"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Online Testing, Version 1.0: Oregon's Adaptive Computer-Based Accountability Test Offers a Peek at a Brave New Future (Robert Rothman); (2) Beyond…

This article describes an innovative practice in family involvement developed by one early care and education center engaged in professional development. The Hopes and Dreams Project documented family involvement in children's lives and education through the pairing of pictures and narratives about their lives, histories, priorities, goals, and…

This article reports the results of a mixed-method study that examined processes and outcomes of parent-worker engagement in child welfare. Knowledge gained from a qualitative exploration of engagement at one neighborhood-based child welfare agency informed the gathering of quantitative data from 74 different parent-worker dyads in this sequential…

A parenting curriculum developed for incarcerated mothers was evaluated using a pretest, posttest, follow-up design with 57 women incarcerated in state prisons. Developmental psychologists delivered a 12-session curriculum focused on parenting issues unique to incarcerated parents. Each class met for 2 hours and followed a prepared curriculum that…

The "BAS for Family Child Care" is the first valid and reliable tool for measuring and improving the overall quality of business and professional practices in family child care settings. It is applicable for multiple uses, including program self-improvement, technical assistance and monitoring, training, research and evaluation, and public…

Child care providers are likely to be the professionals who most frequently interact with families with young children. Thus, infant and toddler child care providers are uniquely positioned to recognize and respond to families' needs for information and support. This article describes knowledge, skills, and strategies that support child care…

Everybody knows that children's exposure to learning opportunities prior to age 5 has a profound and lasting effect on their success in school and beyond. Each fall, millions of children enter kindergarten; some of those 5-year-old children have a preschool education experience and some of those children do not. To ensure a child's learning…

In multicultural societies with working parents, large numbers of children have caregivers from more than one culture. Here we have explored this situation, investigating culturally-based differences in caregiving beliefs and practices between nannies and the parents who employ them. Our guiding hypothesis was that U.S. born employers and Latina…

The purpose of this study was to describe parents' experiences in sending their children to non-regulated family day care. Noticeably absent were studies about non-regulated family day care culture as well as parental experiences. Phenomenology, the study of human experiences, was the methodology used to identify the meaning behind parents' search…

The parental role in childcare is explored by drawing on a whole child perspective and eco-systemic theory. Partnership between parents and staff in the formal childcare context is then discussed. A workshop undertaken with staff in a community childcare centre to explore the concept and reality of the parent as primary carer is then outlined,…

Analyzed child care rules and regulations of four states from Child Care, Cost & Quality study. Found that the limited requirements set for child care personnel and community interaction departed substantially from professional judgments about what is needed in child care settings. Higher personnel standards, explicit emphasis on developmental…

This paper discusses the conceptualization and measurement of Parent Child Care Involvement (PCCI) and questions whether PCCI should be included in high-stakes quality ratings. It presents data on several PCCI measures, including one used by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, the Parent Caregiver Relationship Scale…

This study investigated the association between the nature of parent-caregiver relationships and child behavior and examined the parent-caregiver relationship as a social support. A total of 120 parents of 2-year-olds who used child care at least 20 hours a week were randomly selected. Participants were asked to complete a survey that included a…

Identifies ways to prepare parents for small early childhood education/care program changes (planned staff absences, changes of the environment or schedule, changes of classmates, changes of classroom pets, and classroom visitors) and large changes (funding, regulations, staff, building, administration). Suggests ways to keep parents informed,…

More young children and their families have access to early years services than ever before in Britain. Within these settings practitioners and parents need to work closely together for the benefit of the child. Yet the relationships within the childcare and education triangle (child, parent, practitioner) are highly complex and sometimes fraught…