President Clinton's projected "Goals 2000: Educate America" legislation is a national blueprint for helping principals build partnerships, revitalize curricula, expand community and parental support, and actively participate in the educational excellence movement. The legislation will provide schools, districts, and states with incentive…

50 years after the "Brown v. Board of Education" decision, a high-stakes testing movement, significantly boosted by provisions contained in No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, has emerged with the potential of both positive and negative implications. This paper argues that assessment generally is not tied to the 3 positive outcomes of…

As Harold Lasswell and his colleagues observed of the rhetoric of power (Language of Politics, 1965), some words become magic, with "inexplicable powers" attributed to them. "Access" has become such a word in the discourse of higher education. The sloganistic use of the term implies that someone, somewhere, is preventing somebody from doing…

In this paper a relationship is established between writing and early literacy in young children. The age at which early literacy begins to develop in young children varies with each child. For many children, literacy begins to appear in activities such as pretend play, drawing, conversations about storybook plots, and conversations about words or…

This report offers answers to four basic questions about children's readiness for school: (1) What does being ready for school mean? (2) How can practitioners best identify and assess readiness? (3) How important is readiness? and (4) How do children who are ready get ready, and how do children who are not yet ready become ready? It is argued that…

Preschool intervention may be effective for economically disadvantaged children but not for middle-class children. Yet many preschool children need universally available day care. The best way to provide this would be to work with the schools. The author promotes the return to concept of the community school as a local center for all social…

This guide for state policymakers argues that Connecticut is facing a "quiet crisis" in the provision of early care and education (ECE) supports for the state's youngest children. The guide provides estimates for current and future ECE needs in the state and details five goals and related action steps to address the crisis: (1) all…

The articles in this engaging volume, mostly from Young Children, address the purposes of and uses for assessment. Expert commentary from Marian Marion, Gayle Mindes, Richard Clifford, Diane Trister Dodge and others offers an overview of the topic and specific examples to show how assessment informs and improves practice in early childhood…

Two authors weigh the evidence on starting to emphasize early literacy skills during preschool, discussing student-centered versus content-centered classrooms, looking at developmentally appropriate education, presenting their differing views on the subject, and responding to one another's opinions. Two sidebars discuss Project Headstart's…

Argues that economic and social disadvantage experienced very early is more damaging than poverty experienced later in life. Asserts that poor children will perform better in school if the condition of their education and families is improved and questions whether the political will exists to change public policies to improve the circumstances of…

We argue for the value of postmodernism in illuminating the roles or subject positions of ethnographic program evaluators. Drawing upon data from an ethnographic study of a summer college readiness program for African American, Asian American, and Anglo youth, we explore how postmodern theories can provide insights into the multiple roles of…

Arguing that limited access to high-quality preschools is a major problem affecting nearly every working family, and as the numbers of working parents increase, is likely to become more acute, this policy brief offers the context and research supporting the American Federation of Teachers' recent call for universal early childhood education (ECE).…

Child care in New Zealand and Australia has become a crucial part of the child-rearing system, and most preschool children spend a prolonged period in at least one away-from-home environment for a substantial part of the day. Because so many preschool children are exposed to a child care environment before entering school, the transition from…

This document consists of seven policy issue papers developed by the Connecticut Early Childhood Education Council, an action-oriented coalition of statewide organizations concerned with early childhood education. Members include teachers, school administrators, children's librarians, child care providers, Head Start directors, State Department of…

Contrasts a child not ready for school with a child who is developmentally prepared to enter school and argues that if all school systems could administer and interpret the results of a developmental examination, the number of unhappy children, special needs children, and grade overplaced children would be greatly reduced. (HOD)