Confirmatory program evaluation: Applications to early childhood interventions
A discussion of confirmatory program evaluation as a method for conducting theory driven evaluations, and its role in identifying causal mechanisms of change in early childhood interventions, with examples from the Chicago Longitudinal Study and studies of the Chicago Child-Parent Centers
Reports & Papers
The debate over the young "disadvantaged child": Preschool intervention, developmental psychology, and compensatory education in the 1960s and early 1970s
An account of preschool intervention researchers and developmental psychologists studying young poor children in the 1960s and early 1970s, their perspectives on the causes of educational and developmental problems, their recommended remedies to those problems, and the ramifications of the debate over preschool intervention for compensatory education, with a specific focus on the African American population
Other
A different kind of child development institution: The history of after-school programs for low-income children
A historical analysis of the emergence and development of afterschool programs for low-income children from the early 1900s until the late 1990s
Reports & Papers
The dilemma of cultural responsiveness and professionalization: Listening closer to immigrant teachers who teach children of recent immigrants
Background/Context: Many scholars in the fields of teacher education, multicultural education, and bilingual education have argued that children of recent immigrants are best served in classrooms that have teachers who understand the cultural background and the home language of their students. Culturally knowledgeable and responsive teachers are important in early education and care settings that serve children from immigrant families. However, there is little research on immigrant teachers' cultural and professional knowledge or on their political access to curricular/pedagogical decision-making. Focus of Study: This study is part of the larger Children Crossing Borders (CCB) study: a comparative study of what practitioners and parents who are recent immigrants in multiple countries think should happen in early education settings. Here, we present an analysis of the teacher interviews that our team conducted in the United States and compare the perspectives of immigrant teachers with those of their nonimmigrant counterparts, specifically centering on the cultural expertise of immigrant teachers who work within their own immigrant community. Research Design: The research method used in the CCB project is a variation of the multivocal ethnographic research method used in the two Preschool in Three Cultures studies. We made videotapes of typical days in classrooms for 4-year-olds in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings in five countries (England, France, Germany, Italy, and the United States) and then used these videos as cues for focus group interviews with parents and teachers. Using a coding framework designed by the national CCB team, we coded 30 focus group interviews. The coding framework was designed to facilitate comparisons across countries, cities, and categories of participants (teachers and parents, immigrant and nonimmigrant). Findings/Results: Teachers who are themselves immigrants from the same communities of the children and families they serve seem perfectly positioned to bridge the cultural and linguistic worlds of home and school. However, our study of teachers in five U.S. cities at a number of early childhood settings suggests that teachers who are themselves immigrants often experience a dilemma that prevents them from applying their full expertise to the education and care of children of recent immigrants. Rather than feeling empowered by their bicultural, bilingual knowledge and their connection to multiple communities, many immigrant teachers instead report that they often feel stuck between their pedagogical training and their cultural knowledge. Conclusions/Recommendations: Bicultural, bilingual staff, and especially staff members who are themselves immigrants from the community served by the school, can play an invaluable role in parent-staff dialogues, but only if their knowledge is valued, enacted, and encouraged as an extension of their professional role as early childhood educators. For the teachers, classrooms, and structures in our study, this would require nonimmigrant practitioners to have a willingness to consider other cultural versions of early childhood pedagogy as having merit and to enter into dialogue with immigrant teachers and immigrant communities. (author abstract)
Reports & Papers
Empowerment and education: Civil rights, expert-advocates, and parent politics in Head Start, 1964-1980
A history of the role of a coalition of civil rights activists, expert-advocates, and parents in the survival of the Head Start program
Reports & Papers
The expanding role of the courts in educational policy: The preschool remedy and an adequate education
A description of the educational research on the effectiveness of preschool used in 2 cases of school finance reform litigation, an analysis of the opportunities and pitfalls of the preschool remedy for inequity, and an examination of the implications of other similar remedies from a judicial consideration of preschool programs in New Jersey and North Carolina
Reports & Papers
Family, neighborhood, and school settings across seasons: When do socioeconomic context and racial composition matter for the reading achievement growth of young children?
A study of the relationship between reading achievement growth and ethnic composition in both neighborhoods and schools and family socioeconomic and demographic factors, from a secondary analysis of 4,180 young children from ECLS-K kindergarten through first grade data
Reports & Papers
Getting it the second time around: Student classroom experience in Chicago's Summer Bridge program
A study of the experiences of middle school students in Summer Bridge, an intensive Chicago public school summer program to help students avoid grade retention, based on student surveys and focus groups
Reports & Papers
Identity texts and literacy development among preschool English language learners: Enhancing learning opportunities for children at risk for learning disabilities
A description and evaluation of the implementation of the Early Authors Program (EAP), an early language intervention designed to aid in the development of emergent literacy skills of bilingual preschool children at risk for learning disabilities
Reports & Papers
Meta-analysis of the effects of early education interventions on cognitive and social development
A study of the effects of early childhood interventions on children's cognitive development, social development, and school progress, based on a meta-analysis of 123 comparative quasi-experimental and randomized studies published between 1960 and 2000
Literature Review
Nation as context: Comparing child-care systems across nations
An overview of recent trends in female employment and preschool provision in the United States and the European Union (France and the former German Democratic Republic)
Reports & Papers
Relation of instruction and poverty to mathematics achievement gains during kindergarten
A study of the relationships between mathematics achievement in kindergarten and both poverty status and global classroom quality, based on a secondary analysis of data from thousands kindergarteners
Reports & Papers
Reliving the history of compensatory education: Policy choices, bureaucracy, and the politicized role of science in the evolution of Head Start
An account of a proposal to phase out the Head Start program in 1970, based on an interview with Edward F. Zigler
Other
[Review of the book Changing the odds for children at risk: Seven essential principles of educational programs that break the cycle of poverty]
A review of an overview of several types of early education interventions for at risk children, an identification of common characteristics of successful interventions, and a discussion of methods of assessments of interventions for the determination of accountability
Book Reviews
[Review of the book Effective partnering for school change: Improving early childhood education in urban classrooms]
A review of a description of the Schools Project--a partnership between the Erikson Institute and nine Chicago public elementary schools, created to improve the learning environments of low income children
Book Reviews
[Review of the book Inequality at the starting gate: Social background differences in achievement as children begin school]
Book Reviews
[Review of the book The promise of preschool: From Head Start to universal pre-kindergarten]
A review of a history of the evolution of the public policy supporting Head Start and public preschool between the late 1950s through the 2010s and a discussion of unresolved advocacy and policy issues for the continued improvement of quality and accessibility of public early education in the United States
Book Reviews
[Review of the book Reinventing early care and education: A vision for a quality system]
A review of an anthology of writings on issues related to early childhood care and education quality, including treatments of topics such as collaboration, parental input, international standards, cultural diversity, licensing, training and development, regulation, government funding, and national policy
Book Reviews
[Review of the book School-family partnerships for children's success]
A review of an analysis of the conceptual frameworks of school–family partnerships, the cultural issues central to family–school partnerships in a diverse society, and the policy issues affecting school–family partnerships accentuating the importance of building the capacity of parents, teachers, and administrators for fostering constructive school–family networks
Book Reviews
Rich culture, poor markets: Why do Latino parents forgo preschooling?
A study focusing on the low proportion of Latino parents who select a formal preschool or child care center for their three-to-five year old children
Reports & Papers
Silk purses and sow's ears: Reflections on Before Head Start: The Iowa Station and America's children
A review of a history of the research conducted at the Iowa Child Welfare Research Station from the 1920s through the early 1950s, and a discussion of its influence on the child development and education fields through the 1970s
Book Reviews
Tying early childhood education more closely to schooling: Promise, perils and practical problems
Purpose/Objective: One specific framework for bringing ECE and schooling closer together is "prek-3rd." The broad goal of prek-3rd is to encapsulate formal learning experiences in the 3-8 years age period and create a distinct, coherent whole out of them. In this article, I use prek-3rd as a vehicle for exploring the implications of more closely linking ECE and schooling, focusing especially on philosophical and practical issues raised by this objective. I will examine the reasoning of proponents and raise questions about their assumptions. Research Design: Analytic essay. Conclusions/Recommendations: The example of prek-3rd suggests that there are many positive aspects to the idea of bringing ECE and early schooling closer together. These include an extended time frame for holding on to a developmental orientation; a complex view of the child, and sensitivity to individual differences; the longitudinal perspective on learning and mastery; the balance in attention to teaching and learning; and the broadened time frame for considering the transition to school. Yet, at least in the American context, it is not such a good idea to bring ECE and schooling closer together. Initiatives like prek-3rd will provide one more opening for downward pressures on early childhood providers. The schools (as a whole) have a history of failing to respect the integrity of other institutions that join them in efforts to better meet children's needs. Thus far, all that has been accomplished by tying ECE more closely to schools making ECE less early-childhood-like. The needs of schools are just too powerful and end up overwhelming the identity of institutional partners. Ultimately, the risk in binding ECE and schooling more closely together derives from a set of related cultural problems. The first can best be described as losing the present to the future--the very problem with school readiness as the central goal of ECE. The second problem is a misunderstanding of the processes at the heart of child development. Children are not raw human capital to be carefully developed through schooling to meet the demands of a globalized labor force. Americans urgently have to rethink how they wish to account for children, the virtues that are important to nurture, and the role of adult institutions in the process. There is a clear risk in extending the line that already connects schooling to global competitiveness down into early childhood, asking ECE to address not only the achievement gap but the global achievement gap as well. (author abstract)
Other
Unpacking standards in early childhood education
An examination of Wisconsin early childhood stakeholders' reactions to the Bush Administrations Good Start Grow Smart initiative and their perceptions of needed policies to help reform early childhood education
Reports & Papers
