Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 39-06, Section: A, page: 3349. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1978.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 39-03, Section: A, page: 1425. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1977.

Através de levantamento amostral do peso ao nascer dos nascimentos ocorridos nas maternidades do município em 1976, estimou-se em 9,7 por cento a incidência de recém-nascidos de baixo peso em são Paulo. O ajuste dos coeficientes de mortalidade infantil de São Paulo segundo a distribuição do peso ao nascer da população branca americana determinou que em 1976 apenas 31 por cento do excesso de óbitos infantis de São Paulo poderia ser atribuído à performance do peso ao nascer verificada no município. O mesmo ajuste segundo a distribuição do peso ao nascer da Califórnia atribuiu ao peso ao nascer no período 1968-70, 15 por cento do excesso de mortalidade e revelou excesso de mortalidade particularmente notável não para os recém-nascidos de baixo peso, mas para os recém-nascidos com mais de 3.000 gramas. O ajuste simultâneo dos coeficientes de mortalidade infantil das áreas central, intermediária e periférica do município a uma idêntica distribuição de pesos de nascimento revelou uma participação decisiva do peso ao nascer no pequeno gradiente de mortalidade existente entre a área intermediária e a área central, porém descartou totalmente a possibilidade do peso ao nascer explicar o grande excesso de mortalidade infantil da área periférica em relação às duas outras. A consideração dos demais fatores que determinam no seu conjunto a probabilidade de sobrevida do recém-nascido no primeiro ano de vida, demonstrou ser capaz de complementar os achados relativos à participação do peso ao nascer no excesso de mortalidade infantil verificado no município. Assim foi para a disponibilidade de serviços públicos de pré-natal, insuficiente para o município como um todo, progressivamente menor na periferia. Assim foi para a disponibilidade de assistência médico-hospitalar ao parto e ao recém-nascido, suficiente em termos quantitativos para o município, porém insuficiente e precária para a população da periferia. Assim foi para a disponibilidade do saneamento do meio, razoável apenas na área central, praticamente inexistente na periferia. Associadamente, a verificação da distribuição de renda em São Paulo demonstrou que a distribuição desigual da disponibilidade de serviços públicos fundamentais à manutenção da saúde infantil superpõe-se exatamente à desigual distribuição de riquezas. A conclusão final deste estudo foi a de que são principalmente as precárias condições de vida que recepcionam o recém-nascido sobretudo na periferia, e não a vitalidade daquele, medida pelo seu peso ao nascer, que explicam o excesso de mortalidade infantil verificado em são Paulo. / By means of the sample research survey of the birth-weight of births which took place in the Maternity Hospitals of the city in 1976, it was calculated that the incidence of low birth-weight in São Paulo was of the order of 9,7 per cent . The adjustment of the infant mortality rates of São Paulo according to the birth-weight distribution of the white American population led to the conclusion that in 1976 only 31 per cent of the excess of infant mortality of São Paulo could be attributed to the birth-weight distribution found to exist in the city. The same adjustment according to the birth-weight distribution in California attributed 15 per cent of mortality excess to birth-weight in the period 1968-70 and a particularly clear mortality excess not for the infants of low birth-weight, but for those with a birth-weight of more than 3000 grams. The infant mortality coefficients of the central, intermediate and outlying areas of the city when seen against a hypothetical distribution of birth-weights for all areas revealed a decisive effect of the birth weight only in the small difference between the mortality rates of the intermediate and the central areas, but eliminated altogether the possibility of the birth-weight explaining the excess of infant mortality in the outlying areas in relation to the other two Cintermediate and central) areas. The study of the other factors wich determine, together, the probability of an infantis survival in the first year of life, was seen to corroborate the conclusions relative to the part played by birth-weight in the infant mortality excess of the city. This was true in relation to public pre-natal services, insufficient for the city as a whole, and becoming progressively still less numerically adequate in the outlying areas. It was also true in relation to the medical and hospital attendance at the birth and to the new-born infant, wich were adequate in quantitative terms for the city as a whole, but inadequate and unreliable for the population of the outlying areas. It was true for the availability of water supply and sanitation systems, which are reasonable only for the central area but practically non-existent in the outlying areas. At the same time, research on income distribution in são Paulo showed that the unequal distribution of the availability of those public services essential to the maintenance of infant coincides exactly with the unequal distribution of wealth. The final conclusion of this study was that it is mainly the inadequate living conditions wich await the new-born infant, especially in the outlying areas, and not his/her vitality as measured by birth-weight, which explain the infant mortality excess found in são Paulo.

This study examined kindergarten teachers’ developmentally appropriate beliefs, developmentally appropriate practices, and their opinions about the current state of the kindergarten curriculum through the lens of teachers’ beliefs. A sample of 107 kindergarten teachers participated in the study by completing the Teacher Questionnaire on-line. The survey instrument was comprised of three sections; The Teachers Beliefs Questionnaire, The Instructional Activities Questionnaire, and the Opinions Questionnaire. The findings showed that kindergarten teachers had concerns and were frustrated with the current state of the kindergarten curriculum. The respondents who were comfortable with the current state of the kindergarten curriculum had extenuating circumstances such as working in invitation-only school or using a Montessori curriculum. The findings also showed that kindergarten teachers’ beliefs and practices were not aligned. The kindergarten teachers tended to have developmentally appropriate beliefs, but they did not often engage in developmentally appropriate practices. It was also found that kindergarten teachers’ beliefs and practices overall were not significantly correlated. In addition, the findings showed that kindergarten teachers in Title I schools engaged in more developmentally inappropriate practices than did the kindergarten teachers who were not at Title I schools. Kindergarten teachers with more than 18 years of teaching experience engaged in more developmentally appropriate practices than kindergarten teachers with 0-5 years of teaching experience and kindergarten teachers with 6-17 years teaching experience. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2017. / July 13, 2017. / Belifs, Concerns, Developmentally Appropriate Practices, Kindergarten Teachers, Opinions, Practices / Includes bibliographical references. / Ithel Jones, Professor Directing Dissertation; Thomas Welsh, University Representative; Elizabeth Jakubowski, Committee Member; Angela Davis, Committee Member.

The state of Florida’s voluntary prekindergarten (VPK) program is delivered through a mixed delivery service program model. The prekindergarten program is offered to all four year olds on a voluntary basis in a mix of public school and non-school settings. VPK program providers can be public schools, community-based childcare centers, private nursery schools, and faith-based preschools. The purpose of the study was to compare the performance of three types of providers, faith-based, public school, and private, in terms children’s readiness for kindergarten. In addition, the study examined the extent to which VPK providers’ readiness rates were impacted by the numbers of English Language Learners, students with exceptionalities, and children from low-socioeconomic families in their programs. Data for the study was obtained from the Florida Department of Education’s Office of Early Learning. The study utilized data concerning VPK provider’s performance for the 2010-2013 academic years. Participating in the study were 4110 (2011), 4169 (2012) and 4234 (2012) private, public and faith-based VPK providers. Children who had participated in the VPK program were assessed at the beginning of their kindergarten year using the Early Childhood Observation System (ECHOS) and the Florida Assessments for Instruction in Reading (FAIR) instruments. Children’s readiness for kindergarten was determined based on their performance on these instruments, and those scoring at or above threshold score were considered ready for school. VPK providers’ readiness scores were derived from students’ performance on the instruments and expressed as the proportion of their students scoring at or above the school readiness threshold on the assessment instruments. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and a series of analyses of variance (ANOVA). The ANOVA compared the mean readiness rates of the three types of VPK providers. Then, using the numbers of English Language Learners, students with exceptionalities, and students from low SES families as covariate measures, an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was conducted to compare the mean readiness rates of the three provider types. Regression analysis was used to determine the relationship between the covariate measures and mean readiness rates of the provider types. The ANOVA reveled a statistically significant difference in the mean readiness rates across provider types such that faith-based providers had higher readiness rates than did the public and private providers. The ANCOVA findings differed in that the mean readiness rates of the public-school prekindergarten providers were higher than those of the faith-based and private providers. The regression analysis revealed that there was a relationship between the providers’ readiness rates and the numbers of English Language Learners and students from low SES families. It was concluded that there were differences in the overall performance of each type of VPK provider as indicated by measures of children’s school readiness. Data for the 2012-2013 academic year suggested that the public school VPK providers were more successful in terms of preparing their students for kindergarten. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester 2017. / October 30, 2017. / kindergarten readiness, prekindergarten, prekindergarten providers / Includes bibliographical references. / Ithel Jones, Professor Directing Dissertation; Colleen M. Kelley, University Representative; Angela Davis, Committee Member; Lindsay Dennis, Committee Member.

This dissertation delineates a range of literary endeavors engaging the gothic contours of child life in early to mid-twentieth century America. Drawing fresh attention to fictional representations of the child in modernist narratives, I show how writers such as William Faulkner, Djuna Barnes, Jean Toomer, Eudora Welty, and Katherine Anne Porter turned to childhood as a potent site for negotiating cultural anxieties about physical and cultural reproduction. I reveal the implications of modernist technique for the historical formation of American childhood, demonstrating how these texts intervened in national debates about sexuality, race, and futurity. Each dissertation chapter adopts a comparative approach, indicating a shared investment in a specific formulation of the gothic child. Barnes and Faulkner, in creating the child-woman, appraise how the particular influence of psychoanalysis on childhood innocence irrevocably alters the cultural landscape. Faulkner and Toomer, through the spectral child, evaluate the exclusionary racial politics surrounding interracial intimacy which impact kinship structures in the U.S. South. Welty and Porter, in spotlighting the orphan girl-child, assess the South’s gendered social matrix through the child’s consciousness. Finally, Faulkner, in addressing children as a readership in his little-known gothic fable, The Wishing Tree, produces a compelling site to examine the relationship between literature written for the child and modernist artistic practice.

The present study examined the relation between early educational experiences the year before kindergarten entry and students’ academic and social-emotional outcomes in kindergarten and first grade. Data were drawn from the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010–2011 (ECLS-K: 2011) (N ≈13,400). Associations of different types of early care arrangements prior to kindergarten entry were examined by using propensity score matching (PSM) analyses for trajectories of reading, mathematics, science, approaches to learning, self-control skills and externalizing behavior problems. In this study, types of pre-kindergarten early education included: center-based care, state-funded center-based care, Head Start, parental care, care provided in a home by relatives or non-relatives, and care in another home by relatives or non-relatives. The associations between the variables of interest were compared for children who had attended center-based care, state-supported center-based care, or Head Start and the reference group which included parental care, care in the home, and care in another home. The results indicated that the majority of children in the U.S. had experienced different types of early education and care arrangements during the year before kindergarten entry. Results of comparisons between the groups for children who had attended three different types of pre-kindergarten and their counterparts such as parental care, care in the home, and care in another home emerged differently in terms of children’s cognitive and social-emotional outcomes measured in the fall and spring of kindergarten and in the spring of first grade. The findings revealed that, in general, there were significant differences between scores obtained by children who had attended the three types of center-based care (i.e., center-based care, state-supported center-based care, and Head Start) and their peers who had been in some type of home based care arrangement (i.e., parental care, care in home, and care in another home). Specifically, the findings showed that children’s attendance in center-based care was associated with higher cognitive outcomes in the areas of reading, mathematics and science during the kindergarten year, in comparison to their peers who had been in parental care. Yet, these differences were negligible by the time the participants were in first grade. On the other hand, Head Start participation was associated with significantly lower scores on the cognitive measures of reading, mathematics and science, during the kindergarten year, when compared to children who had been cared for in another home by relatives or non-relatives. Further when it comes to comparisons between state-supported center-based care groups and their peers who had received parental care, former state-supported center-based care attendees had higher scores on the measures of reading and mathematics at the beginning of the kindergarten year. However, this was not the case by the end of kindergarten and first grade. In terms of children’s social-emotional outcomes, all of the significant differences on the social emotional measures between the focus and reference groups were for the fall and spring kindergarten assessments. There were no significant findings for the 1st grade social-emotional measures. Further, examination of the data with regard to the interaction between race and different types of early education revealed only one significant difference between race and participation in center-based care on the first-grade measure of externalizing problem behaviors. The findings provide information that should be of interest to researchers, teachers, parents, and policy makers in their efforts to understand the potential long-term consequences of children’s participation in different types of early education and care programs. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2018. / June 7, 2018. / academic achievement, early educational experience, social-emotional outcomes / Includes bibliographical references. / Ithel Jones, Professor Directing Dissertation; Yanyun Yang, University Representative; Diana Rice, Committee Member; Lindsay Dennis, Committee Member.

Através de levantamento amostral do peso ao nascer dos nascimentos ocorridos nas maternidades do município em 1976, estimou-se em 9,7 por cento a incidência de recém-nascidos de baixo peso em são Paulo. O ajuste dos coeficientes de mortalidade infantil de São Paulo segundo a distribuição do peso ao nascer da população branca americana determinou que em 1976 apenas 31 por cento do excesso de óbitos infantis de São Paulo poderia ser atribuído à performance do peso ao nascer verificada no município. O mesmo ajuste segundo a distribuição do peso ao nascer da Califórnia atribuiu ao peso ao nascer no período 1968-70, 15 por cento do excesso de mortalidade e revelou excesso de mortalidade particularmente notável não para os recém-nascidos de baixo peso, mas para os recém-nascidos com mais de 3.000 gramas. O ajuste simultâneo dos coeficientes de mortalidade infantil das áreas central, intermediária e periférica do município a uma idêntica distribuição de pesos de nascimento revelou uma participação decisiva do peso ao nascer no pequeno gradiente de mortalidade existente entre a área intermediária e a área central, porém descartou totalmente a possibilidade do peso ao nascer explicar o grande excesso de mortalidade infantil da área periférica em relação às duas outras. A consideração dos demais fatores que determinam no seu conjunto a probabilidade de sobrevida do recém-nascido no primeiro ano de vida, demonstrou ser capaz de complementar os achados relativos à participação do peso ao nascer no excesso de mortalidade infantil verificado no município. Assim foi para a disponibilidade de serviços públicos de pré-natal, insuficiente para o município como um todo, progressivamente menor na periferia. Assim foi para a disponibilidade de assistência médico-hospitalar ao parto e ao recém-nascido, suficiente em termos quantitativos para o município, porém insuficiente e precária para a população da periferia. Assim foi para a disponibilidade do saneamento do meio, razoável apenas na área central, praticamente inexistente na periferia. Associadamente, a verificação da distribuição de renda em São Paulo demonstrou que a distribuição desigual da disponibilidade de serviços públicos fundamentais à manutenção da saúde infantil superpõe-se exatamente à desigual distribuição de riquezas. A conclusão final deste estudo foi a de que são principalmente as precárias condições de vida que recepcionam o recém-nascido sobretudo na periferia, e não a vitalidade daquele, medida pelo seu peso ao nascer, que explicam o excesso de mortalidade infantil verificado em são Paulo. / By means of the sample research survey of the birth-weight of births which took place in the Maternity Hospitals of the city in 1976, it was calculated that the incidence of low birth-weight in São Paulo was of the order of 9,7 per cent . The adjustment of the infant mortality rates of São Paulo according to the birth-weight distribution of the white American population led to the conclusion that in 1976 only 31 per cent of the excess of infant mortality of São Paulo could be attributed to the birth-weight distribution found to exist in the city. The same adjustment according to the birth-weight distribution in California attributed 15 per cent of mortality excess to birth-weight in the period 1968-70 and a particularly clear mortality excess not for the infants of low birth-weight, but for those with a birth-weight of more than 3000 grams. The infant mortality coefficients of the central, intermediate and outlying areas of the city when seen against a hypothetical distribution of birth-weights for all areas revealed a decisive effect of the birth weight only in the small difference between the mortality rates of the intermediate and the central areas, but eliminated altogether the possibility of the birth-weight explaining the excess of infant mortality in the outlying areas in relation to the other two Cintermediate and central) areas. The study of the other factors wich determine, together, the probability of an infantis survival in the first year of life, was seen to corroborate the conclusions relative to the part played by birth-weight in the infant mortality excess of the city. This was true in relation to public pre-natal services, insufficient for the city as a whole, and becoming progressively still less numerically adequate in the outlying areas. It was also true in relation to the medical and hospital attendance at the birth and to the new-born infant, wich were adequate in quantitative terms for the city as a whole, but inadequate and unreliable for the population of the outlying areas. It was true for the availability of water supply and sanitation systems, which are reasonable only for the central area but practically non-existent in the outlying areas. At the same time, research on income distribution in são Paulo showed that the unequal distribution of the availability of those public services essential to the maintenance of infant coincides exactly with the unequal distribution of wealth. The final conclusion of this study was that it is mainly the inadequate living conditions wich await the new-born infant, especially in the outlying areas, and not his/her vitality as measured by birth-weight, which explain the infant mortality excess found in são Paulo.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University

The purpose of this article is to encourage early childhood educators and the related professional development and research communities to become the leading voices in determining the direction of early childhood education. To support this vital, and complicated transition, this discussion revisits fundamental aspects of what is meant by early childhood education and intends to spark discussion and the direction needed to guide thought and action as nations begin a shift towards more affordable, universal and, most importantly, high-quality early childhood education.