Recognizing the importance of providing high-quality preschool education for helping to ensure children's future educational success, this document presents guidelines for what constitutes high-quality programming across a broad spectrum of curriculum and practice for California preschools, taking into account the state's move toward higher…

Describes how cross-over training and a whole-school approach help preschool educators assist disabled students who have not yet acquired their native language, examining New York's English-as-a Second-Language/Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Training Program for Pre-K Special Education Personnel, which trains preschool personnel to meet…

This study examined predictors of process quality among Hong Kong preschools. Findings indicated significant intercorrelations among structural, management-related, and process measures of quality. Process quality (teacher-child interaction, curriculum goals) was higher in preschools exceeding government requirements for staff qualifications,…

This qualitative study investigated mothers' views about their role in their children's education and their expectations of their child's preschool. A particular focus of the study was to contrast the views of mothers with differing degrees of parenting self-efficacy and to contrast the perceptions of working-class and middle-class mothers.…

A study compared how parents and teachers in the United States, Hong Kong, Nigeria, and Poland ranked in order of importance a list of 8 skills categories for 4-year-olds to learn in preschool. The categories were language skills, motor/physical skills, pre-academic skills, self-assessment skills, self-expression skills, social skills with adults,…

This book reports an ethnographic study, conducted over 2 years, of 30 teachers from 18 schools (preschool through high school), who participated in a staff development program in multicultural education. Observations and interviews indicate how multicultural education was actually presented to the teachers, and how their perceptions and teaching…

A study investigated low-income children's book reading experiences with their mothers and in group reading in preschool when the children were 3 and 4 years old. At the age of 3 years, the primary focus of book readings in both settings was immediate information. Mothers were significantly more likely than teachers to use extending comments, and…

Equipped with the National Child Care Staffing and the new Profiles of Child Care studies, researchers are close to estimating the number of child care providers in the formal child care system. Estimates of the number of providers in the system, which includes in-home housekeepers and nannies, unregistered or licensed family child care providers…

This document is a report of research conducted from September 1966 to August 1967 by the Head Start Evaluation and Research Center of Boston University. Eleven studies and projects are reported, many of them in preliminary or incomplete form because either they are ongoing studies or the data analysis is not finished. The 11 studies contain six…

This book contains papers and speeches presented at the 14th National Conference of the Australian Preschool Association held in Melbourne in May 1976. Topics discussed include early childhood education, handicapped children, parental involvement in education, evaluating preschool programs, day care, teaching young children, interdisciplinary…

This booklet is designed to help the preschool teacher understand the children in her classroom and assist them in social-emotional development. The booklet has four objectives: (1) to increase the teacher's understanding of the child's needs; (2) to discuss ways the teacher can provide a climate for healthy emotional growth; (3) to help the…

The Illinois Governor's Task Force on Universal Access to Preschool is part of a broad-based effort to increase the quality of life for all children in Illinois. This report presents the action plan developed by this task force and calls for the creation of Illinois Preschool, a program giving all Illinois families quality preschool options for 3-…

Considers 3- to 6-year-olds' work cycle, looking first to the Montessori concept of normalization, manifest as increasing depth of concentration. Offers guidelines for a "protected lesson," designed to foster independence. Discusses interest and purpose as the basis for work, work "curves," control of error, presentation…

Advances a framework for teacher-assisted computer implementation based on Vygotsky's theory of socially mediated cognitive development. The approach suggested by this framework acknowledges critical roles of adults or more skilled partners in task performance and knowledge construction. Describes an application of the approach used to provide…

This study draws from the National Center for Early Development and Learning's Multi-State Pre-Kindergarten Study to examine the extent to which program, classroom, and teacher attributes of the program ecology predict observed quality and teacher-child interactions in a sample of 238 classrooms representing 6 states' pre-kindergarten programs.…