Research Findings: This article focuses on preschool science, an important but under-researched school readiness domain. There is considerable activity surrounding quality science in early childhood classroom practices, including state standards, curricula with science activities, and an extensive literature on potential best practices. However,…

In the United States, effective reading instruction has been a research priority from the federal to the local level. There is increased awareness on early literacy instruction in high-quality early childhood environments, with specific focus on advanced teacher preparation and professional development for early childhood educators. The purpose of…

Studies consistently show that high quality pre-kindergarten (pre-k) programs make a positive difference for preschooler's success in kindergarten. Little is known, however, about how "individual children spend their time in pre-k programs." To find out, this study explored how children's use of time in pre-k varied based on three…

Research Findings: Recent research has validated the power of evidence-based preschool interventions to improve teaching quality and promote child school readiness when implemented in the context of research trials. However, very rarely are follow-up assessments conducted with teachers in order to evaluate the maintenance of improved teaching…

Objectives: The study reported the pilot evaluation of the Healthy Start Home Visit Program for disadvantaged Chinese parents with preschool children, delivered by trained parent assistants. Home visiting was used to make services more accessible to disadvantaged families. Method: The participants included 21 parent-child dyads. Outcome measures…

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…

With the rising number of Latino and dual language learner (DLL) children attending pre-k and the importance of assessing the quality of their experiences in those settings, this study examined the extent to which a commonly used assessment of teacher-child interactions, the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS), demonstrated similar…

This study used data drawn from a large, national sample to describe transition practices provided to 1989 children with disabilities as they entered their kindergarten year, obtained through a survey administered to kindergarten teachers. Using path modeling, we examined the child and family, school, and district factors that predict which…

From selecting appropriate curricula and teachers to providing classrooms with bathrooms easily accessible to 4-year-olds, public preschool programs present challenges to districts that run the programs, which are designed to prepare children to get off to a good start when they enter kindergarten. While a wide range of private preschool programs…

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.

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…

Preschools provide a promising setting in which to conduct preventive interventions for childhood problems, but classroom programs can only be effective if teachers are willing and able to implement them. This study is one of the first to investigate predictors of the frequency of teacher participation in a classroom-based, randomized controlled…

Preschool teachers' job stressors have received increasing attention but have been understudied in the literature. We investigated the impacts of a classroom-based intervention, the Chicago School Readiness Project (CSRP), on teachers' perceived job stressors and confidence, as indexed by their perceptions of job control, job resources, job…

The general purpose of the present study was to determine the preparatory skills of children with developmental disabilities based on the opinions of teachers and the literature. It was aimed to determine the highest priority and secondary level priority preparatory skills based on the opinions of the pre-school teachers. In order to reach this…