Sharing Web Resources

I have a passion for the High Scope curriculum, and one of the websites that I used almost everyday is the High Scope one. 

The link for the website is www.highscope.org

This website is dedicated to share research information to early childhood programs, and inspires Educators to Inspire Children.

The following general information is taken from the High Scope website

What is the HighScope Educational Research Foundation?
The HighScope Educational Research Foundation is an independent nonprofit organization, established in 1970, with headquarters in Ypsilanti, Michigan. The Foundation promotes the development of children and youth worldwide and supports educators and parents as they help children learn. The Foundation's mission is to lift lives through education. HighScope engages in the following activities:

• Develops curricula (instructional programs, professional development programs, and assessment instruments)
• Trains teachers, caregivers, administrators, curriculum specialists, and teacher educators
• Conducts research in education and interprets and publishes what it discovers
• Publicly supports programs and policies that benefit children
• Publishes educational books, DVDs, and other materials

What is the HighScope Curriculum?
HighScope's educational approach emphasizes “active participatory learning.” Active learning means students have direct, hands-on experiences with people, objects, events, and ideas. Children’s interests and choices are at the heart of HighScope programs. They construct their own knowledge through interactions with the world and the people around them. Children take the first step in the learning process by making choices and following through on their plans and decisions. Teachers, caregivers, and parents offer physical, emotional, and intellectual support. In active learning settings, adults expand children’s thinking with diverse materials and nurturing interactions.

What are HighScope’s goals for young children?
HighScope is a comprehensive educational approach that strives to help children develop in all areas. Our goals for young children are:

• To learn through active involvement with people, materials, events, and ideas
• To become independent, responsible, and confident — ready for school and ready for life
• To learn to plan many of their own activities, carry them out, and talk with others about what they have done and what they have learned
• To gain knowledge and skills in important academic, social, and physical areas

    
What is the evidence that the HighScope approach works?
Almost 40 years of research shows that HighScope programs advance the development of children and improve their chance of living a better life through adulthood. National research with children from different backgrounds has shown that those who attend HighScope programs score higher on measures of development than similar children enrolled in other preschool and child care programs.
The Foundation is perhaps best known for the HighScope Perry Preschool Project study, which compared low-income children who attended our program with those who did not. As adults, preschool participants had higher high school graduation rates, higher monthly earnings, less use of welfare, and fewer arrests than those without the program. In addition to benefiting the individuals who attended preschool, these results show that preschool leads to savings for taxpayers: for every dollar invested in high-quality early childhood education, society saves $13 in the cost of special education, public assistance, unemployment benefits, and crime. Research also shows that HighScope training with teachers and caregivers is highly effective. In a national study, teachers with HighScope training had higher quality programs than did similar teachers without such training. Higher quality programs were in turn linked to better developmental outcomes for children

Newsletter and Free Membership

The website offers a free membership to all early childhood community, and access to forums, newsletter information, and many other curricula information to implement in the classrooms. One of the Newsletter 'Extensions' has a publication about Supporting Communication, Languages, and Literacy Learning with Infants and Toddlers that emphasizes the importance to use a variety of language since the early stages. In addition, the importance of the family culture and first experience mark the child's life in regards of children's family language and culture contribute in many ways to the child's language learning and use.