This study investigates the relationships between preschool quality and children's learning and development from fall to spring of 1 school year through the analysis of child- and program-level data from approximately 70,000 children, ranging in age from 4.5 to 5.5 years old, in 1,700 Quality Counts California (QCC) rated preschool programs, the…

Emotion talk plays an important role in the social and emotional development of preschoolers, but not much work has shown how teachers talk about emotions in the classroom. We recorded preschool teachers' (N = 13) emotion talk in naturalistic observations. Teachers expressed 633 emotion-related utterances, about 3 per hour (range fewer than 1 to…

The Jumpstart program is a national early childhood education program focusing on supporting children's language skills, literacy, and social-emotional development. The present study examined the impact of Jumpstart programming on the school readiness of low-income preschool children. One hundred and twenty-one preschool children (69 boys, 52…

Research Findings: Public policy has increasingly focused on expansion of preschool access for underserved students and systematic evaluation of preschool quality and students' readiness for school. However, such evaluation is limited by a lack of thoroughly validated assessments for use with preschool populations. The present study examined the…

Evidence suggests preschool age students with disabilities (SWD) benefit from inclusive settings. Inclusive education has positive impacts on students' social-emotional, language, and cognitive skills. Yet, preschool age SWD continue to have limited access to inclusive education, and research suggests numerous reasons, including teacher practice.…

The preschool years are a critical time to identify and treat early emotional or behavioral problems. Universal screening can be used to identify emotional and behavioral risk in preschoolers and fits well within current service delivery frameworks. This criterion-related validity study examined the use of a brief teacher-rated screener, the…

Research Findings: As policymakers expand access to preschool, the sociodemographic composition of preschool classrooms will become increasingly important. These efforts may create programs that increase the concentration of children from low-income families or, alternatively, foster the creation of socioeconomically diverse preschool classrooms.…

Attendance in preschool centers can yield short-term benefits for children from poor or middle-class families. Yet debate persists in Europe and the United States over whether centers yield gains of sufficient magnitude to sustain children's cognitive or social advantages as they move through primary school. We report on child care and home…

Parents and policymakers are turning to preschools to better advance the school readiness and broader development of young children. Much remains unknown, including how preschool programs of varying quality affect diverse groups of children. This is particularly important as several California counties embark on ambitious and costly efforts to…

The System of Multicultural Pluralistic Assessment (SOMPA) is designed for use in a culturally diverse society. The system was developed on 700 English-speaking caucasian children (hereafter called Anglos) from the anglo core culture, 700 black children, and 700 Latino Children (90 percent were of Mexican-American heritage) five through eleven…

School Readiness profiles measured countywide at kindergarten entry provide important, population-based information about the developmental capacities of children as well as the capacity of families, pre-schools, and communities to support children's school readiness. These profiles enable key stakeholders to plan, evaluate, and improve programs,…