This article emphasises the importance of research that helps us to understand how things are in early childhood education and care, why they are the way they are, what are the alternative decisions or actions we might take in order to change things and what are the implications of choosing among those alternatives. As an illustration of this, it…

Facing mounting evidence that California has fallen behind on many key indicators of educational performance, policymakers and the public share considerable interest in exploring whether California should expand public funding for preschool education. This expanded funding will be most effective if resources can be directed to their most efficient…

The "2009 State Preschool Yearbook" is the seventh in a series of annual reports profiling state-funded prekindergarten programs in the United States. This latest Yearbook presents data on state-funded prekindergarten during the 2008-2009 school year. The first report in this series focused on programs for the 2001-2002 school year and…

This executive summary describes a study that analyzes the content of early learning standards, operationally defined as documents that articulate expectations for children's development and learning during the preschool period (ages three to five years). Standards from 36 states were collected and analyzed to address the following research…

Training and education of infant and toddler caregivers is one important factor associated with the quality of child care they provide. In response to research showing that high-quality care supports positive development in young children, policymakers have established training and education requirements for licensed providers and launched…

Demand for childcare services in Malaysia is increasing. With the changing demographic landscape and increasing knowledge of the importance of early childhood education, provision of alternative childcare services has never been more significant. Children younger than four years of age are placed in registered childcare centres while their parents…

There is widespread recognition of the importance of early childhood learning, and a strong public appetite for increased public support to ensure that young children enter school ready to learn. National surveys find that 87 percent of voters think state governments should provide funding so that all children can enroll in preschool.…

For the study reported in this article, Deaf couples were interviewed at two different times regarding their views on deaf education. Questions in the first interview focused on the parents' views of their preschool children's education as well as their opinion of their "own" school experiences. Questions also covered language use at school and…

Working within a person-process-context framework, we investigated the relation of the level of preschool children's compliance to child temperament, caregiver-child interaction in the child care setting, child care quality, and contextual chaos. Participants were 86 preschoolers and their teachers. Our database included both questionnaires and…

In spring 2002, a national sample of more than 800 National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) members working in the United States in the care and education of children age three to five responded to the following questions: (1) Are they happy with their work?; (2) Are they satisfied with their pay?; and (3) Are they engaged…

"Birth to Three Matters" is essential for all those involved in developing policy and providing care and education for children between birth and three. It carefully examines the structure and content of the recently published Birth to Three Matters materials and explores a range of "matters" that impact on the development of quality in early…

Forty-eight toddlers aged 17 to 31 months attending long-day childcare participated in this project, which examined some of the influences of the day-care context on their emerging pretend play. Ninety minutes of video-taped observations were collected for each participant as they engaged in free play with their same-age peers and their…

Tens of thousands of California's 4-year-olds are not enrolled in preschool, ranking California 37th in the nation in preschool enrollment. Pioneering communities throughout the state are working to meet the demand for preschool in their neighborhoods. The achievements of these innovative local efforts indicate the future success of a statewide…

Early childhood education has received an increasing amount of attention in the last two decades in the United States and in other countries. There is now a strong consensus on the many benefits of preschool. Studies have shown that attending a high-quality preschool program not only increases children's readiness for kindergarten, but also causes…

This document reports on the background, purpose and proceedings of a policy forum entitled, "High Quality Inclusion Opportunities for Preschool-Age Children with Disabilities," held on December 13-15, 2004. Project Forum at the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE) convened this policy forum as part of its…