Discusses five major issues raised by the papers in this special issue. Also considers curriculum and conceptual issues not dealt with in the issue. Describes the need for a combination of education and care, or "educare," in early childhood programs. (BG)

Describes a high school day care program which allows teenage mothers to stay in school and provides their child with school readiness opportunities. (BB)

Relationships between parenting and children's school readiness were examined within socioeconomically comparable samples of African American and Euro-American kindergarten children, mothers, and teachers. Although similarities existed across ethnic groups in the relationships between parenting and school performance, family income moderated…

Discusses why the achievement gap between poor and middle-class children persists and what can be done to close it, explaining that the latest version of Title I does not provide necessary levels of resources to compensate for inequality in educational spending. Examines the importance of preschool educational experiences, suggesting that this…

Brain research has strengthened our understanding of the first five years of a child's life as a critical period. Quality early care is important to the healthy development of young children, and their later success in school. Concurrently, many families depend on childcare outside the home. Programs that have knowledgeable and skilled staff,…

The emergence of publicly subsidized preschool raises important policy questions about the role of market forces and, in places where competition to provide these services exists, presents a setting in which the effects of competition on educational outcomes can be tested. We test neo-institutional hypotheses concerning the effects of competition…

Project Head Start was created during the heady, idealistic days of the mid-1960s. The idea for Head Start, a preschool program for disadvantaged children, emerged from the observation that, on average, poor and minority children arrive at school already behind their peers in the intellectual skills and abilities required for academic achievement.…

This research study evaluated the efficacy of the "Bracken Basic Concept Scale-Revised" (BBCS-R; Bracken, 1998) and the "Bracken Concept Development Program" (BCDP; Bracken, 1986a) in a test-teach-test paradigm with students from a Head Start program. Prior to the intervention, 54 children were administered the BBCS-R and were…

Belief in the importance of school readiness has mobilized a broad coalition of concerned stakeholders to become organized and act. As a result, a number of programs, policies, and materials have been developed to improve the readiness of children and of schools. The purpose of this article is to examine the context in which these efforts are…

A preschool program in rural Bangladesh was evaluated in terms of cognitive and social outcomes of children. The preschools provided a half-day program, 6 days a week, with free play, stories, and instruction in literacy and math. Four hundred children between 4.5 and 6.5 years were assessed, half in preschools and half in villages where there…

Under the broad banner of education, training, and collaboration across systems, this paper examines, through analysis of seven individual projects, issues and insights associated with three central themes: (1) the link between ECD programs and children's school readiness; (2) the promotion of parenting enrichment programs as a childcare quality…

Over the last several years, there has been an increased focus on school readiness and supporting children during the preschool years to learn the skills they need to be successful in elementary school and beyond (Bowman, Donovan, Burns, et al., 2000; Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000). The capacity to develop positive social relationships, to concentrate…

Within the current climate of heightened interest in the education of young children, it is essential that consideration be given to different factors which may impact, either positively or negatively, on the achievement of young learners when their academic progress in literacy and numeracy is considered. The research study reported in this paper…

How realistic are high school students' educational aspirations? Reviewing the findings of the High School Survey of Student Engagement, Ms. McCarthy and Mr. Kuh note a troubling mismatch between the academic habits of many high school students and what will be expected of them in college. (Contains 1 figure and 19 endnotes.)

Measures of quality are now in widespread use across states as part of quality improvement initiatives. For example, many states are currently using global measures of quality that were first developed for research and practice purposes (such as the Environmental Rating Scales) in their Quality Rating Systems (QRSs). Although global quality…