Since all of the children represented in this study are now in the first grade, results appear to indicate that gains accrued during the Head Start experience have some degree of stability. The level of significance was well beyond the possibility of the findings having occurred by mere chance. (Authors)

Noting that many American children enter elementary school without a critical foundation of informal mathematical knowledge, this study examined the impact of a prekindergarten mathematics curriculum grounded in research on early mathematical cognition. A project-developed instrument, the Child Math Assessment, was used on a pre-post basis to…

As part of a national evaluation of Head Start, a comparison of school readiness and childhood development approaches to preschool education was attempted, but major methodological problems were encountered. It was not possible to find the study samples called for in the original plan, i.e. a child-readiness program of the Bereiter-Engelmann type,…

The effects of two or three years of a sequential educational intervention program on culturally deprived children were studied with two groups of four-year-olds and two groups of five-year-olds. They were matched on several developmental variables, with one group at each age level entering the experimental Learning to Learn Program. The other…

Examined cognitive competencies and motivation in economically advantaged and disadvantaged preschoolers and kindergartners over a two-year period. Found that disadvantaged children had poorer cognitive scores than advantaged children. Cognitive gains were equal after one or two years in school, with socioeconomic status (SES) differences…

Noting a developmentally inappropriate trend toward earlier instruction in mathematics, a study examined the effects of a systematic, process-based, developmentally appropriate program for the development of number readiness in Indian kindergarten (preschool) children aged 4 and 5. An experimental group of 20 children received the process-based…

Observations of children's daily activities and interviews with the children's caretakers provided information on preschool children's informal home education in Utuado, Puerto Rico. Three kinds of skills were examined: literacy, chores, and rule-bound games. The unit of analysis was the "Potential Learning Activity" (PLA), a…

As part of efforts to improve services for children from birth to age five, the Maryland Joint Committee on Children, Youth, and Families charged the State Department of Education with identifying and implementing, by school year 2000-01, an early childhood assessment system that would provide baseline information on children entering…

As part of its efforts to improve services for children, birth to age five, the Maryland Joint Committee on Children, Youth, and Families charged the State Department of Education with identifying and implementing, by school year 2000-01, an early childhood assessment system that provides baseline information on children entering kindergarten.…