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This website offers links to thousands of publications and data sets related to child care and early education. Data and resources can be searched by author, state, or topic. For information on out-of-school time issues, try typing in "after school" in the search bar.
This report provides a portrait of the early childhood workforce compared to 25 years ago, and examines economic insecurity and use of public benefits among this predominantly female, ethnically diverse workforce. Although not addressed specifically in this report, workforce conditions are similarly an important issue for the school-age/Out-of-School Time (OST) field.
This article presents recommendations from the RAND Corporation report, "Getting to Work on Summer Learning." Specifically, it focuses on those recommendations related to the hiring and training of teachers for school district-run summer learning programs. To ensure a successful summer, the report and article emphasize the need for districts to begin planning by January, to hire early, and to provide professional development and coaching for teachers. Recommendations in the report come from examination of summer programs offered in Massachusetts, Ohio, Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania and New York.
On October 18, 2016 the National Center on Afterschool and Summer Enrichment (NCASE) hosted a webinar designed to explore strategies for building sustainable quality improvements, ways to engage school-age programs, create standards, select assessment tools, and provide support. Participants learned about national trends and promising practices from two states and shared strategies to build a system that works.
Topics for the webinar included state examples of:
• Building sustainable quality improvements
• Engaging school-age programs in quality improvement systems
• Promising practices around creating standards, selecting assessment tools, and providing support
This report offers recommendations to build a workforce that is unified by the foundation of the science of child development and early learning and the shared knowledge and competencies that are needed to provide consistent, high-quality support for the development and early learning of children from birth through age 8.
On October 5, 2016 the National Center on Afterschool and Summer Enrichment and the National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance came together to offer an interactive webinar session to help better understand the needs of States, Territories, and Tribes around supporting school-age children in family child care. The National Association of Family Child Care presented an overview of the current status of family child care and supports for providers. Topics for the webinar include:
•The importance of family child care in supporting school-age children and their families
•Challenges facing family child care providers and the States, Territories, and Tribes that support them
•Examples of strategies and resources to support family child care, with a focus on school-age
Decades of research has documented what is referred to as the “summer slide" – the impact of summer vacation’s learning loss on the educational achievement of children, particularly low-income children. The achievement gap is not really a result of “summer slide” alone but the cumulative effect that begins with school readiness. View this fact sheet for research and statistics on the importance of high-quality care and summer learning.
Professional development systems (PDS) and quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS) are two important subsystems of the comprehensive early childhood and school-age system. State and Territory leaders can use this self-assessment tool to guide alignment across similar system functions. Leaders can use the tool to develop a common understanding of the mission and goals, identify gaps, and strengthen the design, implementation, and sustainability of both subsystems.
This tool is organized by five suggested functions:
Define and Coordinate Leadership;
Enhance and Align Regulations and Standards;
Finance Strategically;
Create and Support Improvement Strategies; and
Recruit and Engage Stakeholders.
This website provides resources on program planning, managing staff and volunteers, planning lessons, technology, and materials using a real-life, project-based approach to learning. The website includes sections on digital storytelling, inquiry-based learning, youth media training, fostering positive climates, and nurturing creativity.
This website provides links to all issues of Afterschool Matters, a national, peer-reviewed journal aimed at practitioners who develop and manage youth programs, as well as researchers and policymakers. The journal is published two to three times a year; each journal is 48-60 pages. Articles on almost any topic related to school-age care are available here.