In 2001 Congress passed the "No Child Left Behind Act," the Bush Administration's Education Reform Bill. This Act drew attention to the need for young children to be given the opportunity to learn fundamental skills that will prepare them for success in school. The "Good Start, Grow Smart" ("GSGS") Initiative was…

This annual report for 2002 describes the year's activities, achievements, and financial status of the Bernard van Leer Foundation, a private foundation based in The Netherlands operating internationally to improve opportunities for young children from birth to age 7 living in circumstances of social and economic disadvantage. Following the…

The "Research in Practice Series" is published four times each year by Early Childhood Australia. The series aims to provide practical, easy to read, up-to-date information and support to a growing national readership of early childhood workers. The books bring together the best information available on wide-ranging topics and are an…

Noting that Pennsylvania's current support of policies to promote school success for all children offers an opportunity to assess how well the state serves its children, identifies gaps in services, and enacts effective public policies to meet children's needs, this special Kids Count report describes effective practices to help Pennsylvania…

The Strong Beginnings program, initiated by the Save the Children Fund in 1991, supports community-based activities in 20 countries aimed at reconstructing educational systems in developing countries. This report presents the vision of the Strong Beginnings program, describes its components, and describes the continuing challenge to improve access…

An action research project integrated violence intervention and prevention into a child development curriculum through a parenting unit fostering confirmatory methods of struggle management between high school and preschool students. Subjects were 45 second- and third-year child development students, 75 first-year child development students, and…

This report describes the Expressive Arts Project, which was designed to develop and demonstrate a developmentally appropriate, activity-based expressive arts curriculum model, that will enable children with disabilities to have access to activities in the arts that are an accepted part of regular early childhood programs in typical settings. The…

This final report describes activities and accomplishments of the Carolina Model Inservice Training Project, a federally supported program in North Carolina to develop an effective and replicable inservice training model for assisting early intervention programs to apply a family-centered approach in their work with young children (birth to 8…

This paper describes the learning center approach of the preschool and kindergarten programs at the Maryland School for the Blind. Units are presented in monthly themes suggested by the local school curriculum, and this thematic approach is incorporated into the specific learning centers. The classroom is divided into six main learning areas: (1)…

This paper draws on demographic data on children spotlighted in the 2000 Census (called the Childrens Class of 2000) to examine how forces like poverty and family instability work to prevent equality of opportunity in school and in life. The paper describes some programs and techniques that effectively reduce the effects of these forces and…

This paper considers the concept of the "one-stop shop" in relation to the provision of family services, whereby the family can access a range of support services made available in one location. The paper examines how the concept fits within the context of mainstream service provision in Great Britain today, specifically how the Coram…

Noting that innovative partnerships to give more children access to good quality care and education provide the scaffold for future educational reform, this report details the Partnering for Success project, which identified and documented efforts to enhance school readiness through partnerships among Head Start, child care, and public schools in…

This final report discusses the components and outcomes of the RIDE (Reaching Individuals with Disabilities Early) Project, a program that supports the inclusion of young children with disabilities in their school environments, homes, and communities. The core component of the RIDE Model, Students' Success and Inclusion in the Regular Education…

This book presents the history of Project Spectrum, a 10-year research project dedicated to developing an alternative approach to curriculum and assessment that respects the diverse interests and abilities that children bring to the preschool and early elementary classroom. The first chapter presents Spectrum's theoretical roots--David Henry…

This final report discusses the activities and outcomes of a project that developed, field-tested, and disseminated eight 3-hour training modules to be used by preservice and inservice faculty in preparing early interventionists to work with young children with disabilities. The modules were designed to teach a special model of early intervention,…