Kindergarten Institute
August 10, 2010
Hilton Garden Inn Detroit-Southfield
Southfield, Michigan
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Registration Form (PDF) >>
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MiAEYC Infant Toddler Conference
September 16, 2010
DoubleTree Hotel Dearborn, Detroit, Michigan
Registration Form >>
Preliminary Program >>


MiAEYC 2011 Early Childhood Conference
March 31 - April 2, 2011
Amway Grand Plaza Hotel
and Devos Place
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Call for Presentation Proposals»

Announcements

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Position openings for T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® MICHIGAN Director and Counselors
The Michigan AEYC has openings for a Director of T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® MICHIGAN and T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® MICHIGAN Counselors. T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® MICHIGAN is a program to support higher education for child care providers.
The complete job descriptions can be viewed at http://www.miaeyc.org/jobs.htm.

Sandbox Party Convention
Thursday, August 26, 1:00 p.m.– 4:00 p.m.
Michigan State University's Breslin Student Events Center
East Lansing, Michigan
Click here to sign up for the convention or to learn more.
Questions? E-mail us at TheSandboxParty@gmail.com

In The News

July 28, 2010

Growing outbreaks of whooping cough raise health fears: At least five states report rise; are vaccine gaps to blame?
Growing outbreaks of whooping cough—including a California epidemic that has killed six babies—are worrying public health officials who fear that sporadic vaccination practices may be contributing to dangerous cases of the preventable disease. "I'm saddened, but I can't truly say I'm surprised," said Dr. Saad B. Omer, an assistant professor with Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health and a national expert on immunization practices. "We know and we have known for a while that we have these gaps in protection at the local level." Rising cases of the disease also known as pertussis have been reported in Idaho, Texas, South Carolina, Michigan and in California, where 1,500 children have been diagnosed in what's being called the worst outbreak in 50 years. MSNBC.com

July 27, 2010

Michigan shut out in federal Race to Top schools competition
Michigan has again been shut out in a federal competition to win extra federal money for public schools. The state was not among the 19 finalists announced today as still in the hunt for the second round of Race to the Top money from the federal government. The state's application sought about $400 million and outlined how Michigan would use the money to try and improve school performance. The Lansing State Journal

Michigan kids' well-being slips, U.S. report reveals: Family financial challenges, rise in infant mortality rate cited amid some progress
Job insecurity and infant mortality rates in Michigan hover above the national average, pushing Michigan's ranking in child well-being to its lowest level in more than a decade, according to the national Kids Count report released today. The report, which ranked Michigan 21st-worst for child well-being in the nation, showed that 31 percent of children in 2008 lived in families where no parent had full-time, year-round employment, compared with the national rate of 27 percent. Further, the state's infant mortality rate that year was nearly eight deaths per 1,000 live births, compared with the nationwide rate of 6.7 deaths per 1,000 births. The Detroit News

The case for $320,000 kindergarten teachers
How much do your kindergarten teacher and classmates affect the rest of your life? Economists have generally thought that the answer was not much. Great teachers and early childhood programs can have a big short-term effect. But the impact tends to fade. By junior high and high school, children who had excellent early schooling do little better on tests than similar children who did not—which raises the demoralizing question of how much of a difference schools and teachers can make. There has always been one major caveat, however, to the research on the fade-out effect. It was based mainly on test scores, not on a broader set of measures, like a child’s health or eventual earnings. As Raj Chetty, a Harvard economist, says: “We don’t really care about test scores. We care about adult outcomes.” The New York Times

Education reforms spark 'quiet revolution'
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Tuesday that 19 states have qualified for the second round of “Race to the Top” competition for a share of $3.4 billion in education grants, and credited the controversial program with sparking a “quiet revolution” in education systems across the country. Politico

July 26, 2010

'Kindergarten Ready' needs to be the new 'College and Career Ready'
We stand on the verge of a revolution in American education. For the first time, a majority of states have adopted common-core standards for K-12 students in English language arts and mathematics—a powerful acknowledgment that collaboration is vital to the success of our students. Yet while this collective effort to close achievement gaps and raise the bar for school performance creates a critical opportunity to enhance U.S. competitiveness and unlock opportunities for the next generation of Americans, K-12 standards simply do not go far enough. Education Week

July 22, 2010

The case against summer vacation
Blame Tom Sawyer: Americans have a skewed view of childhood and summertime. We associate the school year with oppression and the summer months with liberty. School is regimen; summer is creativity. School is work and summer is play. But when American students are competing with children around the globe who may be spending four weeks longer in school each year, larking through summer is a luxury we can't afford. What's more, for many children—especially children of low-income families—summer is a season of boredom, inactivity and isolation. Time Magazine