The goal of early childhood programming is to provide children with high-quality early care and to support educators' understanding and ability to implement high-quality practices on behalf of children and their families. Quality in early childhood care is an ambiguous concept, relative to various social and context-specific factors, making it…

The United States is becoming increasingly diverse, so early childhood educators are often among the first to work with families whose primary languages are other than English. Many parents, guardians, and family members do speak English but not fluently enough to feel comfortable communicating with teachers or administrators. When educators and…

The itinerant service delivery model is used across the United States to provide services to young children (ages 3 years-6 years) with disabilities whose primary placement is a community-based early childhood program. Although this model is a common component of the least-restrictive-environment continuum of service delivery options, the roles…

This study explores how teacher quality matters in improving early childhood performance in US kindergartens. We find that it is what teachers do rather than the credentials they hold that matters. Different from previous research on the effect of teacher quality on student achievement, this paper first rejected the common practice of using…

Maintains that the Italian concept of "l'inserimento" suggests a different way of thinking about children's entry to out-of-home care and challenges American practitioners to rethink current interpretations of quality care, teachers' professional responsibilities, and the role of child-development theory. Concludes that cultural…

Examined how family and day care are integrated in children's lives in the United States, Russia, and Finland. Found that congruence between parents' and teachers' views concerning upbringing and education was very high within societies, while opinions between societies differed greatly. Results suggest that implementation of early education in…

This collection of 18 essays and interviews documents the unique approach to early childhood education taken by schools in the Reggio Emilia region of Northern Italy for the last 30 years. The book is divided into four major parts. Part I includes an introduction by Carolyn Edwards and others, and the essay, "What Can We Learn From Reggio…