More on NAEYC

The organization that I chose to focus on is NAEYC. You may access their website at http://www.naeyc.org. NAEYC focuses mainly on three broad goals. They strive to ensure professional practice and working conditions. They provide support by helping programs attain high quality system of service to the children and families. They also organize groups of other professionals who are supportive and can provide feedback to other professionals to ensure excellence in early childhood education.

The topic that caught my attention was Family Engagement. This is a prevalent issue also in the Head Start organization. As we know, parents and families are children’s first educators. Research has shown that students, who have families that are actively involved in their early education, tend to do better in later educational years.

NAEYC has provided six principles of Family Engagement on the website. The principles are as follows, taken directly from the website:


Principle 1: Programs invite families to participate in decision making and goal setting for their child
Principle 2: Teachers and programs engage families in two-way communication
Principle 3: Programs and teacher engage families in ways that are truly reciprocal
Principle 4: Programs provide learning activities for the home and in the community
Principle 5: Programs invite families to participate in program-level decisions and wider advocacy efforts
Principle 6: Programs implement a comprehensive program-level system of family engagement” (NAEYC, 2013)

The website also provide examples of early childhood programs who are leading the field in Family Engagement.  One such school is the Montgomery County Community College Children’s Center in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania.  This school is supporting family engagement in very effective ways, some of which are the same methods that my program is currently using.

Methods of Family Engagement use by Montgomery County Community College Children’s Center:
1. Parent Advisory Council
2. Ensuring diversity by providing bi-lingual staff and staff of color
3. Use of Creative Curriculum online assessment with parent access
4.  Reciprocal Relationships


References:
http://www.naeyc.org/about/mission


http://www.naeyc.org/familyengagement/programs/mccc-childrens-center