The current status and future directions of early childhood inclusion in the United States are discussed from the perspective of 4 key goals: access, accommodations and feasibility, developmental progress, and social integration. Recommendations are put forward to promote inclusion goals emphasizing administrative structures, personnel…

Environmental degradation, childhood obesity, and aggression of youth are societal problems that appear unconnected. However, their cause (and possible solution) may be linked to a common experience--the amount and quality of time spent in the natural world. Environment based education, significant life experience research, and studies involving…

This report explores the extent to which states (and several large cities) are positioned to provide high quality preschool education on a large scale. States and cities that are already doing so or that could do so with modest improvements offer opportunities for advocacy to advance access to high quality early education as well as for rigorous…

This paper describes the trademarked ScienceStart![TM] Curriculum--a science-based early childhood curriculum. The curriculum's major content goal is for children to develop a rich, interconnected knowledge base about the world about them. The curriculum's major process goal is to foster the types of intellectual development that characterize the…

Discusses developmentally appropriate career guidance for young children to prepare them to make later life career decisions. Outlines objectives for working with young children, including increasing occupational awareness and exploration, enhancing their knowledge of self and others, and continuing their development of academic and work- related…

The Building Blocks to Colorado's Content Standards were developed to connect early childhood education to the K-12 content standards, to advocate for appropriate teaching strategies for preschool children, and to support awareness and understanding of early childhood foundational skills among parents and teachers. Five sets of building blocks are…

This booklet is a printed edition of a talk given to parents of children at The Aquinas Montessori School (Alexandria, Virginia) in 1966, when the school was newly opened. Later, at the request of parents, the booklet was prepared and used for parent education and information by many other Montessori schools and organizations. The booklet…

In recent years, strategies for multicultural education and human relations have been applied to progressively younger preschool children. This paper identifies five approaches to multicultural education, then goes on to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the predominant human relations approach. Challenging issues encountered in applying…

As part of Louisiana's efforts to expand and improve the quality of its early childhood programs, a committee of educators from across the state collaborated to develop standards for programs serving 4-year-olds. This guide presents program standards to assist the ongoing development, evaluation, and improvement of early childhood center-based…

This document is comprised of three publications of the early childhood section of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education: (1) prekindergarten mathematics standards; (2) a teacher's guide for early mathematics; and (3) a parent's handbook for early mathematics. The standards, developed by a broad-based group of individuals…

Based in the belief that many preschool programs have an orientation toward a developmental philosophy yet are not developmentally appropriate in program practices, this discussion contrasts developmentally and psychometrically oriented approaches, reviews literature on program design and children's needs, and provides guidelines in the areas of…

The first National Education Goal agreed to be President Bush and the nation's governors is that all children will start school ready to learn. The first objective under that goal is that of providing high quality and developmentally appropriate preschool programs for all disadvantaged and disabled children. This paper seeks to assist efforts to…

Discusses ways for early childhood professionals to meet the objectives contained in the first of the National Education Goals for the Year 2000: the goal concerning readiness for school. (BB)

This paper discusses major issues having to do with definition of terms and implementation strategies implicit in the first national education goal, which states: "By the year 2000, all children in America will start school ready to learn." The principles articulated in the paper by a collaboration of agencies and the private sector are…

Stressing the importance of collective efforts among families, early childhood care and education programs, communities, and policymakers in supporting the learning and development of children, this resource guide provides a framework for understanding and communicating a common set of developmentally appropriate expectations for young children…