Assessment is coming and the early childhood sector must lead the way

Assessment is a core component of quality early childhood practice. It is explicitly highlighted in the new Early Years Leaning Framework V2.0 and is a standard within Quality Area 1 of the National Quality Standard. In everyday early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings, and in initial teacher education, assessment is often limited to observational and narrative-driven approaches. Recent reviews of the literature highlight that there are few other assessment tools readily available to educators. What assessment looks like in early childhood is changing. The Commonwealth, as part of the Preschool Reform Funding Agreement, is developing, trialling, and implementing a preschool outcomes measure. The jurisdictions, too, are driving change: the Victorian Early Years Assessment and Learning Tool is an assessment designed to make consistent observations and assessments of children’s learning in preschool settings. The current state of assessment practices in early childhood settings, and the coming reforms, are provoking a debate about the purpose of assessment and the time invested in conducting assessment. Typically, distinctions are made between formative and summative assessments, as well as population measurement or reporting. Different tools are used for each – educators may imagine soon writing learning stories, completing a transition statement, and undertaking a new preschool outcome assessment for each child in their preschool setting. This paper highlights the latest trends and research in assessment in the early years and discusses a new model of early childhood assessment

Involvement of human DNA polymerase kappa in nucleotide excision repair

Nucleotide excision repair is one of the major repair pathways responsible for identifying and removing lesions in the DNA double helix. In higher eukaryotes, nucleotide excision repair is a coordinated response of over 30 proteins recruited in an ordered procession with distinct roles in the recognition, removal and repair of said lesions. A key step in the completion of the repair process is the resynthesis of the excised strand using the undamaged partner as a template. DNA polymerase kappa (polκ), a member of the Y-family, has been shown to have a role in nucleotide excision repair distinct from its traditional role in translesion synthesis. Cell lines lacking polκ showed clear defects in nucleotide excision repair and increased ultraviolet light sensitivity. Building on this established work, conserved residues were identified in the C-terminus of human polκ and mutated to alanines. Under transient expression, mutations in the ubiquitin binding domains severely impaired the recruitment to sites of damage. Cell lines defective in polκ that stably expressed these mutant polymerases showed sensitivity to ultraviolet radiation following exposure; intriguingly, this defect seems confined to the global genomic repair pathway as no substantial defect in transcription-coupled repair was observed. Following on from these observations, immunoprecipitation of the polymerase and partner proteins was investigated in an attempt to identify interactions disrupted by the mutations to the ubiquitin binding domains. These experiments indicated impairment in binding to ubiquitinated PCNA in the mutants. In further work, the recruitment of wild-type human polκ was shown to be independent of the 3' incision by the nuclease XPG during the repair process, consistent with a recently proposed model for NER

Assessing the quality of early childhood education and care

In December 2009 the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed to a unified National Quality Framework (NQF) for Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). The quality reforms—which include clear standards, streamlined regulatory approaches, an assessment and rating system and a national learning framework—are being implemented over the period 2012 to 2020 as an initiative of the National Early Childhood Development Strategy. The vision of the strategy is that \u27by 2020 all children have the best start in life to create a better future for themselves, and for the nation\u27 (COAG, 2009). The purpose of this Policy Brief is to consider the implications of current research and the role of quality assessment in delivering the National Early Childhood Development Strategy vision. Specifically, the Brief discusses the ECEC policy environment in Australia and outlines international evidence regarding the impact of ECEC quality components related to adult-child interactions and relationships.&nbsp

Alien Registration- Cloney, Edwin L. (Calais, Washington County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/1208/thumbnail.jp

Exploring the components of privacy to predict satisfaction and justice in the workplace

This study investigated the existence of a new type of privacy, called e-mail privacy, in order to determine if modern technology has created a new dimension of this construct. It also examined the relationship between factors of privacy- physical, informational, and electronic mail related. Finally, this study examined the relationship between the different aspects of workplace privacy and employee outcomes. It was hypothesized that the construct of privacy would predict procedural justice and job satisfaction, and that the relationship between privacy and job satisfaction is mediated by procedural justice. A model was developed for this study to be tested with structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques. An online questionaire was developed, and data from a total of 238 participants was analyzed using EQS, a statistical package for evaluating models developed with SEM

Buk bilong Pikinini Literacy Program Evaluation 2018: Evaluation Report

Buk bilong Pikinini (BbP) provides access to early childhood education and care (ECEC) programs with a specific focus on English language literacy for children from vulnerable communities in Papua New Guinea. This is highly relevant, given the fact that there is likely an over-representation of illiteracy in disadvantaged households and few opportunities for children within those households to be ready for a school system with English as the language of instruction. Established in 2007, BbP has been in operation for more than 10 years and has opened 17 library sites in that time. This evaluation provides evidence about the likely effectiveness of the programs relative to best practice and in the early childhood and school policy and program delivery context of PNG. The major methods used were literature review and critical review of BbP documentation, and stakeholder consultations, semi-structured interviews and observations of classrooms