Module 1 Assignment

The first thing that came to mind while reading there would be a policy course is that I would learn more about policies related to advocacy.  This is an area I am really weak in because politics are not something I know a lot about.  I generally am aware of the latest policies that come up in the news as well as in the early childhood community, but not so much the numerous initiatives out there to support education.  I wasn’t really intimidated but rather ready to master a new area of early childhood I had not focused on in the past.  I understand that to better do my job I need to have a better handle on policies and procedures.  It also is part of my job because we are creating the policies for how QRIS takes place in Nevada.  As I seem to be in the middle of this system here in Southern Nevada I can think of a few goals that would be attainable. 

One of my goals will be to continue to become more familiar with QRIS of other states that have been doing them longer in order to assist me in developing procedures.  We have a barebones procedure manual but as we are going through the steps we continue to tweak them to see what is best and realistic.

The second goal I have is to learn more about the various systems around the early childhood community.  Nationally, there are many organizations that are influencing young children through their services.  Because there are so many different streams of early childhood professionals we tend to overlap in services where we could collaborate and become stronger and better equipped to assist families.  By clearly understanding the role some of these organizations play I will be able to better adapt it to my current work in the field.  The BUILD Initiative, NIEER, Administration for Children and Families and NAEYC are a few for me to begin with.

My third goal is to closely examine the public policies that address young children in my community and state.  This would help me be a better advocate and share the information with the many practitioners I work with daily.  I have attended the local early childhood advisory council meetings but would like to become more involved with the real policy work.