Despite the wealth of evidence that early learning opportunities are crucial for young children in crisis, little evidence shows a commensurate commitment to early childhood development (ECD) provision in refugee and humanitarian programming. The Kyaka II refugee settlement in Uganda is a case in point. Home to over 125,000 Congolese refugees,…

Despite substantial federal, state, and local investments in improving early care and education (ECE), we know little about whether ECE program quality has improved over time. The lack of data tracking the quality of publicly funded ECE programs at scale creates a substantial evidence gap for policymakers attempting to weigh the returns on, and…

Classroom organization is an important facet of prekindergarten quality but is typically measured at a "global level" and as a "single construct." Little is known about how experiences of different facets of classroom organization--namely, exposure to teacher organizational strategies--vary across "individual…

Children growing up in disadvantage often enter school without the requisite social, emotional, and behavioral skills to be successful. Considering the importance of social-emotional skills for school and later life success, it is critical to understand factors associated with social-emotional development across the transition to elementary…

A two-day workshop was designed to help rising chemical engineering sophomores prepare for the upcoming school year, curriculum, and internship opportunities. Activities include team-building exercises, presentations from faculty about upcoming classes, talks from local industry partners, interview and resume workshops, and discussions with…

The purpose of the study is to investigate what early childhood teachers in the United States of America believe are the essential characteristics young children and dual language learners (DLL) require to be ready for school. Participants identified the three top characteristics all young children and DLL need for school success. The findings…

This paper makes a case for conceptualising transitions from the before school sector to the compulsory years of schooling as continuity practices. It begins by presenting an overview and critique of constructions of transitions to school that contribute to contemporary discourses and agendas (e.g. the conflation of transitions and readiness).…

This commentary aims to encourage a research-based, critical, inquiring approach to the development of play-based learning in primary schools. I suggest that this approach could build from the wealth of knowledge in the early childhood education sector. I also invite greater collaboration between early childhood and primary teachers, particularly…

Self-regulation and academic skills in kindergarten are strong predictors of later achievement. However, many children enter kindergarten without adequate levels of these skills, often because of limited participation in early childhood education. The current study examined a kindergarten readiness summer program (Bridge to Kindergarten; B2K) that…

A growing body of research indicates that three foundational cognitive skills--executive function, motor skills, and spatial skills--form the basis for children to make a strong academic, behavioral, and social transition to formal school. Given inequitable early learning environments or "opportunity gaps" in the United States, these…

In mid-2016, two years after 12 leading funders had launched an ambitious early childhood development collaborative, the group still had not settled on any investments. Noting the lack of progress, the group's principal convener, asked the group, "Should we stop meeting?" Posing this question helped prompt the collaborative to alter…

English learners have long been defined as faulty linguistic beings, liabilities in a school system that values immediate academic readiness to perform like those in the mainstream. With a need to look at the many other facets that constitute who English learners are and what they are capable of in their academic pursuits, this case study looked…

This study examined whether the mechanism linking changes in Mexican-origin adolescent mothers' depressive symptoms to children's subsequent self-regulation and academic readiness was via their emotion scaffolding when their children were 2, 3, 4, and 5 years of age. Data included home interviews with adolescent mothers (N = 204), observations of…

Research Findings: The purpose of the current study was to investigate direct associations between the home literacy environment (HLE) and preschool children's executive function (EF), academic readiness, and social-emotional competence and to explore the indirect association between the HLE and academic and social-emotional outcomes working…

We present the results of a novel early childhood intervention in which disadvantaged 3-4-yearold children were randomized to receive a new preschool and parent education program focused on cognitive and non-cognitive skills (CogX) or to a control group that did not receive preschool education. In addition to a typical academic year (9 month)…