Education: Current Trends and Issues

Educational trends and research that we will see in the coming years include:

• Standards-based education, focusing on outcomes for student learning (Schumacher, Irish, & Lombardi, 2003)
• Full-day kindergarten providing more time for in-class experiential learning (Walston & West, 2004)
• Research on the economic impact of the child-care industry and its effect on the local community; employment needs are identified to maintain a workforce (Rolnick & Grunewald, 2003).
• Prekindergarten opportunities for every four-year-old in the United States, the universal Pre-K movement (Pre[K] Now, 2006)
• National School Readiness Indicators Initiative, creating a set of measurable indicators defining school readiness (Getting Ready, February 2005)
• Quality Rating Systems, a system of rating the quality of child-care programs that is tied to incentives and reimbursement rates (NCCIC, June 2002)
• TEACH, professional development for early-care and early-education teachers tied to education and training incentives (TEACH, 2004)
• Early childhood assessment, looking at appropriate assessments spurred on by the debate surrounding the Head Start National Reporting System assessment (Horton & Bowman, 2001).
• Gubernatorial Leadership for Early Care and Education (Lovejoy, 2006)
• Environmental Rating scales used in measuring the quality of early childhood programs (Harms, Clifford, & Cryer, 1998)