This study explored the support for play in public school kindergarten classrooms in a single urban school district in the Northwest region of the United States. Through a three-phased data collection approach that included an online survey, in-person interviews, and classroom observations, the researcher gathered information to describe how…

Decades of research have shown how play is a major vehicle for young children's development and learning. However, since the 1990's with greater emphasis on higher academic standards and accountability in the U.S. educational system, kindergarten teachers felt pressured to reduce or eliminate play for more didactic instruction and mandated…

This phenomenological narrative study explored the effective reading strategies that successful Kindergarten and 1st Grade teachers used for economically disadvantaged students. The researcher used face-to-face interviews to glean data from 10 successful Kindergarten and 1st Grade teachers. The study findings lead to the conclusion that despite…

This study focuses on preschool teachers' professional development experiences and how they influence their emergent literacy beliefs. With increasing pressure to increase reading test scores, administrators are starting to question the literacy instruction methods used in preschool classrooms. This qualitative phenomenographic study explored the…

The study of school readiness is multifaceted, encompassing an understanding of many developmental areas and skills. In the current educational culture of high-stakes testing, increased rigor, and high learning expectations, parents may be concerned about a child's readiness to begin kindergarten. With increased accountability, teachers may also…

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to discover and interpret the experiences of pre-k teachers in an urban school district located in a Northeastern region of the United States. Using a basic qualitative research design, fifteen participants were recruited by a purposeful sampling method to be interviewed after the implementation…

Instructional technology use in United States preschool classrooms remains a limited and widely debated practice. In urban communities, preparing preschool students for academic, social, and economic success is further threatened by the well-documented digital divide. This qualitative phenomenological study included ten subjects and examined the…

Within a Southwestern school system, deficits in early literacy skills exist as is illustrated by kindergarten students not meeting the requirements on the Phonological Awareness and Phonics Inventory (PAPI). To address this deficit in early literacy skills, the school system instituted the use of the Guided Reading Approach (GR); however, it was…

Early childhood education has recently been heralded as the cornerstone of a brighter future for the United States, playing an important role in the healthy development of our youngest children (Perry, 2015; Bornfreund, 2015). However, the teachers of these children face multiple challenges in the profession, including unlivable wages, low morale…

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe kindergarten teachers' experiences with integrating play-based learning into standards-based academic curriculum in a school district in South Carolina. Play-based learning experiences were defined as instances which allow children to engage in active, social learning experiences in…

Public preschool programs using standardized curriculum models are increasing rapidly, and while research has shown that teacher-child relationships have been used successfully as an intervention and compensatory measure, it is unclear what influence the public preschool setting and the use of a curriculum model have on teacher-child…

This descriptive case study examined educators' perceptions of the effect of tiered instruction on the reading achievement of kindergarten students. The purpose was to explore and describe current cultural and structural conditions that support or inhibit effective school-level implementation of a Response to Intervention (RtI) model. This study…

There is confusion among teachers in a school district in a southeastern state about the instructional use of the state-mandated Dominie assessment for word-level reading and phonemic awareness skills for kindergarten and first-grade students. Recent assessment data indicated that 20% of students tested in kindergarten and first grade needed…

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to explore how instructors became aware of culturally relevant teaching (CRT) and developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) that support African American students' academic achievement. The Grounded Theory approach was used to uncover themes from the individual interviews of African American…

This qualitative study explored the lived experiences of eleven early childhood educators who participated in a professional development program. The study was guided by the central research question, "What are the perceptions of early childhood educators on the professional development program as it relates to teacher efficacy, engagement,…