Course Goals

Dynamics of Early Childhood Policies and Systems is the course that I have patiently been waiting for in this degree program because my daily work is around early childhood comprehensive system building.  My early childhood master's degree specialization was public policy and advocacy.  I am an early childhood advocacy junkie.  I subscribe to about six different advocacy newsletters to stay up to date on early childhood issues in Washington, DC.  The reauthorization of the Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG) was finally passed last November after more than ten years of trying.  I have included a picture of President Obama signing CCDBG into law!!

I am very excited to share with my classmates my experiences of working within a statewide early childhood comprehensive system.  Child Care Aware of American is non-profit that works to improve the quality of child care and conducts a variety of studies on the levels of quality in each state and each type of care.  I am also proud to say that my daughter that is getting ready to start her last year of law school is doing a legal internship at Child Care Aware of American doing policy writing.

I am currently analyzing environment rating scales virtual subscale data compared to our early learning guidelines to determine if the implementation of the guidelines has made an impact on the quality of care for children in child care programs in Oklahoma.  I am hopeful that some of the system research for this course will provide some insight to this analysis.

My three professional goals are as follows:

1. Attach scholarly literature to my practical application of early childhood systems to give me a more robust understanding of the total system.
2. Expand my knowledge of each of the critical components within a comprehensive early childhood system to ensure that all sectors are represented and accounted for to improve the lives of children birth to age 8.
3. Strengthen my skills as a policy writer to use my knowledge to evoke change in my state as well as nationally.

I am so excited about this class I just can't wait to get started.