Education (Early Childhood)

Minnesota Information

• Minnesota Department of Education
  • Community Ed, ECFE, School Readiness -- School district data on fund balance limits and revenue expenditures.
  • Early Learning Programs- Information on Minnesota's programs and services for families with pre-school age children.
  • School Readiness  - School district data on fund balance limits and revenue expenditure data.
• Think Small: Leaders in Early Learning - Its mission: "To advance quality care and education of children in their crucial early years".
• University of Minnesota
  • Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement (CAREI) - Connecting the resources of the University of Minnesota with local, state, and national school improvement initiatives.
  • Center for Early Education and Development (CEED) - Through research and community outreach, CEED strives to effect positive change in early education, child care, and public policy.

Federal Government Information

• U.S. Department of Education - Information on the department's organization and activities as well as access to statistics and reports is available at this extensive site.
  • Early Childhood - Publications and resources on a variety of subtopics related to early childhood education.
  • National Center for Education Statistics - Search for statistics or for specific publications, or go directly to Annual Reports which links to such reports as The Condition of Education and The Digest of Education Statistics.
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Early Childhood Training and Technical Assistance System - The system brings together resources from the Office of Child Care, the Office of Head Start, and their health partners.

Articles, Databases, and Directories

• Education Week - Access current and archived issues.
• ERIC Database - A bibliographic database of more than 1.1 million education citations dating back to 1966. Provides abstracts of journal articles and, in some cases, the full text of documents.
• Kappan - This journal "features articles about educational research, practice, and policy, as well as blogs and columns on school and district leadership, media coverage of education, legal issues in the field, state and federal politics, and more."

Organizations

• Alliance for Early Success - Their goal is to promote innovative and successful policy ideas that support families in their parenting role and ensure positive early childhood development and learning opportunities for at-risk infants, toddlers, preschoolers and their families.
• BUILD Initiative - This group "works with early childhood leaders within states and nationally to better prepare young children to thrive and succeed."
• Early Childhood Education - From the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO).
• Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center - ECTA Center is a "national technical assistance center focused on building state and local system capacity to improve outcomes for children with disabilities and their families."
• Education Commission of the States - Includes State Legislation by State.
• Future of Children - This organization promotes effective policies and programs for children. Their website provides free access to their policy briefs and to its publication, The Future of Children, which offers cross-disciplinary articles focusing on issues related to children published twice per year.
• National Association for the Education of Young Children - An organization of early childhood educators and others dedicated to improving the quality of programs for children from birth through third grade. MNAEYC is their Minnesota affiliate.
• National Conference of State Legislatures: Early Childhood 101 - This division of NCSL's website focuses on early childhood issues from a state level.
• National Education Association (NEA) - Provides information on the NEA's "Issues in Education"; includes an Early Childhood Education issues area.
• National Institute for Early Education Research - NIEER's website links to a wide variety of information including, The State of Preschool. The Yearbook includes profiles of each state.
• Office of Head Start - This division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services provides comprehensive child development services to economically disadvantaged children and families, with a special focus on helping preschoolers develop the early reading and math skills they need to be successful in school.
• Pre-K Now - An organization that advances high-quality, voluntary pre-kindergarten for all three and four year olds. Resources include profiles of the states.
• RAND: Early Childhood Education - Informing the debate on balancing the costs and benefits of preschool and early childhood education in the United States and Europe.

• See Also Children's Issues
• See Also Education (K-12)

The sites listed on this page are not created, maintained, or endorsed by the Minnesota Legislature.