Investigated two approaches to all-day kindergarten to determine their differential effects on the students. One approach provided teacher training and support; the other did not. Found that children in the program with teacher training and support were rated by teachers as more developmentally competent, exhibiting more prosocial classroom…

Teachers and parents rated the developmental status of 225 preschool children with and without disabilities on the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale. The study found a significant correlation between teacher and parent ratings for children with severe disabilities but not for children with mild/moderate or no disabilities. (DB)

Examines the learning experiences of a five-year-old African American preschooler who was considered exceptionally literate in Sunday School, but socially illiterate in preschool. Explores ways in which these two settings enabled or disabled Joshua's attempt to become a reader. Discusses his parent's role in facilitating the process by explicitly…

This ESRC-funded study explores how 3-year-old children use a range of "voices" during their first year in pre-school, investigating how they make and express meaning "multimodally" through combinations of talk, body movement, facial expression and gaze in the two different settings of home and playgroup. Using longitudinal…

Experiences of a teacher using educational technology in the classroom are recounted. The teacher welcomed technology as it was being introduced over the two decades she spent first in the preschool and then in the middle-school special-education classroom, but she found adapting to technological advances slow going at first. Eventually she came…

Preliminary results are presented from a longitudinal project comparing: (1) children with developmental delays either originally in mainstream preschool programs (N=91) or originally in segregated programs (N=50), and (2) typical children originally in either mainstream preschool programs (N=88) or in nonintegrated regular preschool programs…

This volume provides an examination of the theoretical basis for preschool through elementary school multiage grouping, a realistic picture of what it looks like, some guidelines for planning and implementing a multiage model, and recommendations from practicing multiage teachers. Chapter 1 defines multiage grouping and provides a brief history of…

This report describes Head Start preschool programs in Broward County, Florida, and examines the goals, expected outcomes, and parental satisfaction levels of the programs. It is based on interviews with program staff, federal and local reports, telephone surveys of parents of 57 randomly selected first-graders who attended Head Start in the…

This study examined how kindergarten teachers' views of readiness (maturational, learning, or school) are influenced by students from urban, suburban, and rural areas; by minority and non-minority students; and by students from lower and middle class backgrounds. The framework for the study was the social constructivist theory, the theory that all…

As many as 40 percent of America's school-aged children are at-risk of failure within the current educational system. Many factors outside of school, such as poverty and debilitating parent and family influences, contribute to student failure. Within the school, the most effective factor of intervention for at-risk students is the individual…

This monograph consists of seven papers that discuss issues related to the teaching approach used in the preschools of Reggio Emilia, Italy. The papers are: (1) "Images from the World: Study Seminar on the Experience of the Municipal Infant-Toddler Centers and the Preprimary Schools of Reggio Emilia, Italy" (Lilian G. Katz), which…

Mobile preschool units were developed in New Zealand in the 1970s in response to concerns about adequate provision of early childhood education in isolated areas. There are currently nine such units operating under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education. Each unit is comprised of two kindergarten teachers who travel with equipment to…

This study of 119 preschool programs in 5 states was designed to describe the classroom experiences of economically or educationally disadvantaged 4-year-old children and to examine linkages between characteristics of early childhood programs and the activities of the children and teachers in the classroom. Chapters 1 and 2 describe the context…

A national survey was conducted in the spring of 1993 as follow-up to a 1992 survey on the impact of bulk funding on New Zealand kindergartens. The policy of bulk funding involves the payment of a flat rate per pupil hour to kindergarten associations, which then distribute the money to individual kindergartens, which in turn set teacher salaries…

The purpose of this part of the multimethod Head Start bilingual/bicultural curriculum evaluation (Juarez and Associates, 1979), is to present the results of a pilot test of a battery of instruments to be used in assessing the effectiveness of four early childhood bilingual/bicultural curriculum models. The instruments pilot tested were the…