Description:
The William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund's (WCGMF) priority that "Connecticut children of all races and income levels are ready for school by age five and are successful learners by age nine" was a key factor in this research study. Understanding parent decision making was crucial to the Memorial Fund's result statement and its strategy of system building. The goal of this study was to support these efforts. In particular, this study provided knowledge about parents' perceptions and concerns with early childhood care, and how these influence parent access and decision-making about early childhood education. Questions that guided this study were: What do parents view as the characteristics of quality early childhood education and why do these parents believe these factors are important? What teacher qualities, traits and behaviors do parents perceive as important and why are these factors important to them? What do parents define as quality ECE curriculum and teaching approaches? Finally, given all the important characteristics of ECE programs defined by parents, which if any, are the most important in influencing their selection of an ECE program for their children. The report presented here is a summary of our findings. To accomplish the research objectives an exploratory study using a mixed methods cross-sectional study design was chosen. Data was collected from 22 parents using a representative sample of Danbury, Connecticut (CT) parents identified and recruited by our research partner Danbury Children First. Our study collected parent data using 3 different methods: 1) focus group, 2) structured interview and 3) surveys. (author abstract)
Resource Type:
Executive Summary
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