What Resonates With You About Early Childhood Public Policy and Advocacy?

I chose this specialization because I feel that high quality early childhood education is very lacking in my community. After working in the public school systems for years I realized that many of our children were starting school behind and then struggling to catch up. For many of these students, it seemed impossible for them to catch up to their fellow classmates. The reasons for this stemmed from the lack of quality early childhood programs, lack of parental knowledge in best practices, and a general passive attitude by the community just accepting things because that is how it has always been. One thing that I hope to gain from this degree is the knowledge and tools to change the quality of early childhood education in my community and surrounding area.
I believe that the only way to change the way things are is for an advocate to step forward and educate the parents and community members on best practices. Many people do not understand how crucial the early years are to life long learning. Changing this mindset is imperative to improving early childhood education.
Three goals:
1) Discover the views and ideas of policy makers in my community that affect early childhood standards.
2) Learn ways to implement a community awareness program.
3) Be able to define best practices in a professional yet understandable way.