This document consists of the four 2002 issues of a newsletter that provides current information and research on leadership and administrative issues in early childhood education. The Spring 2002 issue examines Illinois' plan for universal access to preschool by expanding the existing early care and education infrastructure to incorporate Head…

In this interview, Cuban psychologist and scholar Franklin Martinez discusses the importance of early childhood education to the development of intelligence. Education affects child development, but it is the knowledge of child learning and development that makes education effective, not material resources. Cuba has invested heavily in preschool…

Demand for childcare services in Malaysia is increasing. With the changing demographic landscape and increasing knowledge of the importance of early childhood education, provision of alternative childcare services has never been more significant. Children younger than four years of age are placed in registered childcare centres while their parents…

"Pots of Gold" is a family finance research project delivered within Sure Start Children's Centre areas across Newcastle. It is funded by the DfES through the Basic Skills Agency and managed by Newcastle Family Learning Service. This project has been delivered in two phases, running from October 2005 to December 2006. Phase 1 ran from…

Smart Start is an early childhood initiative in North Carolina designed to build a statewide system of coordinated services for children from birth through age 5 and their families. At the heart of the program are 82 public-private nonprofit partnerships representing North Carolina's 100 counties, each sharing the mission of promoting school…

The purpose of the study reported in this article was to explore the mathematical discourse in which four dyads engaged while sharing the storybook "One Snowy Night" (Butterworth, 1989) while at home or in other locations (e.g., day care centers). Each dyad consisted of a mother and her four-year-old child. Various discourse patterns were evident,…

The early childhood education field has been slow to take up the challenge of sustainability. However, Brisbane's Campus Kindergarten is one early education centre that is making serious efforts in this regard. In 1997, Campus Kindergarten initiated its "Sustainable Planet Project" involving a variety of curriculum and pedagogical…

In policy research a frequent aim is to estimate treatment effects separately by subgroups. This endeavor becomes a methodological challenge when the subgroups are defined by post-treatment, rather than pre-treatment, variables because if analyses are performed in the same way as with pre-treatment variables, causal interpretations are no longer…

Drawn from a review of policies at over 100 child care programs nationwide, this document compiles model health policies intended for adaptation and selective use by out-of-home child care facilities. Following an introduction, the document presents model policy forms with blanks for adding individualized information for the following areas: (1)…

This report describes the impact of nurse consultant services to child care programs in Colorado on the children, parents, and staff of the centers they serve as part of the Healthy Child Care Colorado (HCCC) initiative. Study participants included 25 child care center directors and 24 nurse consultants, representing large and small centers in…

Parenting practices, including the use of physical discipline, are shaped by multiple influences. Although much research focuses on how parent, child, and dyadic characteristics shape parenting practices, extra-familial resources may also play a role. This paper focuses on how children's experiences of child care during the preschool years may…

The focus of this research was on the nature and characteristics of effective leadership and management practices in centre-based child care. This paper is part of a larger doctoral study with a focus on management within child care centres. Eight directors were interviewed in south east Queensland, Australia using a case study methodology. There…

Forty-eight toddlers aged 17 to 31 months attending long-day childcare participated in this project, which examined some of the influences of the day-care context on their emerging pretend play. Ninety minutes of video-taped observations were collected for each participant as they engaged in free play with their same-age peers and their…

When families arrive to pick up their children, mini-reunions unfold. Children prattle confidently with news of their day. Parents listen gratefully. On other days, however, "release time" gets swept into a mudslide of missed connections. Exhausted parents may not be able to focus on their children's safety. Overwhelmed parents become…

As the state of Illinois moves toward an integrated system of universally accessible early care and education, policymakers grapple with issues regarding who, where, how, and at what cost quality services should be provided. In order to inform this policy debate, this report describes the for-profit sector of Illinois' formal early care and…