Sharing Web Resources--NIEER

Actually, the website I chose to study last week is  National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies (http://www.naccrra.org/). However, I found that in this website, there is not much information about the topic of this week—Changing Demographics and Diversity. I think I need to be flexible and I try to look into another website that was offered from the resources last week. Therefore, this week, I will locate on another website— National Institute for Early Education Research/NIEER (http://nieer.org/). This website focuses on offering research-based advice and technical assistance to policymakers, journalists, researchers and educators, to support high quality, effective early childhood education for all young children.
As I read the vision of NIEER, this institute’s research program aims to:
Provide a vision of early education excellence in terms that are usable by policy makers and understandable to the general public
Monitor and evaluate national and state progress toward early educational excellence
Develop and analyze model legislation, standards, regulations and other policies required to improve quality and increase access to good preschool programs
Explain the costs, outcomes and economic benefits of alternative policies
(Retrieved July 12th, 2014 from http://nieer.org/about/vision)

There is one issue that interests me and is from one of the research topics—Teachers, where I can find the latest information related to teacher quality, teacher salaries and compensation, and teacher training and professional development. (NIEER, 2014) This issue is about what it takes to develop and maintain effective instructional practices for preschool teachers. It is a preschool policy brief, issued in April 2011, titled Degrees in Context: Asking the Right Questions about Preparing Skilled and Effective Teachers of Young Children, and written by Marcy Whitebook and Sharon Ryan. The authors emphasize the critical role of preschool teachers in children’s development but the insufficient consideration of "the complexities of education and the workplace environment”  that are vital for teachers’ professional development and children’s development. It is necessary to "improve the quality of teacher education programs” and develop workplace policies that support teachers to "be able to consistently perform well and to continue to learn and improve.” (Whitebook and Ryan, 2011)

I found some related information about diversity. Among the twelve research topics in this website, including Access, Assessment, Economics and Finance, English Language Learners, Governance and Accountability, Outcomes, Quality and Curriculum, Special Education, State Pre-K Evaluations, State Programs, Teachers, and Universal and Targeted, diversity is reflected in some of these topics, such as English Language Learners (ELLs), which provides information on culturally appropriate preschool, diversity issues related to preschool, and what is known about English language learners in preschool; Quality and Curriculum, which identifies inclusion as one of the elements of quality in preschool programs; Special Education, Which shows another diversity— ability diversity; etc..

I would like to share the the best practices for young DLLs (Dual-language learner), which are stated in the article Preparing Young Hispanic Dual Language Learners for a Knowledge Economy (Figueras-Daniel and Barnett, 2013):
Know what language and countries children and their families consider most important to their cultural heritage.
Build on what children know, their strengths and their interests.
Create a classroom environment that respects and reflects the languages and cultures of the children in an accurate way.
Keep a consistent and predictable sequence of daily events.
Keep the classroom organized and clearly labeled utilizing both pictures and words.
Teach new words and concepts around thematic units accompanied by so- phisticated picture books.
Provide explicit vocabulary instruction in English, repeating new vocabulary words often and in context.
Use a combination of gestures, real-life objects, and pictures to support read- ing aloud and discussions.
Engage children in one-on-one discussions that utilize rich vocabulary as of- ten as possible.
Use children’s home language during instruction and for book reading when possible.
Encourage children to share words or phrases in their home language during individual and group settings.
Encourage all children to work together to accomplish a task.

Reference:
Figueras-Daniel, AAlexandra and Barnett, W. Steven. (2013). Preparing Young Hispanic Dual Language Learners for a Knowledge Economy.  Retrieved from http://nieer.org/publications/policy-matters-policy-briefs/policy-brief-preparing-young-hispanic-dual-language
National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER). (2014). Guide to research topics. Retrieved from http://nieer.org/
Whitebook, Marcy and Ryan, Sharon. (2011). Degrees in Context: Asking the Right Questions about Preparing Skilled and Effective Teachers of Young Children. Retrieved from http://nieer.org/publications/policy-matters-policy-briefs/policy-brief-–-degrees-context-asking-right-questions