~Views from the Economists as it relates to Early Childhood~

Given those considerations, the field of economics also contributes by showing that alternative decision-making rules can help when allocating resources:

• Need bas ed. Policymakers implement policies that focus on outcomes that are particularly bad in the community. For example, if data suggest that child abuse and neglect are higher in a given community than in most other peer communities, then that community might decide to focus on a home visiting program that specifically addresses this issue.
• Outcome based. Policymakers may simply prioritize particular outcomes, based on such considerations as the values their constituents have rather than using the comparative rankings of communities on indicators. For instance, the legislature might choose improving the well-being of children in the foster care system as its signature issue and, as a result, focus on implementing programs that target children in foster care.
• Effectiveness based. This rule would lead to a policy that chooses the one approach that provides the greatest impact on outcomes for a given level of funding. Thus, based on this rule, the community would select the one early childhood program that provides the greatest dollar benefits for the number of children that can be served with the available funds.
• Cost-saving based. This decision-making rule requires that programs or strategies produce enough savings to pay back their costs in the long run. In contrast to the effectiveness-based approach, in this case, a program might have the biggest effect on outcomes of all the programs, but, if it did not pay for itself in the long run, it would still not be chosen.
• Marginal net benefit based. In this case, policymakers would fund programs or approaches up to the point at which the net benefits to the next person served are equal across programs. This decision-making rule would generally result in funding multiple programs up to the levels at which the marginal net benefits were equal.
  
  
  

I have been successful in receiving correspondence back from an International Early Childhood Professional.

I chose to research issues related to the childhood poverty in India. India has the world’s largest number of poor people in a single country.  India’s accomplishments have been made in its health care and education programs. There are more elementary school-aged children attending school now than in previous years. 

India has implemented government programs to reduce poverty in its country.  Over the last decade India has made efforts to alleviate poverty through increase economic growth, including liberalization of the economy, targeted programs, land and tenancy reforms, empowerment based approaches and the provision of basic services.

These programs aim to improve the quality of life and cater to the special needs of desperate parts of its population, such as children, women, disabled and older people through organized and sustainable development.

Sharing Web Resources

I chose to evaluate The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) website. For over 80 years, the National Association for the Education of Young Children has worked to raise the quality of programs for all children from birth through age eight. A tremendous part of NAEYC's efforts to improve early childhood education is through different systems of accreditation for programs that are committed to meeting national standards of quality.

 The NAEYC website provides publications that are published by NAEYC, as well as selected educational resources from other publishers. The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is committed to providing the best possible resources related to early childhood education to support professional development. NAEYC has the materials needed, with useful research and practical information about early childhood development and learning.

I chose to view a blog for an electronic resource that does not adhere to standards/guidelines of quality research. The blog is authored by an individual that gives opinions that has worked in helping children in her classroom. The blog earlyliteracycounts.blogspot.com is an electronic resource that does not adhere to standards/guidelines of quality research. This electronic resource is not accredited and the author is not known. She provides information that is helpful in exposing parents and teachers to early childhood activities that has assisted her in reaching the children she teaches.

In validating the credibility of online resources I am able to look at the URL to determine if the information is from a valid source, if it has a purpose and its author. This information will help me as I start to conduct my research.

References:

New York Library Association. (2010). Evaluating websites: Criteria and tools. Cornell University Library. Retrieved from http://olinuris.library.cornell.edu/ref/research/webeval.html

National Association for the Education of Young Children: www.naeyc.org