Thursday, November 12, 2009

Stay at Home Moms Data


Mommy wars? Seems that's missing the point. A recent report shows that stay at moms are "disporportionately low-income, less educated and often immigrant". Our current Early Childhood Education policies disproportionately focus on providing center based services to increase preschool services to children who need it the most. These efforts miss the opportunity to provide services to young children whose parents stay home and who still need school readiness. these findings also have implications for early childhood policy, where debates tend to focus on improving access to quality child care and preschool programs for disadvantaged youngsters. This data tells us that stay-at-home mothers disproportionately include women who do not have the educational background or resources that allow better-off parents to provide more robust learning experiences for their children. If that's the case, then policymakers may need to supplement efforts to improve child care with strategies that help that subset of stay-at-home moms support their children’s early development.

View the original report: http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/hh-fam/p20-561.pdf

Read a policy summary from Ed Watch: http://www.newamerica.net/blog/early-ed-watch/2009/closer-look-stay-home-moms-15067
pic: a HIPPY parent reading to her child during a literacy event hosted by HIPPY Texas and Earning by Learning.

No comments: