A two-issue volume presents articles describing innovative schools, classrooms, and alternative learning arrangements found in some of today's schools. Issue one contains three articles offering glimpses of an elementary school committed to the Core Knowledge curriculum of E. D. Hirsch, a renovated school devoted to early childhood learning…

Noting that high-quality preschool increases the ability of low-income children to profit from elementary and secondary education, thereby increasing their high school graduation rate and generating economic and other returns for taxpayers, this report articulates and analyzes the economic benefits of providing a high-quality preschool education…

This Kids Count census brief is the second in a series to offer policymakers concise glimpses of Kansas children and families. The briefs introduction notes important changes in the child population during the 1990s: Head Start participation increased to 60 percent of eligible children; the number of kindergartners who were fully immunized by age…

The transition of children between the two programs of Public Law 99-457, serving children aged birth through two and age three through five, can impact on state administration and local agency administration of the programs. Recommendations are provided for facilitating the family's and child's transition and ensuring continuity in services.…

The new call for a universal preschool system is prompting an important policy debate across California. How preschooling is expanded and improved with limited public resources depends on several key issues. The hopeful ideals of "preschool for all"--with children beginning school ready to learn--spark enthusiasm and broaden public will.…

The essays contained in this document, which launches the University of Georgia Education Initiative, attempt to address Georgia's need for increased literacy in realistic and constructive terms. Taken together, these essays constitute an agenda for action--a challenge to all those who wish to provide Georgians with the quality education they…

Funding difficulties encountered by states in complying with early intervention service requirements of Part H of the Education of the Handicapped Act Amendments (1986) suggest the need for a variety of options to ensure successful long-term implementation. The advantages and disadvantages of three options are detailed: (1) fund all Part H…

This paper presents a methodology for assessing the teacher shortage in special education. The approach analyzes data on newly hired teachers from four categories: teachers trained out of state, experienced teachers returning or transferring, teachers newly trained in-state, and teachers on newly issued emergency licenses. These data can be…

Four topical bibliographies list materials held by the Illinois Birth to Three Clearinghouse which collects information of interest to parents, professionals, and policymakers on health, education, and development in infancy and early childhood. Bibliography number 18, "Materials on Home Care," contains 52 entries for books and journal…

Addressed to the Minnesota State Legislature, this report on Minnesota's Early Childhood Health and Developmental Screening Program discusses issues related to program goals and program implementation, overviews the program, and reports and summarizes statewide program results for 1985-86. Issues discussed concern responsibility for the program,…

Faults Lawrence J. Schweinhart and David P. Weikert's article in this "Educational Leadership" issue for concluding that disadvantaged preschoolers taught by direct instruction have twice the teenage delinquency rate of children experiencing the High/Scope program. Accuses the authors of exaggerating statistical differences, research…

This paper presents some ideas to preschool educators and policy makers about how to make validated educational models central in standards for preschool education and care programs that are available to all 3- and 4-year-olds. Defining an educational model as a coherent body of program practices, curriculum content, program and child, and teacher…

Success in school and life are more dependent than ever before on literacy skills. Within the context of California's Proposition 10, the "Children and Families First Act," this report provides practical, and to the extent possible, evidence-based guidelines for considering strategies to promote children's development relevant to…

As part of a series of reports designed to support the implementation of Proposition 10: The California Children and Families Act and to provide comprehensive and authoritative information on critical issues concerning young children and families in California, this report provides county-level commissioners and their staff with information about…

This audit report examines the process used by the New York State Education Department in setting tuition rates for schools that provide special education programs. The audit specifically addresses two concerns: first, whether the current process adequately ensures that reimbursable tuition costs are reasonable, necessary, and directly related to…