Below are resources for early childhood professionals and those serving the early childhood community.
A community effort to support the transition from pre-k to kindergarten
Research shows the early years are crucial for children’s development. The transition from pre-school to kindergarten is one important step during those years. The UChicago Consortium and Chapin Hall examined the implementation of one program designed to help children and their families with this transition. A Community Effort to Support the Transition from Pre-K to Kindergarten is a just-released joint study by the UChicago Consortium and Chapin Hall on the first full-year implementation of the Pre-Kindergarten to Kindergarten Transition Project (PKTP).
Human-Centered Design can create more effective social service programs
A new blog post explains that social service organizations can create more effective and efficient programs by using Human-Centered Design, which utilizes a deep understanding of participants’ and users’ needs and day-to-day challenges to inform the program design process. Child Trends is using Human-Centered Design principles to develop a new tool aimed at improving home visiting programs’ connections with community-level services. A key aspect of this work is to encourage social service stakeholders to articulate their needs and seek solutions through creative problem-solving and innovative design.
New report examines ways to support the psychological well-being of the early care and education workforce
A new report using data from the National Survey of Early Care and Education finds that early care and education teachers who feel respected in the workplace and have day-to-day stability in classroom assignments report greater psychological well-being. A growing body of research suggests that a mentally healthy early care and education workforce can provide the best quality of care for children.
2018 Partner Plan Act conference
Illinois Action for Children, through the Illinois State Board of Education’s Community Systems Statewide Supports Program, hosted the 2018 Partner Plan Act conference on June 12th in Bloomington. This conference shared information on Illinois Action for Children’s new Community Systems Development Team, strategies for bolstering early childhood collaboration efforts, and stories of successful partnerships. The event was a great success, bringing together nearly 100 early childhood stakeholders from across the state. The presentations covered a range of topics related to building collaboration leadership, addressing early childhood policy issues, and using data to better serve families. You can download any of the presentation materials.
