I have talked about one international contact that I have made, Chris Hussey, who works with the British Association for Early Childhood Education. I'm sure that he is very busy and I have not heard much from him in the last couple of weeks.
Since then, I have made another international contact named Martina Carter. Martina is an early childhood specialist who works with Early Childhood Ireland. Martina informed me about the different subsidy programs available for families in Ireland. She explained that preschool aged children can attend preschool for 15 hours per week for one year, free of cost. I found this really interesting and it is similar to what the UK has in place. Early childhood education seems to be valued higher in both the UK and Ireland than it is here in the US.
I currently have messages to both Martina and Chris regarding the standards that their preschool programs use, school readiness, and their opinions on the achievement gaps in their countries. I look forward to seeing how their achievement gaps rank against ours here in the US. I suspect that they are much lower since the children in both countries receive free preschool. I will update as soon as I hear back from them.
Cassie-
ReplyDeleteI am so impressed that preschool is free (at least 15 hours a week). I am so looking forward to my trip to England and Scotland next year to see these programs in action and try to learn from their research and findings. It has been my experience that the UK is very dedicated to Early Childhood Education and has brought many of its practices into the US.I look forward to reading your next post!
Yes Preschool is free and I thought our center was the only one that stays that long. we do from 8-230 during the morning that regular classroom and from 3-6 tat full day full year where we continue to work with the children on different activities. I enjoyed reading your post and would love to read about Ireland and the British.
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