Today, the importance of early care and education (ECE) to children's lifelong learning and to our nation's economic well being is recognized up to the highest levels of government, and in businesses, schools, and living rooms across the country. This understanding represents a dramatic shift from earlier decades, and carries with it heightened…

Teacher preparation in the field of early childhood education (ECE) has historically included a variety of higher education degree programs, in various child-related disciplines, all of which have generally been considered to produce equivalent results. In contrast, programs to prepare teachers and administrators to work with older children…

The New York State Early Childhood Advisory Council (ECAC) serves the Governor and is charged with ensuring that all of New York's young children are healthy, learning, and thriving in families that are supported by a full complement of services and resources essential for successful development. The council's Workforce Work Group is dedicated to…

In an effort to reexamine the status of early childhood higher education offerings in New York, the New York Early Childhood Advisory Council (ECAC) with its partner members, New York Early Childhood Professional Development Institute and the New York State Association for the Education of Young Children engaged the Center for the Study of Child…

In recent years, New York, like many states, has committed public and private resources toward multiple efforts to improve educational services and to ensure that teacher education degree and certification programs can better prepare their graduates to meet the complex needs of young children of all ages. Critical to responding to this need is the…

Midway through the second decade of this century, the importance of early care and education (ECE) to children's lifelong learning and to our nation's economic well-being is recognized up to the highest levels of government, and in businesses, schools, and living rooms across the country. This understanding represents a dramatic shift from earlier…

Today, the importance of early care and education (ECE) to children's lifelong learning and to our nation's economic well being is recognized up to the highest levels of government, and in businesses, schools, and living rooms across the country. This understanding represents a dramatic shift from earlier decades, and carries with it heightened…

Teacher preparation in the field of early childhood education (ECE) has historically included a variety of higher education degree programs, in various child-related disciplines, all of which have generally been considered equally acceptable. And too often, these highly diverse degree programs are assumed to produce equivalent results (Maxwell,…

Students suffer from stress as a result of many factors, including educational unpreparedness, financial strain and inability to integrate socially. This mixed methods study aimed to investigate stress levels of undergraduate students in a post-1992, Scottish university and the potential for measures of stress to act as an indicator of a student's…

This paper reports on a study aimed at developing an improved understanding of the support needs of international students. Using a case study approach at one Australian university, a three stage data collection process was adopted: interviews with key support service providers in the university, student focus groups, and a large-scale survey.…

The purpose of this single, intrinsic, evaluative case study was to examine the problem of nontraditional transfer student completion at a private, religious-based, doctoral degree-granting, moderate research university in North Carolina. The following research questions guided the study: (a) How do institutional policies, procedures, and…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the underlying non-cognitive processes and institutional factors that allowed first-year students to enact effective strategies for attaining academic success and persisting despite obstacles. The varying levels of academic preparation and unique obstacles faced by the student participants…

Presently, community colleges are bursting at the seams. In 2011, community colleges turned away more than 400,000 prospective students. In the next six years, 63 percent of all U.S. jobs will require postsecondary education. Twenty two million new workers with postsecondary degrees will be needed by 2018. Community colleges are turning…

This study utilized the theory of positive deviance to explore the challenges and success factors for foster youth who have attained a postsecondary education. To accomplish this, twelve interviews were conducted. Six interviews were conducted with college-going foster youth and six adults who served as mentors for the foster youth participants…

Ten years ago when Ruffalo Noel Levitz (RNL) published its annual study of freshman motivations, those students were entering college in the shadow of the worst recession since the Great Depression. That report, which examined attitudes of students from 2009, provided insight into their motivations, attitudes, and needs in the midst of a very…