A focus on early literacy that became heightened in the early 21st century has had the unintended consequence of restricting our ideas about what children should be doing in classrooms, creating a preoccupation not only with literacy in general but also with a specific subset of early literacy skills that often reflect Eurocentric cultural norms…

Background: Early care and education (ECE) has lasting, positive effects on children's school readiness (Phillips et al., 2018; Yoshikawa et al., 2013). Over the past several decades, access to city or state-funded prekindergarten (pre-K) has increased considerably (Friedman-Krauss et al., 2023) with well-documented, positive impacts on child…

We investigated the extent to which practices considered developmentally appropriate and inappropriate varied by preschool program auspice (private, public school, and Head Start). Survey data from a 2010 national sample of 2,664 teachers of 4-year-olds provided teacher reports on the frequency of seven practices (e.g., offering children choices…

Students entering Kindergarten need to obtain readiness skills to make their first year of school a successful one. Many students may appear overwhelmed with the activities and expectations that are placed on them in a kindergarten classroom. Many families and teachers would like for kindergarten to be conducted the way it was many years ago, but…

Grounded in Developmental Systems Theory, especially Ecological Systems Theory, and through the strength-based and whole child lenses, this study examines 15 interviews with Head Start professionals and explores alignment degree of their school readiness perception and practices. Adopting dual mapping, theme screening and in vivo coding, the…

The goals of the current study were: 1) to modify and expand an existing spatial mathematical language coding system to include quantitative mathematical language terms and 2) to examine the extent to which preschool-aged children used spatial and quantitative mathematical language during a block play intervention. Participants included 24…

The present study examined how the dosage and quality of the federal preschool program "Head Start" (HS) in the US related to children's self-regulation skills in kindergarten. Using Propensity Score Matching and multiple regression (OLS), this study explored how the number of years and hours a week of HS were related to self-regulation…

This article describes a conceptual and empirical approach for estimating a human capital production function of child development that incorporates mother- or child-fixed effects. The use of mother- or child-fixed effects is common in this applied economics literature, but its application is often inconsistent with human capital theory. We…

To provide a landscape of mathematics activities children experience in U.S. preschool and kindergarten classrooms, we observed time children spent in mathematics activities (and -- as a contrast -- literacy) in 101 geographically diverse early childhood classrooms in seven U.S. states. We also observed what mathematics content, grouping…

This guidance is intended to clarify that the Head Start Program Performance Standards (HSPPS) in 45 C.F.R. Part 1302 Subpart C--Education and Child Development Program Services are required for preschool programs supported with funds under Title I, Part A (Title I) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA); and provide…

Children from backgrounds of poverty often lag behind more advantaged peers in early language skills, including breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge. We report the results of a pilot study of an explicit and elaborated vocabulary intervention in preschool classrooms serving children from lower-income backgrounds. The intervention used…

Research Findings: In recent years, several initiatives have been put into place both federally and state-wide to expand access to high-quality early education programs. At the center of these efforts are the tools that measure program or classroom quality. The present study compares the psychometrics of two such tools used in Michigan, the…

Objective: This study examined the unique and interactive effects of PA volume and within-person fluctuations in PA volume (i.e., intraindividual variability in PA volume; PA-var) on preschoolers' (N = 141; 47.5% girls) ADHD symptoms. Method: Preschoolers wore accelerometers during the school day over a 2-week period. Teachers reported on…

The current study investigated the prevalence and outcomes related to Head Start (HS) children's dual enrollment in state-funded prekindergarten (state Pre-K) using a secondary analysis of a statewide integrated administrative dataset (N = 2,986). It also explored whether a program partnership between HS and the local school district (within the…

Using data from the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey 2009 Cohort, this study investigated the school readiness trajectories of 2,908 Head Start children from Head Start to kindergarten. Multilevel growth curve models examined differences by immigrant-origin status and the moderating role of enriching experiences. Research Findings:…