Additional Resources/question on NRS testing

From: Barb Volpe
Email: bavolpe@msn.com
Date: May 24, 2006

Comments

Dear Mary Louise, I am the Child Services Manager at the Head Start program NW of Chicago. I have heard you speak at two different Head Start conferences and have appreciated your work and wisdom in the area of social/emotional development.

I would highly recommend the "csefel" website for excellent information to use in workshops with teachers. We (Mental Health/Disability Coordinator and myself) are going to be using the What Works Briefs in our teacher workshops this year, plus they are also given to teachers who may need specific help in a particular area. Our MH/D coordinator has also used these with parents and there are resources available in Spanish as well.

Along with the other books you referenced, our teaching staff have found the "Meeting the Challenge: Effective Strategies for Challenging Behaviors in Early Childhood Environments" by Barbara Kaiser and Judy Sklar Rasminsky(can order from NAEYC) to be very helpful in the area of strategies to use in the classroom. Another set of resources are three small but exellent books from the "Young Exceptional Children" series; especially "Practical Ideas for addressing Challenging Behaviors"(can order from Redleaf Press). Each chapter is written by different experts and has useful information on learning environment, supporting parents and management techniques.

I talked with you briefly at the conference regarding the NRS testing that we have been doing and how many of us feel that this is inappropriate and can be actually harmful to some children. My question is; have you heard the new news coming out of Washington that they are adding a "social/emotional evaluation" piece to the NRS testing? An IM was sent to our Head Start this week regarding this. I was curious if you knew the direction that this was taking? Barb