teachers’ beliefs toward developmentally appropriate practice in Jordan, Early Childhood Education, Vol 38, pp 65-74