Visiting scholar will discuss effects of quality standards on early childhood programs

AMES, Iowa -- A nationally recognized expert on early childhood and law will deliver a lecture on state standards for school readiness on Tuesday, April 4. Helen Raikes will discuss "Early learning standards and quality rating systems: The effect on programs and classroom practices" at 7 p.m. in LeBaron Auditorium on the Iowa State University campus. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Raikes is visiting Iowa State University as the Barbara E. (Mound) Hansen Early Childhood Endowed Lecturer. She is a professor of child development and an associate with the Center on Children, Families and the Law at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and serves as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Raikes will discuss the impact of guidelines -- set by 44 U.S. states -- that outline standards for the knowledge, skill, and attitudes toward learning expected of children before they enter public school kindergartens.

"Across the country, standards are being used to make significant decisions about what and when to teach young children," Raikes said. "Staff in early care and education programs need to make decisions based on what is best for children. The learning environment should help foster children's innate joy of learning. The goal is to develop lifelong learners," said Raikes.

"Dr. Raikes' lecture will focus on what states are doing when implementing standards indicators combined with quality rating systems, what states have learned about readiness, and the impact of early learning standards on classroom practices and the implications for teacher preparation," said Carol Alexander Phillips, an adjunct professor of human development and family studies and administrator of the Child Development Laboratory School at Iowa State University.

Raikes has conducted extensive research on Early Head Start and child care in the Midwest. She also has served as a director of infant-toddler child care at the Gallup Organization. She earned a bachelor's degree in home economics journalism from Iowa State in 1966; a master's degree in human development from the University of California, Davis, in 1969; and a doctorate in child development from Iowa State in 1981.

Administered by the Iowa State University Department of Human Development and Family Studies, the Hansen Early Childhood Lecture Series Endowment is made possible by a gift from Richard and Barbara (Mound) Hansen, who created the series to bring contemporary, issue-oriented topics on early childhood education to the campus.