It's an empowering feeling to be in a room full of people who know the lingo of teaching, who understand the demands of teaching young children, and who want to learn more to be able to put best practices in place in their classrooms. Professional development (PD) can put you there and lead to new ways of teaching, deeper understanding of…

The purpose of the present study was to investigate how early childhood teachers working in Head Start programs made meaning of preschool-age children's physical activity play by exploring their personal childhood and professional experiences with physical activity play. The study was conducted to contribute research-based recommendations for…

"Research Findings: Big Math for Little Kids" ("BMLK") is a mathematics curriculum designed for 4- and 5-year-old children. In this study, the curriculum was evaluated for effectiveness over two years, using a cluster-randomized controlled study. Over 750 children participated in the study and experienced either the…

This study unpacks the effective Exceptional Coaching for Early Language and Literacy ("ExCELL") professional development intervention to understand how the language and literacy coaching that teachers receive is linked to changes in their knowledge and then how this knowledge is related to classroom practice. In total, 17 lead teachers…

MyTeachingPartner (MTP) is a teacher professional development program designed to improve the quality of teacher-child interactions in pre-kindergarten classrooms and children's language and literacy development. The program includes language/literacy activities and two Web-based resources--video exemplars of effective interactions and…

Investments in early childhood programs are widely viewed as a promising strategy to improve the future educational achievement of disadvantaged young children. However, it can be difficult for teachers to maintain program quality if children in the classroom display challenging behaviors. For example, when some children act out aggressively or…

The Texas Literacy Initiative (TLI) was first implemented in Austin Independent School District during the 2012-2013 school. This report summarizes responses from teachers at TLI campuses.

The purpose of this study was to conduct an experimental analysis of teachers' use of functional assessment (FA) and positive behavior support (PBS) for addressing challenging behaviors in young children. A group of 35 experimental teachers participated in professional development designed to provide step-by-step training and guided implementation…

This paper describes a school's participation in a project designed to support critical reflection of teachers' beliefs about best practice in early childhood education, and how these beliefs and practices intersected with shifting policies and trends in the broader early childhood field. The "Professional Learning" Project (PL project),…

California's Kindergarten Readiness Act of 2010 established transitional kindergarten (TK), the first year of a two-year kindergarten program for students affected by the change in the birthdate cutoff for entry into kindergarten from December 2 to September 1. This fifth short report in a series highlighting findings from the Study of…

We report here findings from a community-based multifaceted prevention program which was implemented concomitantly as a universal and indicated intervention. Screening of social competence development was used to select preschool children targeted by the indicated intervention (high risk), and by the universal intervention (moderate and low risk).…

Early childhood is a critical time in the development of all children, but Latino children may also face the added challenge of developing language and literacy skills in an entirely new language. To complicate matters, many early childhood teachers are generally unprepared to effectively educate children who are dual language learners (DLLs). The…

Background: Scholars and education reformers alike have re-ignited the importance of teaching science in the elementary grades of the public schools of America by disputing the traditional belief that K-4 learners are too young to learn and function within the nature of science learning and experimentation. The consideration rests on the findings…

It has long been known that generalist primary and early childhood teachers struggle with teaching music, due to a lack confidence and skills. This paper discusses some early findings of a phenomenological study which follows a twelve-month collaboration between a music specialist (the researcher) and a small group of early childhood educators in…

The Race to The Top-Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) is designed to improve the quality of early learning and development and close the achievement gap for children with high needs. The Departments of Education and Health and Human Services define high needs to include children who are English learners, often referred to as English Language…