emilyglatt.weebly.comemilyglatt.weebly.com/.../glatt_final_draft.docx · Web view25 April 2014. Rex Allen Rock Sr. ,CEO. Arctic Slope Regional Corporation. P.O. Box 129Barrow, Alaska

25 April 2014Rex Allen Rock Sr. ,CEOArctic Slope Regional CorporationP.O. Box 129Barrow, Alaska 99723

Subject: Feasibility Project

Dear Rex Allen Rock Sr.,

In early January, I asked for permission to conduct a feasibility research project. This project would help determine if it was feasible to implement a preschool in to Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC). After you confirm and granted my request, I told you that I would give you my research with my recommendation on it before May 2, 2014. I have attached my researched and finding so you could look over.

I am working to receive my bachelors in early childhood education, I am in my second year of classes, I work with young children at least three times a week and use to work at daycare, I have seen the multiple development stages these kids reaches. I have also seen how a family can be impacted by a preschool in positive and negative ways.

I wanted to make sure that I had input from the public before I went in too deep. I administered 20 questionnaires to find what exact the public thought about on a curriculum, school readiness, and development happening at home and at a preschool. The results showed that the majority of people believe that preschool was important. I also used the online UAA Consortium Library to find helpful article to help understand different aspect of implementing a preschool into ASRC. I found article on a fantastic book that is about starting a business, how a daycare was not making a profit change a couple thing and now are, thing that are important have in a preschool, why preschool is important. I also did a couple of web searches for a building, and a curriculum.

At the end of all of this I found that it was feasible to do, but it was something that was going to take time to do.

Thank you for giving me the okay to go on in my research and continue to see if this feasible. If you have a questions, concerns or comments, please do not hesitate and contact me at [email protected] or by telephone (907) 529- XXXX.

Sincerely,Emily Glatt

mailto:[email protected]

Running Head: PRESCHOOL FOR ARCTIC SLOPE REGIONAL CORPORATION

Childcare/ Preschool for Arctic Slope Regional Corporation

A Feasibility Report

English 212: Technical Writing

Emily Glatt

University of Alaska Anchorage

April 20, 2014

1

PRESCHOOL FOR ARCTIC SLOPE REGIONAL CORPORATION

Abstract

In beginning of year 2014 feasibility research was conducted to see if, it was

feasible to implement a preschool into Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC). Having

a preschool will affect the children, the parents, the whole family and even the ASRC for

the best. . This is a report to notify of the result of all the findings. In this paper you will be

see the result of all the research that was done. Some research that conducted a web search

for building to buy or to rent and for a curriculum that can be used, and lastly a survey was

completed. It was suggest that it implementing a preschool would be feasible. However it

should be done in steps and done with a lot of time and effort.

2


Table of Contents

Abstract................................................................................................................................2

Introduction..........................................................................................................................4

Methods................................................................................................................................6

Results7

Conclusions........................................................................................................................10

Recommendations..............................................................................................................11

References..........................................................................................................................12

List of Figures

Figure1.................................................................................................................................8

Figure2.................................................................................................................................9

Figure3...............................................................................................................................10

3


Introduction

Having a childcare/ preschool is beneficial to the child enrolled; it helps their

cognitive, physical, social and emotional development. This feasibility research was

conducted was done to show the opportunity that is available to ASRC, but within this

opportunity it would also help some problems too. Having a childcare/ preschool would

provide an opportunity for the families of ASRC’s employees. The opportunity this will

serve is the fact that the children within this facility development area will fully develop

and might even go beyond, also that you are helping shaping a child’s personality and

views. A child starts learning and shaping who they are between the ages of three to five

years old because that is when their brain starts fully developing, during these years the

children are picking up on active and verbal words. In these years the children picking up

on many things like honesty, caring, learning, trustworthiness, and obeying, these are

qualities that very employer wants to see in their employees.

The problems that would be helped are the level of preparedness that children have

before entering kindergarten and employee’s time off due to children’s childcare/ preschool

is closed. School readiness is very important; this can also be referred to as general

readiness. Umek, Kranjc, Fekonja, and Bajc (2008) say “General readiness to begin formal

instruction (i.e., to start school) is achieved at the age of four or five (as a gradual transition

from naive to rational theory to explain concepts and events), when the child is able to

acquire knowledge through formal learning and develop in a significant manner” (p.

571). Umek, Kranjc, Fekonja, and Bajc (2008) go to on to say why school readiness is

important by stating, “At the same time, school readiness is important because school is

unable to adapt to all individuals and their individual developmental characteristics, but is

instead built upon a certain measure of adapting the individual (from the aspect of physical,

motor, cognitive and social development) to the requirements of the curriculum or the

school, which is initially primarily oriented toward the development of academic skills.” (p.

570).

4


The business aspect of creating a preschool would be another big part of get one up

and running. Adam Sutherland (2012) wrote a book “ The Quick Expert’s Guide To

Starting Your Own Business”, he talks about multiple different fields that everyone should

know about starting a business. This book covers fields about branding, advertising, online

things, finances and much more. This book is not the average starting your own business

book, it is very colorful and perky looking, it is also a fast read, with giving specific key

terms, the language and word choice was chosen careful to make it complete

understandable. The book was recommend by many people to be read by start up business

owners or others who have an interest in how to start a business. The book will help get the

process going.

Peggy Ann Hughes (2013) talks about a case study done, in this case

study a management accounting class help turn around a daycare. In this article they to refer

to the daycare as “ Sunshine Daycare center. “ This daycare was but into the hands of a

person with no business background. What the accounting class had to do was create a plan

for the next two quarters. That plan everything needed to be cost/ beneficial, while also

improving. This was interesting because it showed different things that would help improve

the childcare income and make it more profitable. At the end of this case study the students

had multiple ways for the daycare to precede and be profitable.

As mentioned early in my introduction the role of a successful preschool is to

prepare a child for kindergarten. This means that the child must have efficiency in

cognitive; literacy, math, and writing skills, fine motor, gross motor, social interactions, and

emotional expressions. One of the most crucial areas of development for a child is in their

literacy development. Literacy development is summarized in the Big 5 Model. It is the role

of the caregiver/ facility to foster a love enjoyment for reading. At the preschool age this

may not necessarily mean that a child can decode words using phonics rather they can are

acquainted with print. Acquainting a child with print at this age means the facilitating

opportunities to look at, experience, and expose children to varieties of print and words.

This can be done through read aloud, posters in the room, listening stations, and providing a

well stocked library or reading area with books that have relevant and high quality content.

5


Developing a literacy library in one of the most functional and beneficial ways to expose

children to print.

ProQuest Education Journal (2008) listed a group of books that would beneficial to

have in the class. These books are examples of high quality prints. These books are not just

words on a page these books contain moral lessons to develop a students social emotional

development as well. When students connect emotionally to a story this fosters a love for

reading (Fox, 2001). These books contain interesting print that relate to the words being

written so even when a child may not know all the words the story can be read using the

illustrations which is developmentally appropriate for this age. Because these books are

social emotionally relevant these books can be used in read aloud and can be integrated into

developing a lesson. Reading a story aloud before adding them to your library is critical for

children at this age because they are memorizing the tone, the feeling, and the experience

they have had from the first time they have heard this book. (Fox, 2001) Mem Fox believes

that emergent readers need to be exposed to read alouds for x, y, and z reasons. It is the first

mission a preschool to develop readers. Print is all around us and is necessary for fostering

students that will productive and well-adjusted students that transition into kindergarten.

My research is related to the opportunity at handed because I found out if it was

feasible to implement a facility that included a curriculum. What I did was look to find a

curriculum, a building that can be used, and conducted a survey. This was process very

consuming but results were great.

6


Methods

• Building web search:

A web search was done to see if there were any building available to rent or buy.

This search was done with time a conclusion was found that the best website to use

was craigslist Alaska. Craigslist was helpful because you could add square footage,

and keywords. Some keywords that were used were “childcare center”, “anchorage”, and

“picture”. This help narrow down locate, space, and appearance. From this I found that

were multiple places that would work.

• Teaching Guidelines for what teachers needed to teach:

I research the Municipality of Anchorage and the State of Alaska websites to see if

they had teaching standard of what was suppose to be taught at the preschool age.

• Guidelines for starting a childcare:

I research the Municipality of Anchorage and the State of Alaska websites for

guideline and requirement of opening a childcare and what needs to be done.

• Curriculum web search:

Another web search was done to find an usable curriculum that all classrooms will

adopt. After an in depth search between two curriculums. These two curriculums were

Creative Curriculum and High Scope Curriculum. I look through the websites in depth to

find out what each curriculum had to offer.

• Surveyed the public:

I created a survey based on simple questions to find out what the public’s view is

about childcare/ preschool and development. Based my questions off a comparison between

a child staying at home and child attending a childcare/ preschool. These questions when

answered told me what percent of people believed in what.

Criteria

Based upon what research has been done and found, my recommendation are based

upon my criteria:

7


• Is there a facility that could be rented or purchased for childcare center?

• Is there a curriculum that could be used?

• Is there a preschool standard for the State of Alaska?

• Are there rule and guidelines for starting a childcare?

• Is ASRC financial able to support opening a childcare?

• Is a preschool recommended enough to open one and make a

profit?

Results

From each part of my research I found adequate information, to help me move along

in my research. Here is what I found.

A web search for buildings in Anchorage, Alaska brought me to link to craigslist. In

craigslist I was able to narrow my search by adding my square footage, and keywords. With

that information, a list of buildings and space appeared that met my requirements. There

were plenty of buildings that sounded like it would work, on paper and through

descriptions. However without seeing the building in person, it was hard to determine if

there would be one that was a perfect fit.

For finding a curriculum, I already knew what results I would receive, but I

searched it anyway. The two top curriculums that came up were Creative Curriculum and

HighScope. Creative curriculum is a curriculum that has a significant amount of material.

They have multiple books for teachers and activities like teaching guides and mighty

minutes, this curriculum however is very repetitive. High Scope is similar in some ways.

Nonetheless is it also very different, HighScope curriculum is nicely laid out and easy to

understand. HighScope not only teaches you and lays out each day, but they also give you

a helpful classroom book and tips on how to set up the room, dos and don’ts, and also

provides with and additional cost trainings on the curriculum, for teachers. Found out also

through HighScope that they meet all State standard and guidelines for what needs to be

8


taught. This curriculum is a three-step process, the start up cost for this program, which is

step one, is $409.60. this starts you off with everything you need to get started. Step two

was additional $128.75, and step three was a total of $362.40. After searching I came to a

conclusion that HighScope would be a better curriculum for the childcare/preschool

(HighScope).

The Municipality of Anchorage had a lot of information on the guidelines and on

rules for opening a childcare. There was a lot to look at but everything helped. An couple of

useful things were a guideline to a licensed childcare, AMC 16.55.010-.500, center inquiry

packet. They offer all different kind of information. Licensed childcare document talks

about nine group and then with those nine group multiple requirement. Three are

requirements are mainly about safety and the facility. The AMC 16.55.010-.500 is the

guidelines for everything, definition of terms, purpose of a childcare, license requirements,

monitoring and fifty-three other important things to know when open a childcare. The

center inquiry talks about space requirements, food and sanitation, land use. There are

guidelines for when working within the Anchorage area (Muni of Anchorage).

Once finding guideline for setting up and opening a preschool I looked for guidelines

for what exactly they needed to be taught. I searched for rules and guideline on what should

be taught in the classes. I found a pdf on the State of Alaska website under Alaska

Department of Education & Early Development. They had a entire 200 pages on guidelines,

the the document was laid out and divided into sections. There were a total of five domains:

1. Physical Well-Being, health and Motor Development

2. Social and Emotional Development

3. Approaches to Learning

4. Cognition and General Knowledge

5. Communication, Language, and Literacy

Within these five domains there are more areas for example like vocabulary, listening

health and personal care. All these areas are things the preschool age children should be

learning on a daily, or weekly basis and they should also know before they enter into

kindergarten. (Early Learning Guideline)

9


Next looking at cost, I really could not find anything specific on their cost and if there is

an extra profit, to support opening a child care. How ever I did find that there are significant

amounts of money each year donated to charity and also given to multiple shareholders.

For the survey I received outstanding feedback. I came across three very interesting

things that show that a child care/ preschool is very important to the majority of people.

These results displayed exactly what the public thought on these three areas.

1. Whether a curriculum should be or shouldn’t be used in a preschool.

2. Where the most cognitive, physical, social and emotional development would

happen..

3. Where a child would have the most kindergarten readiness.

There is a wide range of childcare/ preschools that do not work with curriculum. In

the survey the question was asked “ Do you think that a childcare/ preschool should use a

curriculum?” The result showed that the majority of people believed “yes”. A total of 79%

of people surveyed said yes that there should be a curriculum used in the classroom. There

was 16% that said no, there does not need to be curriculum in the classroom. The remaining

5% said “I honesty do not have a preference”. This can be seen in Figure 1.From these

results you can see that the majority does think a curriculum should be used.

10


Figure 1. Percent of whether or not a childcare/ preschool should use a

curriculum. This graph shows that 79% of surveyed people say that curriculums should be

use.

Next we ask where the more cognitive, physical, emotional and social development

happens. I gave two main choices; the choices were at a “childcare/ preschool”, or “at

home”. I gave a third choice of “it would be the same” Figure 2., shows that out of the

group surveyed 32% thought that at ”home,” there would be more cognitive, physical, and

emotional development there. Where another 36% said there would be more development

done at “childcare / preschool”. The last 32% thought it would the same amount of

development would happen either place.

Figure 2. Where people stand on where the most cognitive, physical,

emotional, and social development will happen. This graph shows how close the results

are. Childcare / Preschool is 36% were and home and “ it would be equal” are the same at

32%.

11


The last major question ask was, would a child be better suited for kindergarten if

they went to preschool beforehand, rather than staying at home. There are three options to

choose from, “yes”, “no”, and “it would not matter”. As shown in figure 3. The 63% of the

surveyed people thought that a child that when to preschool before kindergarten would be

better suited for kindergarten, rather than staying at home. Another 26% said that “it would

not matter”, and the last 11% said “no”. This proves that childcare/ preschool are important

to the families that have children.

Figure 3.Thoughts on if child is better suited for kindergarten if they go to

preschool before rather staying home. This graph shows that the majority of people

think a child is better suited for kindergarten if they attend preschool first.

In the end I can say that through this research, it is feasible to create a childcare/

preschool. Through multiple spaces available, a curriculum that will work, the public’s

strong view supporting childcare/ preschools, it is a manageable thing to do. You can see

that in figure 1. People believe that a childcare/ preschool should have and use a

curriculum. Figure 2. Shows that there would be more cognitive, physically, social, and

12


emotional development happening in a childcare/ preschool. Figure3. Shows us that

children that have attended a childcare/ preschool before entering kindergarten are more

likely to be better suited for it kindergarten rather then a child who stayed at home. For all

three figures we can conclude that all this supports the feasible of ASRC could open a

childcare/ preschool for their employees.

Conclusion

After researching and looking over what research what done the following conclusion have

been made:

From the survey, we can say that school readiness is important and the

development that happens preschool is beneficial.

There are buildings available in the Anchorage area.

There is a curriculum out there that can be purchased like HighScope.

There are guidelines and requirements for opening a childcare.

There are standards for the State of Alaska on what preschool age children should

be learning.

Recommendation

Although it looks like it is feasible to open and implement a child care/ preschool I believe

that research should still be been to confirm the financial capability and physically for a

preschool within your company. I recommend that:

Look within the financial of ASRC be done to see if they could support the facility

Poll/ Survey of the ASRC employee that would use the preschool for their children.

Physically go look into possible facility places.

13


References

Direct Services. (n.d.). Child. Retrieved April 30, 2014, from

http://www.muni.org/Departments/health/community/Pages/Child.aspx

Duncan, G. J., & Magnuson, K. (2013). Investing in Preschool Programs. Journal of

Economic Perspectives, 27(2), 109-132.

Early Learning Guidelines. (n.d.). State of Alaska Early Learning Guidelines. Retrieved

March 30, 2014, from

http://www.eed.state.ak.us/publications/EarlyLearningGuidelines.pdf

Fothergill, A. (2013). Managing Childcare: The Experiences of Mothers and Childcare

Workers. Sociological Inquiry, 83(3), 421-447.

Fox, M., & Horacek, J. (2001). Reading magic: how your child can learn to read before

school and other read-aloud miracles. Sydney: Pan Macmillan.

Hughes, P. A. (2013). Sunshine Daycare Center: Growing a Business to Profitability. Issues

in Accounting Education, 28(2), 323-335.

Step By Step. (n.d.). Implementing the HighScope Curriculum. Retrieved April 20, 2014,

from http://www.highscope.org/Content.asp?ContentId=248

Sutherland, A. (2012). The quick expert's guide to starting your own business. London:

Wayland.

(2008). The Horn Book Guide to Children's and Young Adult Books. ProQuest Education

Journal, 19(2), 276.

Umek, L. M., Kranjc, S., Fekonja, U., & Bajc, K. (2008). The effect of preschool on

childrenâ€™s school readiness. Early Child Development and Care, 178(6), 569-

588.

We Are ASRC. (n.d.). Arctic Slope Regional Corporation. Retrieved April 25, 2014,

from http://www.asrc.com/Pages/We%20are%20ASRC.aspx

14

Documents

emilyglatt.weebly.comemilyglatt.weebly.com/.../glatt_final_draft.docx · Web view25 April 2014. Rex Allen Rock Sr. ,CEO. Arctic Slope Regional Corporation. P.O. Box 129Barrow, Alaska