HighScope Educational Research Foundation is an independent nonprofit research, development, training, and public outreach organization with headquarters in Ypsilanti, Michigan. HighScope's mission is to lift lives through HighScope Headquarters - Hutchinson House January 2008education. We envision a world in which all educational settings use active participatory learning so everyone has a chance to succeed in life and contribute to society.
HighScope activities include -
Training preschool and elementary teachers and administrators
Conducting research projects on the effectiveness of educational programs
Developing curricula for infant/toddler, preschool, elementary, youth development, and movement and music programs
Developing early literacy curricula and assessment materials and conducting related research
Presenting an annual International HighScope Conference for teachers and teacher-trainers
Publishing books, videos, curriculum materials, and assessment tools for educators and researchers
Operating a Demonstration Preschool in Ypsilanti, Michigan, that serves children in the local community and provides a model of "HighScope in action" for visiting educators
Operating the HighScope Retreat and Meeting Center in Clinton, Michigan
During the past twelve years, young Latinos have emerged as a population with incredible strengths as well as many challenges. Since 1997, The National Latino Children's Institute (NLCI) has served as a champion and voice for young Latinos by advocating on behalf of young Latinos, creating innovative programs, working with community-based organizations and spearheading El Dia de los Ninos - Celebrating Young Americans.
NLCI's mission is to focus the nation's attention on the contributions and challenges of young Latinos by advocating for their success and well being through partnerships and programs.
NLCI envisions communities and a nation where young Latinos are heard, valued and a priority for the future of our nation.
Established in 2001, the Oregon Resiliency Project (ORP) is a research, training, and outreach effort aimed at social and emotional learning, mental health promotion, and social-emotional assessment and intervention practices in schools. ORP is directed by Dr. Ken Merrell, professor of school psychology at the University of Oregon. The ORP team includes Dr. Merrell, graduate students from the University of Oregon's College of Education, and our partners in public schools and mental health agencies. Since the inception of ORP in 2001, more than 35 graduate students have participated on the ORP team, and are now "alums" of the project. Alumni of ORP are in positions of influence nationally: in school systems, universities, state departments of education, children's hospitals, community mental health centers, and research institutes, where they are continuing their work related to the aims of the project.
ORP currently has two primary efforts. We are are continuing to research and refine our innovative Strong Kids social-emotional learning curricula, which include the Strong Start, Strong Kids, and Strong Teens programs. These evidence-based programs are designed to teach essential life skills that will result in greater emotional and social resiliency and coping, and better mental health. We are also currently working on research and development efforts related to an innovative new strength-based social-emotional assessment system, the Social-Emotional Assets and Resiliency Scales (SEARS). Click on the "Current Projects" link to learn more.
Use the links on the left side of this web page to learn more about ORP. We welcome your interest in the Oregon Resiliency Project!
Get all the tools you need with our FREE Digital Literacy and Citizenship Curriculum and Parent Media Education Program. The relevant, ready-to-use instruction helps you guide students to make safe, smart, and ethical decisions in the digital world where they live, study and play.
This is a school based on the theory of Maria Montessori; the web site shows the schedule for the school day. Each segment of the schedule details how teachers support children in the routines and transitions inherent in the program.
The Embrace the Future Resiliency Resource Centre is a website for teachers, parents and other people who work with or care for children. It provides information about resiliency and how to foster it in children. Although much of the information provided here will be relevant to adolescents as well, the focus of this site is on primary-school age children.
Here you can find:
An overview of current research in the area of resiliency.
Information about what makes a child resilient.
Detailed ideas for teachers about how to develop programs that help to create resilient children.
Tips for parents and carers about how to interact with children in ways that promote resiliency.
Information for schools about how to implement resiliency-promoting policies and practices.
Links to other resiliency-related websites.
Further reading.
Positive Discipline is a program based on the work of Alfred Adler and Rudolf Dreikurs and designed to teach young people to become responsible, respectful and resourceful members of their communities. Based on the best selling Positive Discipline books by Dr. Jane Nelsen and co-authors Lynn Lott, Cheryl Erwin, Kate Ortolano, Mary Hughes, Mike Brock, Lisa Larson and others, it teaches important social and life skills in a manner that is deeply respectful and encouraging for both children and adults (including parents, teachers, childcare providers, youth workers, and others).
Recent research tells us that children are "hardwired" from birth to connect with others, and that children who feel a sense of connection to their community, family, and school are less likely to misbehave. To be successful, contributing members of their community, children must learn necessary social and life skills. Positive Discipline is based on the understanding that discipline must be taught and that discipline teaches.
The work of Lev Vygotsky is increasingly cited as we reconsider the theory and practice of constructivist education. This program introduces the life, vocabulary and concepts of Lev Vygotsky. The video illustrates four basic concepts integral to his work: Children construct knowledge, learning can lead development, development cannot be separated from its social context, and language plays a central role in cognitive development. Elena Bodrova brings an easy familiarity to these concepts. Deborah Leongs commentary and the lively classroom examples enable students, teachers in training, and classroom teachers to incorporate these concepts into their understanding of child development. with deborah Leong, Ph.D. and Elena Bodrova, Ph.D. This is a short clip form the film. Further information is available at www.davidsonfilms.com.
Spaces for Children creates developmentally appropriate spaces that enhance a child's growth and that are convenient and a pleasure for teachers to use. Aesthetically pleasing, long lasting designs promote child development and attract and maintain high-caliber staff. Teachers who feel comfortable and effective in their classrooms provide the continuity essential to a child's sense of well being.
The firm's hands-on approach includes time spent with teachers and administrators, observation of existing facilities if applicable, and, at the completion of construction, staff training and follow-up.
The principals' expertise ranges from programming to building design, from classroom layout to furniture and outdoor play yard design, from the specifics of appropriate materials, fastenings, and finishes that assure optimum play value, child safety, and durability to the selection of low-toxic materials and optimization of indoor air quality. It is this knowledge, developed through working together as a team on a large number of projects, that sets Spaces for Children apart from other architecture firms designing childcare facilities.
Due to the expanding volume of information on the Web, parents and professionals often have difficulty locating the information they want. Even when they find information that seems relevant, they have difficulty determining if it is credible. The Child & Family WebGuide describes trustworthy websites on topics of interest to parents and professionals. All the sites listed on the WebGuide have been systematically evaluated by graduate students and faculty in child development. These sites have been selected from thousands that are available on the Web, based primarily on the quality of the information they provide. The goal of the WebGuide is to give the public easy access to the best child development information on the Web.
There are five main categories of information: family/parenting, education/learning, typical child development, health/mental health, and resources/recreation. The first four categories contain sites with research-based information. The fifth category, resources/recreation, contains sites with information about specific programs and things to do. The resources/recreation sites, which were added at the request of parents, do not contain research-based information. The WebGuide also offers an option of searching for sites that are especially relevant to a particular age group (topics by age) and it offers several features requested by parents (e.g., ask an expert sites; research news sites).
Established at Johns Hopkins University in 1996, NNPS invites schools, districts, states, and organizations to join together and use research-based approaches to organize and sustain excellent programs of family and community involvement that will increase student success in school.
The National Military Family Association is an organization with strong grassroots support balanced with professionalism that makes us a leader in the field. Not only do we support military families - we are military families. Spouses, parents, and family members make up our staff and board positions. We speak up on behalf of military families and empower husbands, wives, and children to understand and access their benefits. Based on what we hear from our members, we meet the needs of service members and their families with insightful recommendations, innovative programs, and grassroots efforts to better the quality of life for military families.
EEC at AED is an outgrowth of Educational Equity Concepts, a national not-for-profit organization with a 22-year history of promoting educational excellence for all children. Together, co-directors Merle Froschl and Barbara Sprung, the founders of Educational Equity Concepts, bring nearly 70 years of solid experience in the education world to their work at AED. The staff are respected experts in the field of equity which enables EEC to develop meaningful and effective bias-free learning programs and hands-on materials in gender, inclusion, science, math, and teasing and bullying.
Operation Respect is a non-profit organization working to assure each child and youth a respectful, safe and compassionate climate of learning where their academic, social and emotional development can take place free of bullying, ridicule and violence. Founded by Peter Yarrow of the folk group Peter, Paul & Mary, the organization disseminates educational resources that are designed to establish a climate that reduces the emotional and physical cruelty some children inflict upon each other by behaviors such as ridicule, bullying and-in extreme cases-violence. It is a unique organization that provides a gateway to broad scale adoption of school-based character education as well as social and emotional learning (SEL) programs.
The Coalition for Quality Children's Media is a national, nonprofit organization founded in 1991 whose mission is to teach children critical viewing skills and to increase the visibility and availability of quality children's media.
KIDS FIRST! evaluates, rates and endorses children's films, DVDs, CDs, TV shows and games using volunteer, community-based juries of adults and children from diverse backgrounds and offers a variety of means to showcase and enhance consumer awareness of sponsored products.
KIDS FIRST! is supported by more than 17 million teachers, librarians, media professionals, lobbyists, policymakers, child advocates, educators, parents and families nationwide. Campaign support for the KIDS FIRST! Film Critics program comes from national nonprofit organizations that include the National Education Association, REEL Fathers, National Association of Elementary School Principals and the National Council of Women's Organizations, with a cumulative membership of over 17 million.
Our scales are designed to assess process quality in an early childhood or school age care group. Process quality consists of the various interactions that go on in a classroom between staff and children, staff, parents, and other adults, among the children themselves, and the interactions children have with the many materials and activities in the environment, as well as those features, such as space, schedule and materials that support these interactions. Process quality is assessed primarily through observation and has been found to be more predictive of child outcomes than structural indicators such as staff to child ratio, group size, cost of care, and even type of care, for example child care center or family child care home (Whitebook, Howes & Phillips, 1995).