Educators have embraced the promotion of social emotional development, student well-being, and mental health as essential educational objectives to promote academic readiness and growth. To address known research-to-practice gaps and limited availability of evidence-based, universal high school programs, we took a community-based participatory…

Examined developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) and effects of teachers' DAP beliefs/practices on first graders' social skills and academic achievement. Found that students taught by teachers with developmentally inappropriate beliefs had higher language achievement than others. Students whose teachers' practices were neither appropriate nor…

What teachers believe and the practices in which they engage are often not consistent, as they face accountability demands and a return to more structured approaches. Data were collected from 34 kindergarten teachers on their beliefs about instructional practice and the forces that shape the education. Findings indicated that regardless of…

The Nongraded Primary Learning Communities Program (NPLCP) was introduced at the beginning of the 1990-91 school year in three Houston Independent School District elementary schools. This evaluation describes the implementation of the NPLCP; examines the effect of the NPLCP on students' standardized achievement test scores; and evaluates teacher…

In response to parent complaints about the curriculum at an urban child care center, a procedure was developed to provide parents and teachers with an understanding of developmentally appropriate practices for young children. A curriculum that was developmentally and culturally relevant to the children at the school was also developed. The entire…

This study assessed teachers' opinions about the promotion of immature children to first grade. A total of 224 teachers from private and public elementary schools in Mississippi completed a questionnaire that addressed such issues as the relation between maturity and readiness, repetition of kindergarten, academic and peer pressure, and the…

This document summarizes the research on full-day kindergarten. The question of whether full-day scheduling is good for children is addressed. The majority of the research justifies the following conclusions: (1) A developmentally appropriate program focuses on activities that are appropriate for the child's age and involve interaction with…

There is abundant theoretical support for the value of Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) at the elementary school level, but there has been relatively little research to document its effects. This paper explores the relationship between DAP and student achievement among low-income students in St. Paul, Minnesota, using research from an…

This issue highlights five distinct studies. The first study looks at achievement and its association to Montessori programs, magnet programs, and traditional schooling programs. The second provides evidence on the efficacy of the Even Start program in comparison to Title I programs. The third examines the effects of full-day and half-day…

In response to standardized test scores that did not accurately reflect student learning, Franklin Lower Elementary School in Meadville, Mississippi, began a process of restructuring to become a developmentally appropriate school by using hands-on materials, focusing on whole language, and emphasizing the development of thinking skills. To…