The High/Scope Perry Preschool Study is a study of the effects of a high-quality preschool program for children born in poverty. Following 123 children randomly assigned to program or no-program control groups, the study has had little attrition on a variety of measures from age 3 to age 41. The study has found evidence of preschool program…

Historically the field of early care and education has focused on one type of standardsprogram standards to define requirements for important features of the services children receive. Recently another type of standards has come to the forefront of early care and education policy and practiceearly learning standards that define expectations for…

The intent of this study was to determine if attendance in a good quality prekindergarten program using developmentally appropriate activities had a positive effect on kindergarten mathematics readiness skills and achievement. Participating were 80 children, 4 to 6 years old, divided into two experimental and two control groups. Standardized test…

The emergence of publicly subsidized preschool raises important policy questions about the role of market forces and, in places where competition to provide these services exists, presents a setting in which the effects of competition on educational outcomes can be tested. We test neo-institutional hypotheses concerning the effects of competition…

A preschool program in rural Bangladesh was evaluated in terms of cognitive and social outcomes of children. The preschools provided a half-day program, 6 days a week, with free play, stories, and instruction in literacy and math. Four hundred children between 4.5 and 6.5 years were assessed, half in preschools and half in villages where there…

Research Findings: Integrated services for young children and families are part of the new policy landscape in early childhood, but there is limited evidence of the effectiveness of these programs and how they develop on the ground. This study examined the use of the Early Development Instrument (EDI) as both a summative program evaluation tool…

This document presents findings of a study conducted by the Commission on Educational Excellence for Connecticut, which examined current policies and practices in the state's public education system and recommended changes that would establish and maintain a world-class education system with opportunity available to all students. The Commission…

This is the second of two studies of Ohio's Head Start programs conducted by the Legislative Office of Education (LOEO) of Ohio. The first study described the implementation of Head Start in Ohio. This study looked at the impact of Head Start's education component by examining urban kindergarten students on selected measures of school readiness.…

Early intervention programs are a continuing focus of public interest and debate; questions center around defining quality in early intervention and how intervention affects children's lives. This paper reviews research on center-based early childhood education programs for children between birth and school entry that emphasize school readiness as…

Initial findings of a longitudinal study of the efficacy of public preschool programs in South Carolina are presented. Two separate research designs were used to study 362 preschoolers in comparison with 1,662 non-preschoolers. School readiness was increased by participation in preschool when a minimum level of quality was maintained. (SLD)

Positive findings are presented from three early educational intervention programs designed to prevent mental retardation and improve school readiness and educational progress. Evidence is presented indicating that children of mothers with low intelligence respond most favorably to intensive, systematic early intervention. Six essential types of…

50 years after the "Brown v. Board of Education" decision, a high-stakes testing movement, significantly boosted by provisions contained in No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, has emerged with the potential of both positive and negative implications. This paper argues that assessment generally is not tied to the 3 positive outcomes of…

The "National Education Goals Report: Building A Nation of Learners, 1993" provides the most current information on where U.S. schools stand in regard to achieving the National Education Goals. Some of the key findings of the report are summarized in this digest. The six goals pertain to school readiness; high school completion; student…

Newly assembled evidence indicates that children attending South Carolina's early childhood programs are better prepared for first grade than those who do not attend kindergarten. Children who attended some type of kindergarten in 1979-80 reached higher levels of achievement by the end of first grade than children who did not attend. These levels…

Arguing that limited access to high-quality preschools is a major problem affecting nearly every working family, and as the numbers of working parents increase, is likely to become more acute, this policy brief offers the context and research supporting the American Federation of Teachers' recent call for universal early childhood education (ECE).…