In this article, Denise D. Cunningham presents a project that emerged from informal discussions with early childhood pre-service teachers during their content area methods courses at a large, Midwestern four-year university. Students stated that they needed personal experience with materials and practices that they will be expected to use in…

Program designers develop a wide range of intervention programs to address the social challenges faced by children and youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) but it is not clear how those programs are perceived by families of youth with ASD and the extent to which those programs are accessed. To explore the perceptions of families of youth with…

The consequences of lack of reading and poor reading skills are problematic for all students, regardless of background; however, for middle grade striving readers with academic difficulties these problems can lead to lower self-efficacy and motivation to engage in literacy tasks. Using the perspectives of urban, middle grade special education…

This toolkit was created to make transition planning easier and offers easy-to-understand information about the purpose of transition planning, the goal and importance of age-appropriate assessments, and the required rules that are used by schools. It also includes information on the community partners that can provide youth with supports as…

The investigators compared the perceived attainment of developmental tasks by 181 German adolescents with hearing loss and 254 peers without hearing loss. The adolescents with hearing loss were attending special schools for students who are deaf or hard of hearing. On average, the two groups perceived similar levels of success across the assessed…

As the federal role expands to support increased state investments in school-based prekindergarten programs, National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) has released an updated, principal competency guide: "Leading Pre-K-3 Learning Communities: Competencies for Effective Principal Practice." Developed by a panel of…

Research Findings: The present study involved using a questionnaire to investigate the mathematics teaching practices of 74 U.S. and 67 Chinese early childhood teachers. Quantitative and qualitative analyses yielded several key findings. First, U.S. teachers are less intentional in mathematics teaching than their Chinese counterparts.…

This report documents the practices and outcomes of Alice Birney, a public K-8 Waldorf-Inspired School in Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD). This study highlights how such a school addresses students' academic, social, emotional, physical, and creative development. Birney students outperform similar students in SCUSD on several…

This study aims to uncover how a particular imported philosophy of early childhood education, Reggio Emilia, is implemented in the context of one public and one private preschool in San Francisco. The philosophy of Reggio Emilia is believed to be progressive and to be developmentally appropriate for children in early childhood. The study involved…

The integration of technology in early childhood classrooms has become a controversial issue among professionals in this field. One issue which may influence technology in these classrooms may be perceptions of what is developmentally appropriate practice (DAP). This article explores perceptions about technology and age appropriate recommendations…

This study explored whether or not, and how, an on-site and research-teacher community of practice model for professional development addressed the challenges to classroom practices in a Head Start program. Data sources included interviews with teachers, videos of planning and teaching sessions, and the researchers' fieldwork log and reflective…

This article describes early childhood educators' responses to a professional development series aimed at helping them to understand and incorporate early learning standards for social studies. While the primary aim of the professional development was to focus on the social studies content standards, the secondary aim was to introduce early…

The Scale of Primary Classroom Practices (SPCP) is a short instrument which enables primary school teachers to observe and assess what goes on in their classrooms. The SPCP is divided into sections that describe teachers' and students' activities. A study of the SPCP has provided support for the reliability and construct validity of the scale.…

An education agency's early childhood resource developer implemented and evaluated a practicum intervention designed to increase administrators' and teachers' awareness of questionable trends and practices in kindergarten education. Most of the kindergartens in the agency's area had a highly academic, lock-step curriculum; used standardized…

A range of electronic resources, including video-based instruction, are used to promote cybersafety to young people at school. This evaluation analyzed seven distinct programs that use electronic media in Internet safety initiatives in schools. The findings highlight emerging evidence on successful approaches to engage children in assessing risky…