In this article, Rachel Abenavoli, Natalia Rojas, Rebecca Unterman, Elise Cappella, Josh Wallack, and Pamela Morris argue that research-practice partnerships make it possible to rigorously study relevant policy questions in ways that would otherwise be infeasible. Randomized controlled trials of small-scale programs have shown us that early…

In this article, Rachel Abenavoli, Natalia Rojas, Rebecca Unterman, Elise Cappella, Josh Wallack, and Pamela Morris argue that research-practice partnerships make it possible to rigorously study relevant policy questions in ways that would otherwise be infeasible. Randomized controlled trials of small-scale programs have shown us that early…

This study examines autism diagnosis prevalence within the New York City (NYC) Universal Pre-K for All (UPK) program expansion into racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse NYC neighborhoods. Here, it is hypothesized that racial/ethnic differences in autism diagnoses may close as more children are referred for testing by UPK programs,…

New York City's universal pre-kindergarten program, which increased full-day enrollment from 19,000 to almost 70,000 children, is ambitious in both scale and implementation speed. We provide new evidence on the distribution of pre-K quality in NYC by student race/ethnicity, and investigate the extent to which observed differences are associated…

Many school districts face the empirical challenge of monitoring program quality to assure that all children experience pre-K environments that foster early learning and development. Factors that are exogenous to classrooms (such as evaluation timing) may play a role in estimates of program quality and yet are not fully understood. This paper…

In the last decade, the number of public school students in the United States experiencing homelessness has more than doubled. Research shows that school enrollment processes are particularly onerous for families experiencing homelessness; yet, school choice and enrollment policies are rarely designed with the type of flexibility needed to be…

Teacher certification exams were put on hold as New York City became the epicenter of the COVID-19 crisis in March of 2020. State officials closed testing centers and school buildings, and teacher candidates began to panic as administrators at their student teaching placements worked feverishly to adjust. This changed teacher candidates' ability…

Tamim is an organization designed as a school network, much like those found in the charter school sector, among innovative public schools, and in smaller numbers in other corners of the private school sector. Tamim is built on the notion of expanding existing prekindergarten programs associated with local Chabad Jewish centers into full…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to describe how the language diversity (i.e., the within-group variability in dual-language skills) of Latino dual-language learner (DLL) preschoolers was related to their science readiness skills and (b) to describe the importance of language of science instruction for Spanish-dominant children.…

The field of early childhood education and care in the United States and around the globe is challenged by the growing number of immigrant children in classrooms and their diverse needs. Juxtaposing these concerns is a great silence in the literature on teacher development and education for teaching young immigrant children. Through a series of…

Purpose: This study describes the language diversity (the within-group variability in dual-language skills) of a sample of Latino dual-language learners (preschoolers, 3-5 years of age) and how language diversity is related to home and classroom factors. Method: A sample of 161 caregivers and their preschoolers participated in this study.…

New York City's Pre-K for All (PKA) is the nation's largest universal early childhood initiative, serving over 64,000 four-year-olds annually. Stemming from the program's choice architecture as well as the city's stark residential segregation, PKA programs are extremely segregated by child race/ethnicity. Our current study explores the complex…

Family engagement is considered to be a cornerstone of successful universal prekindergarten (PreK) implementation. Using data from interviews with mothers, this study investigates the different ways families are engaged in their child's PreK experience. Multiple themes emerged from the interviews, including: family engagement, parents' knowledge…

"Parent involvement", valued by the field of early childhood education, is shown to contribute to the growth and development of children. However, what has in fact, been "valued" are engagement practices based on normalized white middle class cultural patterns. The current understandings of and expectations for "parent…

The COVID-19 pandemic tremendously disrupted ECE in the U.S., closing many private programs and nearly all public preschool and primary classrooms. To understand this impact, we used multiple strategies, including a nationwide survey of parents; a review of state policies, guidance and resource documents; and scans of media coverage to obtain…