Group Project: Substance and Alcohol Abuse

My group decided to combine two individual civic issues into one for our advocacy project. These being drunk driving, Stephanie's civic issue, and substance abuse, Austin's civic issue.
We chose this topic for our campaign because it more directly affects our age group than our other individual topics (childhood obesity, preschool education, and breast cancer). Obviously, we will be advocating prevention of substance and alcohol abuse. Although, I am not sure what our specific course of action will be.

My official visual

Visual Campaign

I found a visual of a little girl coloring in her preschool classroom and off to the side of the photograph it says, "A child's most important brain development occurs before age five."

The purpose of this visual is to convince its audience that preschool is important for childhood development. The audience is the general public and policy-makers. This visual is an attempt to convince people that all children should have the foundation of preschool. This ad uses a logical appeal as it claims that a child's brain grows the most before age 5. This claim cannot be countered as it is scientifically proven that it is during this time in life that the brain grows the most rapidly. It assumes that the reader knows that children attend preschool around 5 years old. It also assumes that preschool would help children's brain development. It does this because behind the first assumption is a second assumption that preschool stimulates brain growth. The visual does not highlight other forms of development that a child progresses in around age five such as social and emotional development. The visual displays a little girl painting--this suggests that activities like these stimulate brain growth. The visual suggests that preschool is important for brain development, but it does not address $$$! If preschool promotes positive brain development, how do we get all children access to preschool?

Relieved, but so Fed-Up...

I am so relieved that I have finished my research paper! I am proud of my work as well because I think I have a well-constructed argument :) However, I am so ready for this semester for this semester to end! I may be feeling this way because my workload has been pretty heavy lately, but I am just fed-up with most of my classes right now! I am counting down the days until Thanksgiving break, although its really a 4 day weekend, it's a break nonetheless!

Struggling With My Thesis

Research Question: Is preschool more effective for the development of low-income minority children than for middle class mainstream students? How and Why?
Will the preschool reform bill package, recently signed by Governor Schwarzenegger, lead to closing the achievement gap of these children?

I don't even know what my argument is regarding the preschool reform bill package. First off, I have to figure out whether or not I believe the reform bill package will help this specific group of children. Why am I having such a hard time even making a claim about the preschool reform bill package, you may ask? Well, it's because I have found NO sources on this topic except for the short, brief summaries of the 2 bills in the package. However, these bill summaries give me hardly any information to evaluate so that I may develop an argument. I need to figure this one out soon...like before Friday when the outline is due! Aahhh!

Post to Public Blog

I just posted my first ever response to a public blog(not taking into account my resonses to my classmates blogs). The blog was titled The Latino Journal and it covers policys and topics from a latinos point of view. It talked about how latino students are falling behind in their academic achievements as compared to their white peers. Provided is a link to the blog that I have responded to!
http://thelatinojournal.blogspot.com/2008/08/almost-one-in-three-of-countrys-latino.html

Sites/Sources of interest for research paper

http://www.rand.org/ research group on education
http://www.futureofchildren.org includes many scholarly journals on education
http://www.preschoolcalifornia.org updates on CA preschool reform bill package

Academic Integrity

The importance of academic integrity has been pounded into me since middle school when I first started writing research papers. Then again, upon entering high school and yet again upon entering college. So then, what is academic integrity? Academic integrity gives credit to the author from who you are borrowing the information from. This is done by citing the source of information and by the use of quotation marks with your text. For this particular research essay, our sources will be cited in MLA format. Academic integrity addresses originality, or rather makes the writer asks him/herself: Is what I am writing truly my own idea? Most of the time, your knowledge comes from things you have previously read or experienced. So the chances are that you will have to cite your source. For me, the most important thing I have to remember is that even when paraphrasing, I must give the original author due credit by putting their name in parenthesis at the end of the summary of their idea. Lastly, I'd like to comment that this is the first time that I've heard this being referred to as "academic integrity" because I always knew it to be plagiarism. Although I know they are the same thing, the term academic integrity just seems to be so much more scholarly :)

Research For Engagement Hours

I didn't have to do much browsing for options for my engagement hours because I already know that will be volunteering for Head Start. Head Start is a program of the United States Health and Human Services that provides comprehensive education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services to low-income children and their families (according to Wikipedia, yes I know, a really reliable source :)). Head Start addresses systemic poverty in the United States. Since 2005, more than 22 million preschool children have participate in Head Start. I will be a volunteer in a Head Start classroom here in Sacramento. I am looking forward to interacting with the children there. I found out about this volunteer work from my Human Development class and I will also be getting one unit for it!

Defining My Civic Issue

I will be researching preschool education in California and how low-income minority children benefit from preschool programs. I will tie in the preschool reform bill package (Senate Bill 1629 and Assembly Bill2759) that Governor Schwarzenegger recently signed and evaluate whether low-income minority children will benefit from these bills. Supporters of these bills claim that the bill package lays the groundwork so that future low-income children will have access to high quality preschool. This legislation was passed with the aim of closing the achievement gap in California. I believe that preschool is the 1st step that all children should take toward academic success, but I feel it is of greater importance for minority children belonging to low-income families. This is because children from these backgrounds need to be in stimulating environments that will help their cognitive, social, and emotional development. I will have to define exactly what preschool is because it seems that those who doubt the positive effects of preschool confuse the difference between preschool and daycare. I feel this important because education is important, but currently preschool is not mandatory, whereas, kindergarten through eighth grade is.

Headstart--Gov. Preschool Program for Low-Income Families

I found a scholarly article about the program that I am hoping to complete my engagement hours through, so it's best that I am an informed volunteer. Headstart's main goal is to "elicit gains in the preschool child's social competence." Even further, Headstart is a service for children from low-income families so that they may grow in their cognitive and language, emotional and physical development. Since Headstart's being instituted in 1965 Headstart has served 7 1/2 million low-income children. Headstart also offers special education for handicapped children coming from low-income families. A major aspect of Headstart is parent involvement; Headstart raises expectations of parents for their children so that they will continue to be active participants in their children's future education. Headstart also offers social services and health services, including medical, dental, mental, and nutrition services. Although this is old research, I feel it is important to mention: George Washington University compiled findings that Headstart participants performed equal to or better than peers when they began regular school, there was fewer grade retention, and low absenteeism. I felt compelled to write about this because I am in the process of becoming a Headstart volunteer. I will be working directly with the children in their preschool in the Sacramento area. Now, I am familiar with Headstart's goals and feel that I can go and make my own judgements when I begin interacting with the children in the program.
From One Decade to Another: A Positive View of Early Childhood Programs
Author(s): John A. Calhoun and Raymond C. Collins

Minorities and Preschool-- Scholarly Article Response

Policy-makers have found that between 40%-60% of California's 2nd and 3rd graders are not not achieving grade level proficiency in core subjects. However, these percentages are higher within minority groups such as African Americans, Latinos, children from families with families from low education levels, and children in economically disadvantaged families. After reading this article I think I have narrowed down from a broader topic to a more specific one. That being from public funding for preschools to how preschool improvement would benefit children in economically disadvantaged families. Oh and Rachel, you were wondering how and when children are tested--I found out that their academic proficiency is tested through California Standard Tests (CSTs). Children take these tests in the 2nd grade and 3rd grade. However, it is believed that their perfromance below state standards comes from early roots AKA, their preschool education or lack there of. It is important to note that oftentimes the minority groups also fall in the economically disadvantaged or in the parents with low education, therefore, all of these groups are often the same people. Simply put, the children falling short of state standards fit into more than one category of the groups lacking proficiency. I may begin to shift my focus toward minority/low-income groups and how closing their achievement gap could be beneficial on a great scale.
http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/2007/RAND_RB9306.pdf
p.s. I don't expect anyone to read the links provided. They are mostly for my own sake of future reference :)

New Insight on the CA Preschool Reform Bill Package

To my surprise, I had a hard time finding blogs relating to the preschool reform bill package that I will be following throughout the semester. After some thorough searching, (and false alarms AKA thinking that I found a related blog, only to click and be redirected to an explicit site!) I found the perfect blog to respond to. The blog defined the difference between preschool and childcare. Apparently, many people assume the preschool setting to be similar to a daycare setting. A new light shed on the topic for me was that those who oppose universal preschool programs argue that the benefits of preschool "fade-out" through the students elementary school years. I prefer to think that children build off of the foundations that they have laid down in preschool, rather than their progress simply disappearing. The blog also explained that children progress in ways that cannot be measured in preschool. Typically, preschool success is measured through test scores. However, the blog points out that children develop social skills and self-confidence in the educational environment; these successes cannot be measured. Lastly, by reading this I have become aware of a precaution I must take as I argue in support of the CA preschool reform bill package: Do not exaggerate the benefits of preschool!
Attached is the link to the blog that I responded to.

http://www.newamerica.net/blog/early-ed-watch/2008/protect-our-kids-preschool-hype-6702

Blog Author Introduction

Hi! My name is Melina and I am a freshmen at California State University, Sacramento. I have created this blog for my English composition course and I am currently declared as a pre-nursing major. This is my first time having a blog and to be honest, I am not at all familiar with the style of writing that is common to blogging. I hope to develop a writing style that is different from the formal writing styles I use for essays. However, I am unsure about divulging my opinions to such a broad audience. I think that I can even say that that I am afraid. Hopefully, my experience with blogging will be a positive one!