Scholar Practitioners Who Impact Future Change

 

As a scholar-practitioner in the early childhood field, it is my responsibility to inspire learning and contribute to the health and the well-being of children and families. Knowing that success comes through partnerships with parents and community I can maximize my abilities to meet the emerging needs of children, families, and communities by continuing my education and leading evaluation initiatives.

My greatest barrier to avoid when leading program evaluations is including all stakeholders. I tend to take the lead and fail to delegate; causing missed opportunities to grow from other people’s expertise. By working collaboratively with all stakeholders the valuable work we are doing is not “hampered by organizational fragmentation, infrastructure gaps, and inadequate tools and methods” (National Early Childhood Accountability Task Force (2013, p. 11).

To ensure that evaluations are effective I must work collaboratively with other state and local agencies within our unified and coherent system of standards, assessments, data, and professional development efforts to help design and implement an effective evaluation system or utilize the QRIS system that is in place to help strengthen early childhood education with well qualified educators, developmentally appropriate curriculum, and adequate learning time (National Early Childhood Accountability Task Force, 2013). As our country moves closer to an early childhood system of universal preschool perhaps this collaboration can take place on a national level.

 

Reference:

National Early Childhood Accountability Task Force. (2013). The report of the National Early Childhood Accountability Task Force: Taking Stock: Assessing and improving early childhood learning and program quality. Retrieved from: http://policyforchildren.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Taking-Stock.pdf