Publicly funded prekindergartens are programs that most states use to promote school readiness, especially of 4-year-old children at risk for academic problems due to poverty. Despite large public expenditures, these programs have not been widely evaluated. We examined 240 randomly selected pre-kindergarten programs in six states with mature…

Compared parents' perceptions of child care quality to those of researchers. Found that parents highly valued all aspects of care, especially interactions, health, and safety. Parents rated the quality of their children's care significantly higher than did observers. Quality scores differed greatly when parental values increased, and smaller…

In the past decade in the United States, pre-kindergarten programs for four year olds have expanded rapidly as a potentially powerful intervention intended to promote school readiness for children at-risk for future school failure. This paper describes in detail multi-dimensional profiles of observed quality across 692 classrooms in 11 states…

Examined relations between structural and process quality in preschool classrooms across four countries. Structural quality variables included classroom, center, wage, and regional characteristics. Found differences in levels of structural variables used in the different countries, although many of the same structural features affected process…

Investigates levels and patterns of intellectual development of 131 socioeconomically disadvantaged children in university-based intervention group day care or community day care, or with little or no day care. Results suggest that high quality day care may positively change the intellectual development of socioeconomically disadvantaged children.…

This study describes the meaning of program quality for a representative group of parents of children enrolled in public prekindergarten programs. Educators often conceptualized quality in terms of structural or process indicators; parents most often cited teacher experience and relationship to children. Families, like educators, emphasized…

States have accumulated considerable experience in operating publicly sponsored pre-kindergarten programs. In spite of this extensive experience, only fragmentary accounts exist of how these pre-kindergarten (pre-k) programs handle issues such as program intensity, location, staffing, and population served. These issues are addressed by the…

This study draws from the National Center for Early Development and Learning's Multi-State Pre-Kindergarten Study to examine the extent to which program, classroom, and teacher attributes of the program ecology predict observed quality and teacher-child interactions in a sample of 238 classrooms representing 6 states' pre-kindergarten programs.…