This essay entails a critical review of the origins, discourses and contemporary manifestations of NAEYC's enduring commitment to 'developmentally appropriate practice' (DAP); and proposes a reconceptualisation of DAP as an open question and incentive for place-based collaborative inquiry. Brief discussion of ECE's early history highlights…

This Self-Study Guide has been developed to support Florida Voluntary Prekindergarten Providers (VPK) who are required to complete an improvement plan process (i.e., low-performing providers). The guide has sections that can be used during both the process of selecting target areas for an improvement plan and the process of implementing new or…

Technology use permeates virtually all aspects of twenty-first century society, though its integration in early childhood settings and recognition as a developmentally appropriate practice remains problematic. A position is taken that education professionals may be "missing the boat" by not embracing technology usage as a developmentally…

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…

Most teachers persist in using highly structured teaching methods with pre-school pupils and in trying to teach academic skills for which young children are not prepared. This is the case because many teachers teach as they were taught or in ways that students' parents and relatives want. But researchers find these practices dangerous, and stress…

This report presents the results of a statewide study of kindergarten practices in North Carolina during 1988. The study was initiated due to concern about the developmental appropriateness of kindergartens. A total of 103 randomly selected kindergarten classrooms were observed in an effort to measure the quality of classroom practices. In…

This is a report of a statewide study of kindergarten practices in North Carolina in 1988 which involved classroom observations (N=103 randomly selected classrooms) and questionnaires returned by 218 elementary school principals (an 86% response) and by 375 kindergarten teachers (an 81% response). Several questions were addressed by the study. (1)…