American Early Childhood Education

Question Description: Review Kagan’s article “American Early Childhood Education: Preventing or Perpetuating Inequity?,” and note the six early childhood inequities the author presents. They range from the kinds of inequity that affect young children even before they get to preschool, to inequity in the infrastructure that supports early childhood education. Then take particular note of the six specific policy recommendations meant to lead toward a more equitable, high-quality early childhood system.
Choose one of the inequities in which you are most interested.
Then, analyze each of the six policy recommendations, and determine in what way(s) any or all might help alleviate or eradicate the inequity you chose.
For this assignment submit:

A brief description of the inequity on which you decided to focus
A summary of each of the six policy recommendations
An evaluation, based on what you have learned so far, of the ways in which any of the six recommendations does/does not help reduce/eradicate the selected inequity
A summarizing paragraph reflecting on any insight(s) you gained about the inequity on which you chose to focus
An assessment of ways your current understanding of issues related to equity in early childhood education has broadened and deepened and how this new knowledge and awareness might influence your work with young children and families and capacity to influence positive social change.

(Assignment length: 2 pages minimum)

Answer preview

The author gives six essential recommendations that the government can adopt to address childhood inequity (Kagan, 2009). The first recommendation is creating a national center on early care and education research, which will be under the Institute of Education Sciences. This entity will have the mandate to conduct thorough research and come up with recommendations on how the government should address the pertinent issues that they identify as imperative in early childhood education. The second recommendation is the collection of relevant annual data on American early childhood education. The data should be with regards to the issues that affect equal early childhood education. These data will come in handy when making policies regards early childhood education. The third recommendation is developing a standard credential for all the lead early childhood teachers. As a result, there will be uniformity in teaching. The fourth recommendation is increasing funding for policy-related studies. The lack of adequate data on early childhood education challenges is due to inadequate funding.

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American Early Childhood Education