Smart Start is a multi-disciplinary, comprehensive, community-based initiative to serve North Carolina children under age 6 and their families to ensure that all children enter school healthy and prepared to succeed. To achieve this, local county partnerships have focused both their attention and their funds on three major areas of service…

Noting that a high-quality preschool program is one that promotes learning through rich play experiences, this book gives parents information needed to select the right preschool for their children. Chapter 1, "Thinking about Preschool," discusses questions parents ask, practical considerations, beginning the search, and the screening phone call.…

This study examined five broad research areas related to first grade in Texas public schools: (1) characteristics of first graders; (2) teachers' views of children's readiness, behavior, and academic growth; (3) programs and practices used in schools and classrooms; (4) the relation of student progress in Grade 1 to student characteristics,…

The PREP (Preparing Refugees for Elementary Programs) program and curriculum are described. The federally-funded program provides English language and cultural training to elementary-school-aged Southeast Asian refugee children in the Philippine Refugee Processing Center in Bataan. Its objective is to aid children in the transition to schools in…

This eight-part booklet discusses issues relevant to the lives of children in the United States today. Part 1 reports on poverty in America, suggests actions citizens can take to protect children and support families, lists risks facing America's children, and answers common objections to addressing children's issues. Part 2 lists the ranking of…

Noting that whereas British primary schools are admirable, provision of preschool education is uneven, this book examines the questionable changes brought on by recent government policies, and the consequences of those changes, enjoining policymakers to change their attitude toward early childhood education and improve the mesh between nursery and…

This document reports the findings of the 1990-91 process evaluation of the Saginaw, Michigan Early Childhood Education Preschool (MECEP) program for 4-year-olds at risk of academic failure. As of January 18, 1991, a total of 285 pupils were participating in the program at 8 sites. The overall goal of the program is to provide 4-year-olds with an…

This report on the Santa Clara Plus Assessment and Activities Program describes the development of the Santa Clara Inventory of Developmental Tasks and evaluates the program's effectiveness. Intended as an observational tool for teachers concerned with the development of readiness, the Inventory provides a procedure for: (1) observing children's…

Four-year old children in the New York State Experimental Prekindergarten Program (PreK) were administered three cognitive and two behavioral measures to determine if the data would provide sets of a smaller number of variables, to see if the variables overlapped, and to determine the appropriateness or redunduncy of the tests. The tests were: the…

The initial phase of the University of Georgia's evaluation program in Early Childhood Education involved a search of the literature relevant to instrumentation, methodology, and procedures for measuring the growth of young children. This resulting bibliography includes reports, articles, books, and selected tests published between 1960 and 1968.…

The Heman Street Preschool was organized to serve two main purposes: (1) T o provide a group of three- and four-year olds with a preschool experience which would increase their chances for later success in school; and (2) To train future teachers and teaching aides to work effectively in a preschool program. The program focused on four groups: the…

Concerning The Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1972, there is new Federal emphasis on compensatory education to help disadvantaged children. This report takes the position that compensatory education can be made to work, and that the application of concentrated compensatory resources (usually at higher dollar costs) in basic learning…

This paper illustrates how Homewood-Flossmoor High School, Illinois District 233 addressed the decline in its student achievement results and improved college readiness among its students. This sharp decline caused school officials to stop and reevaluate what they were doing. A review of the facts led to a clear conclusion: "Rigorous…

Along with the rapid expansion over the past decade of Head Start, a program providing comprehensive early childhood development services to low-income children, their families, and their communities, has come the demand for rigorous research to demonstrate program effectiveness. This report describes the proposed design of a national study of the…

An Australian national task force examined a number of areas related to achieving educational equality for Australia's Indigenous peoples. This paper looks at early childhood education and identifies issues that affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Chapters cover: (1) the national policy context, Indigenous educational…