English and Spanish versions of a guide to testing reform are presented. The guide explains alternatives to standardized testing for educational assessment and shows how these new methods of evaluation will improve education. Standardized tests are used for an increasing number of purposes in the school system, but there is no proof that their use…

This report presents the first annual review of the Even Start/Project Family Program in Seattle (Washington). The program serves qualifying parents and children of families with one or more children ages 1 to 7 years, who live in an elementary school attendance area designated for participation in basic Chapter 1 programs with referrals coming…

Written by members of a consulting team engaged to evaluate a school district's kindergarten program and make recommendations for the future, this report chronicles the district's progress in coming to more fully understand goals and problems related to kindergarten education. Specifically, the report presents the evaluation team's examination of…

Relationships between performance on two preschool administrations of the Metropolitan Readiness Tests (MRT) and Stanford Achievement Test (SAT) scores at age nine were examined for a sample of 732 children. Significant correlations, ranging from .50 to .71, were obtained between readiness scores and SAT scores on reading, spelling and arithmetic.…

This policy brief provides the context and the research supporting the American Federation of Teacher's call for universal early childhood education. It focuses on the current challenges the nation faces in achieving such a program; and it includes the signs of progress, a description of what other industrialized countries are doing, the features…

"Focus on Policy" is NCSALL's (National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy's) newest publication. Its purpose is to synthesize research findings and highlight policy implications of these findings. "Focus on Policy" forgoes the usual academic conventions to provide its readers with an easy-to-understand summary…

"Offspring" is a magazine for parents, teachers, and others, intended to provide a forum for views on dealing with young children, to express a variety of ideas, to promote the co-op philosophy, and to enhance the relationship of members of these groups with children and with each other. This document contains issues 1 and 2 from 1994.…

Understanding the Early Years (UEY) is a national research initiative. It provides communities with information to enable them to make informed decisions about the best policies and most appropriate programs for Canadian families with young children. This report is based on one of seven communities studied in 2001-2002. Children's outcomes were…

Understanding the Early Years (UEY) is a national research initiative. It provides communities with information to enable them to make informed decisions about the best policies and most appropriate programs for families with young children. It seeks to provide information about the influence of community factors on children's early development…

Although a good beginning is well recognised as the foundation for future development, health and wellbeing, not only in the early years, but also throughout life, policy and practice in early education and care in Australia still lack focus and integration. Using metaphors of patchworks and crossroads, the author discusses this issue, outlining…

Investigated factors that played a role in mediating the effects of the government-funded Child-Parent Center preschool program in Chicago. Results indicated that preschool influenced later achievement and retention indirectly rather than directly. A social context view of the transmission of preschool effects was supported. (LB)

The authors describe various parenting behaviors, such as nurturance, discipline, teaching, and language use, and explain how researchers measure them. They note racial and ethnic variations in several behaviors. Most striking are differences in language use. Black and Hispanic mothers talk less with their young children than do white mothers and…

It has been acknowledged that children from poverty begin school missing many of the prerequisites for school success. The 1963 US initiative, Head Start, is the major federal program aimed at providing children in poverty the experiences necessary to start school on an equal footing with their same-age peers. This article uses data from the Early…

This resource guide offers strategies for working with children having mild to severe brain injuries. Chapter 1 corrects common misunderstandings about brain injuries and gives suggestions and illustrative case examples. Chapter 2 discusses 12 common changes in students with brain injuries such as tiredness, irritability, passivity, depression,…

Intended as a guide to help parents of children from birth to age 5 teach their children the skills needed to make kindergarten a experience, this book consists of an introduction and seven chapters on various aspects of preparing young children for kindergarten. Checklists for parents are included in each chapter. The Introduction discusses what…