In 2014, New York City launched its Pre-K for All program, which rapidly tripled the number of children in free, full-day prekindergarten. Two years later, the city rolled out ThriveNYC, a citywide mental health initiative with a focus on early childhood. By this time, a team from New York University's medical school had partnered for nearly two…

The authors guide early childhood educators through steps for empowering the inner authentic writer in young preschool children by maximizing illustrations. Preschoolers' emergent writing experiences should be authentic and support positive writing identities as their skills develop. The authors explain how to model flexible and authentic…

Five facts about standardized tests should cause educators to rethink their use in decision-making. Standardized tests used for state and federal accountability purposes in PreK--12 public education are not diagnostic. The test results are impacted by family income and student background knowledge. The composition of the tests disadvantage…

This publication summarizes an academic review paper on preschool effectiveness, "Lottery Evidence on the Impact of Preschool in the United States: A Review and Meta-Analysis" by Jesse Bruhn and Emily Emick. The 44 papers summarized fall into three categories: studies of three model preschool programs begun in the 1960s known as…

This article describes ways for early educators to support communication of young children with complex communication needs (CCN) in classrooms through a simple three-step process. First, identify the child's preferred activities and items. Second, identify vocabulary and prepare the augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) system. Third,…

In March 2020, COVID-19 dramatically and indelibly altered the U.S. educational landscape. Drawing on data from interviews with 30 Michigan preK teachers, Bethany Wilinski, Alyssa Morley, and Jamie Heng-Chieh Wu describe the centrality of family engagement in their pandemic preK education and the practices that contributed to stronger home-school…

This article introduces Performing Ourselves, an interdisciplinary community dance program that utilizes principles from dance education and dance/movement therapy to serve beginning dancers in grades PK-8 in schools and community centers. After defining the integrative elements of the curriculum, the article outlines how Performing Ourselves used…

Active bodily involvement in music is a key component of musical understanding. Rudolf von Laban developed a movement framework introducing the "effort elements" of time, space, weight, and flow. He proposed that by experiencing combinations of these elements, individuals internalize a movement vocabulary that fosters expressive music…

Roslyn Davis Williams (1921-1997), a Montessori parent who became a leader in American Montessori education, followed a long tradition of Black educators who sought to end the scourge of racial segregation in America. In 1967, facing the imminent closure of her daughter's Montessori preschool program, Williams (along with other parents) founded…

In working with the youngest learners, drawing from their own lived experiences to inform mathematics instruction is a critical piece for engaging with as well as supporting students in mathematizing their world (NAEYC and NCTM 2002, 2010; NCTM 2020). In the interaction described in this article, four-year-old children used mathematics to examine…

School discipline policies are broadly intended to foster a high-quality learning environment by maintaining safety in the classroom; however, far too often, schools adopt measures that harm a student's social, emotional, academic, and in some cases, physical health and well-being. To create physically safe and emotionally supportive environments…

Funders are primarily concerned with the impact of the work they support. Yet traditional research activities may take years to be complete, and it may take even longer to determine whether the research had any impact on policy or practice. In a place-based research-practice partnership, collaborative construction of research questions ensures…

Research concerning play and technology is largely aimed at expanding the knowledge of what technological play may be and, to a lesser extent, examines what happens to children's play when it encounters digital tools. In order to explore some of the complexity in play, this article elaborates on how Latour's concepts of 'translation' and…

Successful early childhood inclusion uses multitiered systems of support (MTSS) to support children's development and learning. MTSS is a multitiered, educational, data-based decision-making framework that facilitates collaboration across general and special education to support all learners (Sailor et al., 2018). MTSS implementation requires…

Colorado Children's Campaign has continued to advance its mission of integrating the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion into its work. Especially as the pandemic has exacerbated inequality in numerous ways, Colorado Children's Campaign seeks to prioritize children who face the most barriers to success and wellbeing due to racist policies…