BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of the Bienestar/NEEMA Coordinated School Health Program (BN CSHP) on cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) of preschool children. METHODS: A cluster randomized trial was conducted of preschools in South Texas. Of 48 eligible schools, 28 were randomly assigned (14 intervention, 14 control).…

The purpose of the present study was to examine Frog Street Pre-K curriculum efficacy by comparing learning outcomes for pre-K students in schools with access to Frog Street in Texas during the 2021-22 school year to outcomes for pre-K students in Texas schools without Frog Street. This study is designed to replicate and extend those employed by…

Elementary school principals play a key role in leading school personnel to provide prekindergartners and kindergartners with the support needed to ensure their short- and long-term school success. Yet, few studies examine how principals conceptualize what it means for children to be ready for school and how principals support students as they…

Purpose: We examined the role of narrative microstructure (production of words and sentences) and narrative macrostructure (organization of events) in the use of internal state terms (ISTs) in narratives of bilingual children with developmental language disorder (DLD) in their school language (SL). Method: Fifty-eight Russian-Hebrew bilingual…

Construct confusion and measurement challenges have plagued emergent literacy research for decades. Using a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design, this study evaluated the dimensionality of alphabet knowledge and identified the sequence of development of 8 alphabet knowledge skills. Eleven models were evaluated in a sample of 3,692 preschool- and elementary…

According to the study, teachers' beliefs significantly shape the instructional practices they choose to employ in the classroom. The study's overarching goal was to ascertain whether children's emergent literacy development (ages 3 and 4) is positively influenced by their early childhood teachers' social-emotional instruction, reading pedagogy,…

In Texas, public-funded pre-kindergarten is important because it provides the most vulnerable children with the opportunity to develop school readiness, so they can learn core competencies in kindergarten relevant to academic readiness for first grade. The Texas Legislature was back in session in spring 2019 and, not surprisingly, a bill was filed…

This study explores communication and retelling skills that are revealed after Mexican-American preschoolers engaged in culturally sensitive read alouds. Participants, highlighted in this article, included two four-year-old preschool children in a Spanish/English dual language classroom. The children selected culturally relevant texts and engaged…

This article describes the use of video-cued multivocal ethnography (VCE) in the Civic Action and Young Children Study conducted with preschool children in South Texas. We detail how and why we continue to use the VCE method as a process of collective reflection and analysis with participating communities. We also explore how VCE helps us enact…

Background: Through the Texas Childhood Obesity Research Demonstration study, we implemented and evaluated a system-oriented model of primary and secondary prevention approaches to mitigate obesity among low-income Texas children aged 2 to 12 years. Primary prevention included implementing the Coordinated Approach To Child Health Early Childhood…

Background: U.S. preschool children from Latinx immigrant and Black communities often experience schooling rooted in compliance and overdiscipline. In these contexts, schools do not recognize the rich lived experiences of Children of Color as suitable for civic learning. This article explores how, when schools value young Children of Color as…

Background: Childhood obesity is a public health concern that disproportionately affects populations from low socioeconomic status (SES) and minority groups. Evaluation of social and health risk factors of preschool children living along the Texas-Mexico border provides feedback to design health interventions. Methods: South Texas Early Prevention…

Teachers of the d/Deaf (TODs) struggle to select appropriate storybooks for elementary-aged Deaf pre-readers who use American Sign Language (Hayes & Shaw, 1994). Hayes and Shaw (1994) created a book selection system for TODs, but their methodology was difficult to evaluate. The purpose of the present research was to create an empirically…

Research supports the importance of developing early literacy skills through culturally relevant activities and school/home partnerships as essential ingredients in high quality early learning environments (Bentley & Souto-Manning, 2019; Gay, 2000). Educators, however, frequently dismiss the significance of honoring a child's first language,…

Pre-kindergarten in Texas targets 3 and 4-year-old children who are considered at risk. The result of the state eligibility rules for public pre-kindergarten is homogeneous classrooms composed predominantly by English Language Learners, and students from high-minority and high-poverty households. The non-diverse pre-kindergarten classrooms have…