Working Families’ Access to Early Childhood Education

In this brief, using data from the Census Bureau, state administrative systems, and a Carsey survey of working parents, author Jessica Carson examines the child care landscape of the Upper Valley of New Hampshire and Vermont and links these findings to a discussion of early childhood education policy and practice. She reports that 96 percent of Upper Valley parents surveyed said child care is necessary in order for them to work. The number of slots offered by licensed (home- and center-based) early childhood education providers in the Upper Valley is 2,000 short of the estimated number of young children whose parent or parents are in the labor force. Further, the cost of licensed care for an Upper Valley family with just one infant is equivalent to 16 percent of median family income, more than twice the 7 percent that the federal government considers affordable. She discusses possible multipronged strategies and policies to address the challenges working parents face accessing early childhood care and education in the Upper Valley and beyond

Access to early childhood education in Australia

This report presents AIFS research undertaken to identify gaps in access to and participation in preschool programs by Australian children in the year before full-time school review how "access" to preschool services is conceptualised and defined; identify the issues and factors that affect access to preschool services; and document and provide recommendations on how access to preschool services can be measured beyond broad performance indicators. To meet these objectives, the publication includes a review of Australian and international literature; results of consultations across Australia; and analyses of participation of children in early childhood education using a number of Australian datasets. The key messages identified by the study included: "Access" to Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Australia is considered to be more than just "participation" in ECE. It should, for example, also cover elements of quality, relevance to children. However, data are not available that would allow measurement against such a broadly defined concept of "access". There are difficulties and limitations in using existing survey and administrative data to measure "access" by "participation" in ECE. Nevertheless these data provide broad indications of ECE participation. Participation rates have the advantage of being easily understood and easily compared over jurisdictions and time. The complexity and variation in how ECE is delivered in Australia has implications for the measurement of access. This is related to different nomenclature used, and varied ages at which children are eligible to attend ECE. The different models of delivery of ECE also complicate the measurement issues, with long day care a widespread provider of ECE in some states/territories, but not others. Given there are difficulties in measuring access, this research used a number of datasets, to provide a fuller understanding of access across Australia. The analyses showed that children missing out on ECE were more often represented among disadvantaged families, and whose children are perhaps in greatest need of ECE to achieve school-readiness. The groups of children who stood out in these analyses as being less likely to be participating in ECE were Indigenous children and children from NESB backgrounds

Fatal Attraction? Access to Early Retirement and Mortality

We estimate the causal effect of early retirement on mortality for blue-collar workers. To overcome the problem of endogenous selection, we exploit an exogenous change in unemployment insurance rules in Austria that allowed workers in eligible regions to withdraw from the workforce up to 3.5 years earlier than those in non-eligible regions. For males, instrumental-variable estimates show a significant 2.4 percentage points (about 13%) increase in the probability of dying before age 67. We do not find any adverse effect of early retirement on mortality for females. Death causes indicate a significantly higher incidence of cardiovascular disorders among eligible workers, suggesting that changes in health-related behavior explain increased mortality among male early retirees.early retirement, mortality, premature death, health behavior, endogeneity, instrumental variable

Orally active antischistosomal early leads identified from the open access malaria box.

BACKGROUND: Worldwide hundreds of millions of schistosomiasis patients rely on treatment with a single drug, praziquantel. Therapeutic limitations and the threat of praziquantel resistance underline the need to discover and develop next generation drugs. METHODOLOGY: We studied the antischistosomal properties of the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) malaria box containing 200 diverse drug-like and 200 probe-like compounds with confirmed in vitro activity against Plasmodium falciparum. Compounds were tested against schistosomula and adult Schistosoma mansoni in vitro. Based on in vitro performance, available pharmacokinetic profiles and toxicity data, selected compounds were investigated in vivo. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Promising antischistosomal activity (IC50: 1.4-9.5 µM) was observed for 34 compounds against schistosomula. Three compounds presented IC50 values between 0.8 and 1.3 µM against adult S. mansoni. Two promising early leads were identified, namely a N,N'-diarylurea and a 2,3-dianilinoquinoxaline. Treatment of S. mansoni infected mice with a single oral 400 mg/kg dose of these drugs resulted in significant worm burden reductions of 52.5% and 40.8%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The two candidates identified by investigating the MMV malaria box are characterized by good pharmacokinetic profiles, low cytotoxic potential and easy chemistry and therefore offer an excellent starting point for antischistosomal drug discovery and development

Access to early childhood education in Australia: insights from a qualitative study

Based on interviews with 94 parents in Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and Western Australia, this report investigates parents\u27 knowledge of and attitudes towards early childhood education. Executive summary This report documents the background, methodology and findings from the Access to Early Childhood Education (AECE): Qualitative Study, undertaken by the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) and commissioned by the then Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR; now the Department of Education) on behalf of the Early Childhood Data Subgroup (ECDSG). This research was commissioned within the context of the National Partnership Agreement on Early Childhood Education (NP ECE), which jointly committed the Commonwealth and all state and territory governments to achieving universal access to preschool by 2013. The AECE Qualitative Study was undertaken in order to develop a qualitative evidence base about how the concept of “access” to early childhood education (ECE) is defined and understood, and to explore what reasons and barriers exist in relation to access to ECE. A qualitative framework was chosen for this study to enable more in-depth study of any barriers to ECE, and/or factors that lead to parents making particular decisions about their children’s use of ECE. &nbsp

Early Childhood ABA: Issues of Early ASD Detection and Access to Intervention

This paper provides an overview of ABA, summarizes findings from studies of early childhood ABA with a focus on intervention dosage, and addresses the influence of demographics and culture on early ASD detection and access to early childhood ABA intervention. Although, this paper is not inclusive of all the ABA studies conducted between 1987-2007 and beyond, it summarizes the findings of some of the historical studies in early childhood ABA. These historical studies were located through two systematic reviews including studies between the years 1987- 2007 and selected if they met the following criteria: (1) intervention was based on behavioral principals (2) participants were five years of age or younger at the onset of intervention (3) intervention was in-home or clinic-based (4) utilized a group research design. A total of seven studies met the inclusion criteria. All seven studies reported increasing intellectual, educational, and behavioral gains for children with ASD. However, three of the studies did not report significant differences across all outcome measures favoring the treatment group. The seven studies reported mixed findings regarding treatment dosage with weekly treatment dosage ranging from 40 to 19.45 hours. Additional findings indicated that demographics and culture should be considered as they influence the early detection of ASD and access to intervention. Based on these findings, future research should further investigate how these variables along with others moderate or mediate early childhood ABA outcomes associated with early ASD detection and access to intervention

How Much Can High-Quality Universal Pre-K Reduce Achievement Gaps?

Many children of color and children from low-income families enter kindergarten without the academic skills they need to succeed. Compared to their white peers, African American and Hispanic children are anywhere from 9 to 10 months behind in math and 7 to 12 months behind in reading when they enter kindergarten. These achievement gaps are concerning: Math and reading abilities at kindergarten entry are powerful predictors of later school success, and children who enter kindergarten already behind are unlikely to catch up. Moreover, in the past 50 years, minimal progress has been made toward reducing these achievement gaps. Ensuring that all children are entering kindergarten with the foundational academic skills they need to succeed is a major priority for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners alike. Early childhood education programs show promise toward this goal. Research suggests that participation in a high-quality early childhood education program can enhance children's development, reduce achievement gaps at kindergarten entry, and even have long-term benefits for children's school trajectories. However, access to high-quality pre-K in the United States remains quite low and highly unequal due to two problems. First, although pre-K attendance has increased in the past two decades, rates of access to early education vary widely as a function of children's socioeconomic backgrounds: African American, Hispanic, and low-income children are less likely to access center-based early childhood education than their white and more affluent peers. Second, the quality of most early education programs -- particularly those attended by low-income children of color -- is not high enough to substantially improve academic readiness. Recognizing the tremendous potential for high-quality preschool to improve children's outcomes, this report considers how a universal publicly funded prekindergarten program in the United States could decrease both disparities in access to early learning and achievement gaps at kindergarten entry. Data from two nationally representative datasets and prior results from evaluations of high-quality universal pre-kindergarten were analyzed to estimate the extent to which a national high-quality universal pre-K, or UPK, program would reduce achievement gaps at kindergarten entry based on children's race/ethnicity and income

Fulfilling the Promise of Preschool for All: Insights Into Issues Affecting Access for Selected Immigrant Groups in Chicago

Presents findings on access to quality early education among small immigrant groups. Outlines policy implications of programs used, knowledge of "Preschool for All," value of preschool education, transportation and enrollment barriers, and other factors

How can early years services improve access and transition into early years settings and primary schools for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children?

Recent educational policy and guidance directed at early years education has highlighted the need to improve Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children’s access and inclusion within early years provision. This research project explored how interagency working could put such policy and guidance into practice and considered what this work might look like at grassroots level. The research coordinator used the research to pilot a strategy, which if successful, could be rolled out and shared with other services. This research used a mixed-method approach comprising action research and quantitative analysis of questionnaires completed by research practitioners. This methodology was found to be effective as it supported the aims and objectives of the research. It also empowered the researchers and the research participants developing practice. The main findings emerged in four main themes: • Interagency working • Professional development • Training and support • Sustainability of the work. This research found that interagency working was important for professional development as well as delivering effective services. Action research supported practitioners’ professional development and had a very positive impact on their confidence in meeting their duty with regard to equality of opportunity. This confidence had a positive effect on their own and their settings practice as professionals shared their learning with other staff. Training and support was shown to be a very important and effective way to raise awareness of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children’s barriers to early years education but also to enable practitioners to feel confident to address such barriers in their settings. The model of practice developed by this research is both sustainable and cost-effective and as the research coordinator I would be keen to explore further research opportunities to disseminate this model further

Regulation and the Option to Delay

This paper examines a simple two-period model of an investment decision in a network industry characterized by demand uncertainty, economies of scale and sunk costs. In the absence of regulation we identify the minimum price that an unregulated monopolist demands to bear the demand uncertainty and invest early, that is, the price that incorporates the value of the option to delay. In a regulated environment, we show that in the absence of downstream competition and when the regulator cannot commit to ex-post demand contingent prices, a regulated price that incorporates the option to delay is the minimum price that ensures early investment. Furthermore, when the regulator has a preference for early investment, the option to delay price generates higher welfare than other forms of price regulation. We also show that when the vertically integrated network provider is required to provide access to downstream competitors, and the potential entrant is less efficient than the incumbent, an access price that incorporates the option to delay generates the same investment level output as and higher overall welfare than an unregulated industry that is not required to provide access. By contrast, under the same market conditions an ECPR-based access price generates the same overall welfare than an unregulated industry. Moreover, when the potential entrant is more efficient than the incumbent, an Option to Delay Pricing Rule generates the same investment level output as and (weakly) higher overall welfare than the Efficient Component Pricing Rule (ECPR). In addition, the option-to-delay-based access price is (weakly) lower than the ECPR-based access price.