State-funded prekindergarten educational programming for all children is a rarity in the United States. Five states offer no financial support to fund prekindergarten educational programming, and the majority offer partial funding. Only three states provide universally funded prekindergarten educational programming. The purpose of this study is to…

Two decades ago, the New Jersey Supreme Court in "Abbott v. Burke" mandated that the state establish high quality preschool education in the 31 highest-poverty school districts. New Jersey created a pre-K program with high standards and a continuous improvement system that transformed a patchwork of private and public programs into a…

The purpose of this parallel mixed-methodology study was to examine how the perceptions of early childhood teachers toward their early childhood English Language Learners (ELL) shape their pedagogical practices. The study was conducted in 10 early childhood classrooms, ranging from grades pre-K to third, in one suburban school with a culturally…

Giving children high-quality preschool is the first step in the journey to school success. The next steps--kindergarten through 3rd grade--are equally important. Advocates for Children of New Jersey (ACNJ) is working on several fronts to help school districts across the state build strong early learning programs, which can significantly improve…

New Jersey's Abbott Preschool program is of broad national and international interest because the Abbott program provides a model for building a high-quality system of universal pre-K through public-private partnerships that transform the existing system. The program offers high-quality pre-K to all children in 31 New Jersey communities with high…

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the length of years of preschool attendance on the academic achievement and retention of third and fourth grade students in high and low achieving schools. The study consisted of the analysis of secondary data, i.e., mathematics and language arts literacy scores as the measurement of academic…