India and Bangladesh exhibit commonalities in their sociocultural backgrounds and contexts, with both nations facing challenges regarding the education of disadvantaged children. India's recently introduced National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 aims to offer universal access to high-quality Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) through an…

A robust body of evidence over the past half a century has documented the importance of early childhood experiences for adult outcomes. From maternal prenatal care to early intervention in infancy and toddlerhood, and through high-quality care and educational experiences in the preschool years, support services and programs for families and young…

Despite growing evidence about the significance of Early Childhood Development (ECD) programs, public investment has been relatively low, resulting in slower expansion of evidence-based ECD programs. This dissertation consists of three essays on conducting and using economic evaluation methods to scale up early childhood education and development…

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…

Tempe PRE was designed as a high-quality preschool program to create more opportunity for children in Tempe. In the 2021-2022 school year, NORC at the University of Chicago conducted an evaluation of Tempe PRE to understand how the program was being implemented and its effects on children and families. They also collected students' outcome data…

High-quality early learning experiences (i.e., developmentally appropriate, play-based instruction with clear learning goals) have positive long-term effects on student outcomes. As California rolls out Universal Transitional Kindergarten (UTK), district leaders focused on meeting state requirements for hiring qualified staff and finding…

Over the last several years, a growing number of cities have invested in early care and education for 3- and 4-year-old children, known as "preschool." This paper aims to aid cities in planning preschool programs by outlining a range of factors to consider. We largely do not make recommendations, but rather try to identify a range of…

This timely book will help policymakers and practitioners convert their visions of high-quality early education into on-the-ground reality by providing a much-needed, richly detailed look at how states can design, fund, and manage exemplary programs. The authors describe and analyze how four states--Michigan, West Virginia, Washington, and North…

As the number of publicly funded early childhood education (ECE) programs increases, policymakers will need empirical evidence to justify the taxpayer investment. Such justification will require a stronger understanding of the essential components of an ECE program's design, as well as solid evidence on which components, or constellations of…

Half of all infants and toddlers receive care in nonparental settings, such as centers and family child care (FCC) homes. On average, infants and toddlers spend more hours per week in care than preschoolers do. Yet infant-toddler care has been identified as lower quality than care for older children, suggesting that professional development (PD)…

We consider issues surrounding the introduction of the federal educational standards in preschool education (FGOS DO) by analyzing data from a survey of directors and teachers at public and private kindergartens. The results show that teachers are well informed about the content of the new standards. They actively participate in professional…

This program evaluation focused on the Palcare Literacy Innovation Project. The general research problem was to see if the enhanced preschool literacy project would show an improvement in the preschool classroom literacy environment, overall parent participation and a deeper connection to the community over a three-year period. The specific gap in…

This comprehensive strategic plan lays out a vision for an education system that offers every Rhode Island student the opportunity to be a lifelong learner. While this plan is informed by the events of the pandemic, it looks beyond to address the root issues that impede students from thriving at every level of their education. It lays out…

This report summarizes the findings of a literature review conducted as part of the Assessing the Implementation and Cost of High-Quality Early Care and Education (ECE-ICHQ) project. The project's goal is to create a technically sound and feasible instrument that will provide consistent, systematic measures of the implementation and costs of…

This paper explores the processes involved in developing, embedding and sustaining an ECCE practitioner capacity building programme in the community through an interagency approach, which utilises mentoring and coaching strategies for increased knowledge and skills uptake. There is now conclusive international evidence that early childhood care…