Wayne G. Basler Library: ECED 2365 Final Practicum: Advocacy

Resources

Closing the Opportunity Gap for Young Children
Publication Date: 2023
Many young children in the United States are thriving and have access to the conditions and resources they need to grow up healthy. However, a substantial number of young children face more challenging conditions such as: poverty; food insecurity; exposure to violence; and inadequate access to health care, well-funded quality schools, and mental health care. In many cases, the historical origins of unequal access to crucial supports for children's physical, emotional, and cognitive development are rooted in policies that intentionally segregated and limited various populations' access to resources and create opportunity gaps that intertwine and compound to affect academic, health, and economic outcomes over an individual's life course and across generations. Closing the Opportunity Gap for Young Children, identifies and describes the causes, costs, and effects of the opportunity gap in young children and explores how disparities in access to quality educational experiences, health care, and positive developmental experiences from birth through age eight intersect with key academic, health, and economic outcomes. The report identifies drivers of these gaps in three key domains--education, mental health, and physical health--and offers recommendations for policy makers for addressing these gaps so that all children in the United States have the opportunity to thrive. In addition, the report offers a detailed set of recommendations for policy makers, practitioners, community organizations, and philanthropic organizations to reduce opportunity gaps in education, health, and social-emotional development.
From Preschool to Prosperity: The Economic Payoff to Early Childhood Education by Timothy J. Bartik
Publication Date: 2014
This book is focused on the key policy issues that today face early childhood education in the United States.

Answering the Call: What I’ve Learned from 40 Years of Advocating for Young Children
The Children's Defense Fund, Center for Law and Social Policy, NAEYC, National Women's Law Center, National Black Child Development Institute, and Southern Early Childhood Association have historically supported the training of individuals seeking to become early childhood advocates. New and effective models supported by other associations that focus on advocating for specific aspects of the continuum of high-quality early childhood education are evident through the work of the National Institute for Early Education Research, National Association of Elementary School Principals, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Foundation for Child Development, BUILD Initiative, and others. In certain parts of the country, issues perceived as government encroachment into the authority of the family (such as home visiting programs) are controversial, while in other areas they are viewed as welcome strategies for equalizing opportunities and increasing academic success upon school entry. High school students in civics and American history classes, supervised by their teachers and other school officials, manned tables near county polling places to provide information about voting on the Community 2000 priorities.
Advocating for Policies to Improve Practice
A focus on academics without consideration of children's social, emotional, and physical learning is not developmentally appropriate. This article examines how early childhood practitioners can become informed advocates with the knowledge and confidence to talk with families, community members, and policy makers about their work with young children. It shows how reforms can improve teacher training and compensation; create appropriate early learning expectations and experiences for young children; foster a system that aligns teaching, content, and assessment practices; and expand the field to become a community-based system of care and education.
Teachers as Advocates: If Not You—Who?
The article argues for the participation of teachers in educational policy debates in U.S. gifted and talented education that impact their students and schools, not only at the school level, but also at the district, state, and national levels. Topics include the social advocacy of gifted education by teachers, the importance of teacher cooperation and leadership to further gifted education awareness, and the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) gifted education organization.
Five Vignettes: Stories of Teacher Advocacy and Parental Involvement
Qualitative research can, and sometimes should, utilize fictional representations, particularly when attempting to connect to and collaborate with communities outside of the academy. This work utilizes an arts - informed methodology of representation to communicate the importance and potential consequences of teacher advocacy and parental involvement. Specifically, I use fiction as a mode of representing the interview data that my research participant and I generated. After analyzing the data using grounded theory methods, I chose to represent the data with five vignettes. Vignette 1 introduces the reader to Ms. Abeni, a public school teacher who is passionate about educating every child. Vignettes 2 - 4 illustrate challenges that Ms. Abeni faces in working with parents, students, and school personnel. The final vignette shows one of the consequences that Ms. Abeni faces for being such a radical change agent in her school. The vignettes are fictional representations of the real life of a teacher who I interviewed. I detail my process for creating the vignettes and offer justification for why the use of fiction is appropriate for this research study.
Advocacy and teacher preparation programs
While the words "advocate" or "advocacy" do not appear in the current ACEI standards, the rubrics for the standards do call for actions related to advocacy (all of the following are target level indicators): * 5a-"Candidates can adapt to evolving issues and conditions as time and situations change and make wise decisions according to time, place, and population." * 5b-"Candidates conduct professional inquiry into their professional practice and share the results of their inquiry with other professionals." * 5c-"Candidates know how to establish and maintain a positive, collaborative relationship with families to continuously promote the intellectual, social, emotional, and physical growth of their children." * 5d-"Candidates collaborate with community organizations that have an influence on students' learning and well-being."

NAEYC. (2017, Oct. 2). How YOU Can Advocate for Early Learning. YouTube.

Start Early. (2012, Apr. 16). Be an Early Childhood Advocate. YouTube.

NAEYC. (2016, Oct. 13). Advocating for the Early Childhood Profession. YouTube.

NAEYC Build Your Advocacy Skills
You support children and families every day. You are an expert. You are a storyteller. And you are—you must be—an advocate, who is informed, engaged, and effective. Since we know you already possess the passion, NAEYC has created a suite of resources and tools to help you gain the necessary knowledge and skills to elevate your voice and advocacy efforts to new levels.
The ounce of prevention fund early childhood advocacy toolkit
This toolkit is designed to prepare you to successfully advocate for public policies that benefit young children and their families.
Right From the Start Early Childhood Advocacy Toolkit
This toolkit is designed to prepare you to advocate successfully and with confidence for policies that benefit young children and their families.