This paper describes the trademarked ScienceStart![TM] Curriculum--a science-based early childhood curriculum. The curriculum's major content goal is for children to develop a rich, interconnected knowledge base about the world about them. The curriculum's major process goal is to foster the types of intellectual development that characterize the…

This paper describes a 2-year project establishing an interpretive community of field-based teacher researchers and a university-based teacher researcher at four urban preschools in San Francisco, California. The primary research focus of the project is an examination of practical and theoretical connections between current notions of…

In establishing high quality programs for young children, it is imperative that teachers focus on individual differences, growth patterns, and learning styles while providing educational experiences that develop the physical, social, emotional and cognitive domains without regard to chronological age. Research affirms that a play-oriented approach…

This paper traces the development of graded and non-graded classrooms in the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries and describes the implementation of multiage classrooms at an elementary school in Hopedale, Massachusetts. After defining what is meant by multiage classrooms, the paper discusses the role of Horace Mann, who was then a…

This study examined the implementation of the seven critical attributes of the primary school curriculum mandated by the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) in a single multi-age primary classroom. The study used a case-study approach over a 16-month period. The seven attributes observed are: (1) developmentally appropriate practices; (2)…