Children's white matter development is driven by experience, yet it remains poorly understood how it is shaped by attending formal education. A small number of studies compared children before and after the start of formal schooling to understand this, yet they do not allow to separate maturational effects from schooling-related effects. A clever…

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of a family-centered preventive intervention, the Family Check-Up (FCU), on improving parenting skills during kindergarten and 1st grade, when children are challenged to engage in a variety of new behaviors, such as sustained attention and self-regulation of behavior in the classroom. Building…

Zambia has a large, autonomous community schooling system that formed during the nation's transition from a socialist economy. The community schooling system has expanded during the past 20 years to increase education access in remote areas. Estimates suggest that the number of Zambian community schools has increased from 100 schools in 1996 to…

Using data ("n" = 3,790 with 2,119 in the 3-year-old cohort and 1,671 in the 4-year-old cohort) from 353 Head Start centers in the Head Start Impact Study, the only large-scale randomized experiment in Head Start history, this article examined the impact of Head Start on children's cognitive and parent-reported social-behavioral outcomes…

The researcher conducted a nonexperimental study to investigate and analyze the influence of reduced class sizes, intensity (all day and every day), duration (five years), and heterogeneity (random class assignment) on the Head Start Fade effect. The researcher employed retrospective data analysis using a longitudinal explanatory design on data…

Educational leaders are charged with making informed decisions regarding various aspects of schooling that affect the overall achievement of students. Numerous legislative ideas, funding initiatives, programming standards, and practicing guidelines for early childhood education programs have been introduced (Buyssee & Wesley, 2006). Early care…

This paper presents initial results from a pilot evaluation of the pre-K component of a new school-based intervention strategy (Social, Emotional, and Cognitive Understanding and Regulation in education, SECURe) for pre-kindergarten through 3rd grade that is designed to build skills in social-emotional learning (focusing on executive function and…

The goals of the Head Start Impact Study (HSIS) are to: (1) determine the impacts of Head Start on children's school readiness and parental practices that support children's development; and (2) to determine under what circumstances Head Start achieves its greatest impacts and for which children (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2010).…

Since 1965, Head Start has provided comprehensive services to help prepare the nation's most disadvantaged three- to five-year-old children for school and to strengthen their families. In 1998 Congress instructed the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to conduct an evaluation of Head Start to determine its impact on child development…

Quality elementary physical education programs recognize the changing development and movement abilities of children (NASPE, 2007). Educational dance within these programs provides opportunities to engage in developmentally appropriate rhythmic activities. Research to date provides modest information for physical educators regarding what rhythmic…

Although there is widespread recognition that arts experiences enhance children's social-emotional development, the mechanisms through which this process takes place are little understood. This article provides insight into the role of the arts in development, through a review of recent research on child development and interviews with inner-city…

The visual attention (VA) span deficit hypothesis was found successfully to account for variability in developmental dyslexia (Bosse, Tainturier & Valdois, 2007). We conducted a cross-sectional study on 417 typically developing children from first, third and fifth grades examining the role of VA span on the development of reading skills. A battery…

The purpose of this study is to test the effects on children's social, behavioral, and academic outcomes of an intervention, Families and Schools Together (FAST), when implemented in two novel ways: (a) in schools with predominantly Latino children and (b) on an entire grade-level cohort instead of with individual families targeted for the…

Pediatric school psychology is a relatively new subspecialty in the field; however, few specific, prescribed roles have been articulated, and fewer have yielded preliminary efficacy data. In this exploratory study, the acceptability and potential efficacy of conjoint behavioral consultation (CBC) as a model for linking families, schools, and…

The goals of the early childhood business plan are to explain, inform, and guide public and private stakeholders and policymakers and the general public about the investments and activities required for all children to have opportunities for school success. The business plan presented in this report has two parts, an asset review and an action…