This article analyzes the perspectives of three preschool teachers on integrative STEM practices and the facilitating and hindering factors in their implementation. The participants were preschool teachers working at public preschools. They volunteered to participate in a 14-hour STEM professional development program and to share their…

Children face increased demands for interpersonal as well as learning-related social skills, especially by the vulnerable stage of school entry, due to the more structured setting, new academic requirements, and the fact that children are supposed to interact successfully within a larger and heterogeneous peer group. Although a plethora of…

Background/Context: Early childhood education joined the standards movement in 2002 with the Good Start, Grow Smart initiative (Brown, 2007), with advocates arguing that standards were a tool for creating more continuity and coherence in PreK systems (Bowman, 2006; Kagan 2012). Critics posed concerns about a perceived poor fit between…

The state of Illinois in the central United States has long been a trendsetter both in the development of learning standards and in addressing social and emotional learning in education settings. With a recent revision to the state's early learning standards, published in 2013, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) fully aligned its…

The VPK Learning Center Activities included with this guide are aligned with the Language, Communication and Emergent Literacy Domain within the Florida Early Learning and Developmental Standards for Four-Year-Olds (2011). Although the goal was not to create an activity to represent each and every standard and benchmark, most standards are…

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…

This report explores the extent to which states (and several large cities) are positioned to provide high quality preschool education on a large scale. States and cities that are already doing so or that could do so with modest improvements offer opportunities for advocacy to advance access to high quality early education as well as for rigorous…

The Iowa Prekindergarten/Kindergarten Task Force prepared this report in response to the following charges: to develop recommendations for strengthening existing kindergarten programs and to design a plan for implementing appropriate prekindergarten programs. Among the report's recommendations are that: (1) the Iowa Department of Education…

The Program for Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities (Part C of IDEA, the Individuals with Disabilities Act) is a federal program that assists states in operating a system of early intervention supports and services for infants and toddlers with special needs and their families. In Colorado, the Part C initiative is called Early Childhood…

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 report presents preliminary findings of a 5-year study evaluating the effectiveness of state-funded prekindergarten programs in Texas. The two components of the study included in this report are (1) a statewide survey of 507 school districts, focusing on prekindergarten program characteristics, implementation, and parents' perceptions of the…

The purpose of this manual is to promote the inclusion of special needs children in child care environments by applying an eight-step process of training, mentoring, and evaluating. The material in the manual covers approximately 6 months of enabling experiences for child care center owners and directors preparing to include special needs children…

The paper describes the GEL (Guidelines for Early Learning) Program developed by the Easter Seal Society of Southwest Florida which serves children, aged 4-6 years, with language, learning, and/or developmental problems. Developmental theories of Piaget and Chomsky and the model of David Weikart's High Scope Program were used to develop the GEL…

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…

The goal of this conference was to assist early childhood professionals in their efforts to provide training to parents and family-focused, community-based transitions between preschool and school. The conference was also designed to assure children access to a high quality, developmentally appropriate preschool; adequate nutrition; and health…