This report describes a survey of instructional staff in eight School Districts of Philadelphia early childhood education programs regarding their views of staff development activities. The programs were: Child Care, Original Follow Through, Follow Through Expansion, Get Set Day Care, Kindergarten, Parent Cooperative Nurseries, Prekindergarten…

This Head Start evaluation system was developed at the request of the California Head Start Directors Association. There was a broad-based input in all phases of its development, from Head Start directors, Head Start staff from all components, and Head Start parents. It was extensively field tested in one of the major California Head Start…

This textbook for preschool teachers is geared to the needs of the young and relatively inexperienced teacher. The book combines developmental and educational theory with practical application. Chapters cover: (1) early education as a career; (2) schools and systems of early education; (3) school and family: partners or competitors?; (4) social…

This teaching manual for the Montessori method covers the following areas: (1) short survey of Maria Montessori's life and work; (2) beginning concepts of Dr. Montessori's approach; (3) pedagogical methods used in the "children's houses"; (4) reactions to Dr. Montessori's educational approach at the start of the 20th century; (5)…

Twenty handicapped, preschool children were administered Goal Attainment Follow-ups. This technique for recording and scaling observation data was developed and documented by the Program Evaluation Research Center in Minneapolis. Appropriate scale headings and outcome levels were defined for each child, based on specific problem areas documented…

The "ACNJ Child Advocate" is published quarterly by the Association for Children of New Jersey (ACNJ). ACNJ collects, analyzes, and distributes information on the well-being of children in New Jersey so that policymakers can pinpoint problems and work toward solutions. It reports data on key indicators of child well-being in each county…

A model program was developed and implemented by the Tucson Unified School District in Arizona to establish a family-school partnership to improve the educational achievement of at-risk preschool students. Program participants included 411 at-risk students, 405 families, and 25 staff members. The program, entitled Families First, provided…

Sixty-six mothers and 34 preschool teachers were compared on two types of adult-child interaction. Although both groups were similar on some tasks, mothers asked for more responses, made more direct requests and commands, and gave more explicit and corrective feedback following children's errors. (MH)

Preschool teachers from Texas school districts with high and low Hispanic populations completed surveys examining their knowledge and beliefs about early childhood bilingualism and developmentally appropriate practice. Positive beliefs about the use of native language to develop emergent cognitive-academic language proficiency through active…

Reviews a study of preschool children's movement responses to music in a natural learning setting. Describes ways in which the findings of the study can be used for the development of a music curriculum that provides a developmentally and individually appropriate program. (BB)

Used focus groups with 23 Head Start staff from 5 urban programs to identify naturally occurring strategies to cope with children's inappropriate behavior. Found that horizontally managed centers used a more collaborative approach, whereas vertically managed centers required that teachers consult with a gatekeeper before consulting with others.…

This report describes the results of two studies of teacher expectations for 4-year-old children in private and public preschool programs. One study took place at a private day care center with 3 teachers who had no degrees in education and 48 children. The second study was conducted at 2 public elementary schools and involved 2 teachers with…

A study examined whether a half-day or all-day kindergarten readiness program was the more beneficial in preparing students for kindergarten. A questionnaire was drawn up after research into this domain and submitted to 45 faculty members at a child development center. The findings were found to be somewhat evenly divided between the half-day and…

Five articles explore ideas about the nature and kinds of courses dealing with language and education that should be developed in teacher education programs in the Australian school curriculum, specifically where English as mother tongue is used. They include: "Some Recent Developments in Mother Tongue English Teaching in Australia"…

The Collaborative Early Childhood Special Education Program provides training to students from rural and remote areas in Utah that leads to a certificate in early childhood special education. The program represents a collaborative effort between Utah State University, the University of Utah, and the Utah Office of Education. Contact with special…