The Language Interaction Snapshot (LISn; Sprachman et al., 2009) was used to measure the quantity and quality of language interactions in English and Spanish in 143 preschool classrooms serving Spanish-speaking dual language learners. Both teachers (n = 112) and assistant teachers (n = 92) were included in analyses with a total of 461…

This briefing guide offers the latest data on the availability of child care and pre-K by legislative district as well as new documentation on affordability by county and median salaries for early childhood educators. Today 9 out of 10 families cannot afford quality child care. Further 4 out of 5 four-year olds outside of New York City have no…

Most states in the United States operate their public preschool programs in a mixed delivery system that serves children in local education agencies (LEAs) as well as non-LEA settings, such as Head Start agencies, child care centers, private schools, and family child care homes. To inform state preschool administrators and policymakers as they…

There is ample opportunity for state boards to improve outcomes for children by strengthening the early care and education workforce and thereby improving the quality of early care and education. Ensuring that ECE professionals have the knowledge, supports, and resources they need to support children's learning is one avenue to improving the…

The emergence and establishment of Universal PreKindergarten (UPK) programs in New York school districts have proliferated over the past ten years; nonetheless, limited attention has been paid to the "process quality" dimensions of these programs (Mashburn, Hamre, Downer, Barbarin, Bryant, Burchinal, Early, & Howes, 2008). Existing…

There is broad consensus that high-quality environments for young children depend on teachers who are skilled at nurturing their development and learning, yet low pay and inadequate working conditions routinely hamper teachers in their efforts to apply their skills and knowledge. This condition exists among teachers in early education as well as…

The authors are responding to the critical need for empirical evidence on effective strategies to improve preschool science instruction in preschool. By focusing on the Head Start community, "Foundations of Science Literacy (FSL)" is a credit-bearing professional development course that directly addresses the achievement gap in early…

Publicly funded prekindergartens are programs that most states use to promote school readiness, especially of 4-year-old children at risk for academic problems due to poverty. Despite large public expenditures, these programs have not been widely evaluated. We examined 240 randomly selected pre-kindergarten programs in six states with mature…