Early childhood education and care is critical to Wisconsin's families and businesses, offering a safe place for children to grow and learn during formative years while parents and other guardians participate in the workforce. Despite its importance, child care can be prohibitively expensive for some Wisconsin families, and the industry operates…

Research Findings: Families need access to early care and education programs, both to ensure parents' ability to work and support children's development. Subsidies through the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) are a set of policies aimed at assisting families living in poverty with accessing early education. However, the number of early…

Center-based early care and education (ECE) is important for promoting positive early development and supporting families by providing child care so parents can work. However, the center-based supply varies substantially in terms of funding sources, indicators of quality, and services offered; and many families experience a lack of equitable…

This dissertation seeks to better understand the experiences of families as they navigate systems and networks to gain access to the opportunities they want and need for their themselves and for their children. The specific area of focus for this research is how families, and more specifically women and mothers, are entering into a Formal Early…

The current study analyzed patterns of neighborhood socioeconomic match across 3- and 4-year-old children's (N = 2,029) residential and preschool neighborhoods in Massachusetts. Most children (80%) lived and attended early education and care in different neighborhoods. Children in households with the lowest incomes and those whose families…

The number of children in poverty looks set to rise and the gap in outcomes between the most disadvantaged children and their peers is likely to widen. Many families will face challenges of poverty, ill health, bereavement and unemployment, with knock-on effects for children's health and wellbeing. There are fears that children will miss out on…

This report presents data on the early childhood care and education arrangements for children in the United States from birth through the age of 5 who were not yet enrolled in kindergarten by 2019. The report also presents data on selected family activities. These data represent circumstances before the implementation of coronavirus pandemic…

The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to examine the influence of a book distribution program targeted at enhancing children's exposure to information books. The research examined whether a flood of information books in early childhood settings, placing libraries in a central role, could affect growth in language, content-related…

Although the randomized controlled trial has been regarded as the "sine qua non" in recent years, we argue that understanding contexts for teacher practice is a critical factor in the implementation of intervention, but has often been overlooked in educational research design. In this paper, we argue that randomized trials may not be…

Research Findings: Using nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten cohort, this study investigates whether socioeconomic status (SES) moderates the association between center-based early childhood education (ECE) and English proficiency at kindergarten entry for 1st- and 2nd-generation Hispanic…

Over the past three years, the Boston Birth to Eight Collaborative has convened more than 200 individuals and organizations from across the early childhood field--center and family-based providers, pediatricians, public health researchers, hospitals, family engagement organizations, and parents--to ensure all children are ready for sustained…

Katherine Magnuson's research focuses on the well-being and development of economically disadvantaged children and their families. In the first half of this brief Magnuson pulls together scholarship on the effects of poverty and inequality on children, especially from infancy to age five. Her scope goes beyond the social sciences to include new…

In this review article, the context of young children in South Africa in 2012 is described and the main challenges affecting children and the early childhood development sector (ECD) in South Africa are investigated. A situation analysis of ECD in South Africa was undertaken using South African government ECD policy and programme implementation…

This report presents data on the early care and education arrangements and early learning of children in the United States from birth through the age of 5 who were not yet enrolled in kindergarten in the spring of 2012. The report also presents data on parents' satisfaction with various aspects of these care arrangements and on their participation…

This report presents data on the early care and education arrangements and selected family activities of children in the United States from birth through the age of 5 who were not yet enrolled in kindergarten in the spring of 2012. The report also presents data on parents' satisfaction with various aspects of these care arrangements and on their…