Head Start is a federally funded program providing comprehensive social and early education services to children from low-income households and their families. Seeking to boost outcomes of Head Start students, in 1998 Congress amended Head Start's statement of purpose, specifying school readiness as the program's top priority. This mission change…

A framework for staff development which focuses on acquisition of pedagogical language is presented as a means to increase teachers' cognitive complexity about the teaching-learning process. The language and concepts found in educational theory and research are key factors in enabling teachers' reflective instructional decision making. (JD)

This study examined the stability over 1-year and 2-year periods of the relationship between a cognitive measure and 2 language measures in 125 children (ages 3-7) with developmental delays. Findings indicated substantial changes in the cognitive-language relationship over time, suggesting that the discrepancy model is not appropriate for service…

Two guides for practitioners, one concerning early childhood curriculum and the other concerning the early childhood identification process are presented in this document. The curriculum guide, which constitutes the bulk of this package, approaches early childhood curriculum issues from the developmental perspective. The first section of the guide…