This exploratory study examined the impacts of New York's Universal Pre-kindergarten (UPK) program as perceived by directors at child care centers and preschools not receiving state funds. Although only partially implemented, UPK's mixed-delivery system grants monies to a substantial number of qualifying community-based early care and education…

As Arizona strives for a first-rate educational system, the foundation of care and education for our youngest children remains far too weak. This new report, "A Decade of Data: The Compensation and Credentials of Arizona's Early Care and Education Workforce," marks ten years of data on trends in the wages, benefits, and education levels…

In 2006, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched the Early Learning Initiative (ELI) to improve the school readiness of Washington State's children through three main strategies: (1) development of high-quality, community-wide early learning initiatives in two communities; (2) enhancement of statewide systems that support early…

State pre kindergarten programs have grown dramatically in the last two decades, and much more attention is being paid to the school readiness of children. Six states, Georgia, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Wisconsin have policies in place or a goal to move toward universal access to pre kindergarten, and other state leaders…

Assessed child care quality based on reports of 170 center directors in three California counties. Responses indicated that most centers in lower-income and working-class communities displayed at least moderate quality levels along structural measures. About 1 in 6 failed to meet recommended quality standards. Center quality was not consistently…

Discusses issues in establishing and managing a tuition assistance program for child care centers, including target groups, sources of aid, determining need, and whether to use an external financial aid service. (JPB)

Discusses ideas for establishing rituals and celebrations to ease enrollment and staffing transitions during the child care center school year. Recommends ways to make transitions part of the curriculum through the use of daily routines, picture books, celebrations, and gift giving to mark significant events and changes. (JPB)

Discusses important considerations when designing early childhood facilities, including adequate space, design features that work for both small children and adults, floorcovering, color, and technology. (EV)

This report presents selected data on the nonparental care arrangements and educational programs of preschool children, consisting of care by relatives, care by persons to whom they were not related, and participation in day care centers and preschool programs including Head Start or Early Head Start. It focuses on children under age 6 who have…

In this article, a group of five preservice teachers and a teacher arranged to try a few activities at their campus day care. Together, they created and tested a series of learning centers involving rocks and minerals. Since minerals occur in such a wonderful variety of colors, they formed the basis for an engaging lesson on color sorting. This…

Helping staff get along with each other can sometimes be more challenging than helping young children get along. A director can feel like a referee instead of a leader of professionals when staff bicker with each other. Many directors find that efforts made to strengthen everyone's skills in giving and responding to feedback help a great deal.…

Increasing numbers of low-income children are receiving regular nonparental care, yet knowledge is limited regarding whether child care settings meet the needs of low-income children and their parents. Using a sample of low-income, predominantly African-American and Hispanic children and families from low-income neighborhoods in Boston, Chicago,…

Main and interactive effects of child care quality, stability, and multiplicity on infants' attachment security, language comprehension, language production, and cognitive development at 15 months were examined using data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care. Thirty-nine percent of the…

This study investigated preschool science environments in 20 preschool classrooms (N=20) in 13 midwestern child care centers. By operationalizing Neuman's concept of "sciencing," this study used The Preschool Classroom Science Materials/Equipment Checklist, the Preschool Classroom Science Activities Checklist, and the Preschool Teacher…

This three-phase study, part of a larger study conducted by the Midwest Child Care Research Consortium (MCCRC), investigated the characteristics of child care providers in inclusive and non-inclusive center-based classrooms and family child care homes, the observed quality of care in a subset of these programs, and families' perceptions of quality…