The Year of the Young Child at Penn State

Co-Project Directors:
Jim Johnson and Rick Fiene
Early Childhood Development Initiative

The Early Childhood Development Initiative is a multi-disciplinary, cross-college faculty initiative ( College of Education, College of Health and Human Development, College of Liberal Arts) to demonstrate Penn State’s commitment to early care and education. The ultimate goal is to position Penn State as the premier leader in early care and education in Pennsylvania as the Commonwealth begins to entertain the idea of expanding early childhood through the public schools and implementing new teacher certification standards. By placing this focus on early care and education and building this coalition of Penn State faculty members (50+ faculty, staff, and graduate students are members of this new initiative) the university will be positioned to respond to the new opportunities being offered by the Pennsylvania Office of Child Development.

Some of the activities that have been suggested:

• Department of Psychology is planning on having a pre-literacy seminar series,
• Announcement and launch of the new Bennett Early Childhood Training Institute,
• Early care and education conference pulling in key early childhood leaders to help advise us on innovations in pre-K to 3 teacher education models,
• Early care and education specialty workshops and seminars, and
• Development of a joint major in Early Childhood Development at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Announcement and launch of the Bennett Early Childhood Training Institute (BECTI)—the plan is to have an official announcement of the BECTI during the Fall 2006 semester (November 14 th) where key local, regional and state officials would be invited to Penn State to an open house. Penn State faculty would give short talks about early care and education at Penn State addressing present programs and future programs. This event will be the official launch and announcement of the Early Childhood Development Initiative and the “Year of the Young Child at Penn State”. The key message is the great promise that Penn State expertise has to offer in early care and education.

The College of Education, College of Liberal Arts, and the College of Health and Human Development are planning the development of a joint major in early childhood development responding to the new changes in teacher certification at the state level. Courses would be drawn from Psychology, Education, Special Education, and Human Development & Family Studies.

To hold an early care and education conference inviting key national thinkers regarding the status of Pre-K Initiatives and Programs in other parts of the country. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in particular the Pennsylvania Office of Child Development is expanding its Pre-K programs dramatically. We, at Penn State, want to make sure that the Commonwealth has the latest evidence based research to help their future development and implementation. Having a conference to help our faculty as well as helping state policy makers be better informed about the research literature and what has worked in other states would be tremendously useful.

To hold a monthly seminar series where we invite local early care and education programs and public school personnel to understand the complexities of incorporating early childhood education programs into school districts would be developed. This activity would be led by faculty members and the BECTI staff who have a great deal of experience in this arena. Some topics that could be addressed: social-emotional development of the very young child, early childhood education and early intervention services, infant mental health, how to prevent the spread of infectious diseases in early care and education programs, early care and education assessment, home visiting, etc...

Faculty, Students, and Staff:

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