<p> The current study examines the connection between a change of family income and the retention of academic gains for children in low-income households who have attended a center-based preschool program. These children are often shown to lose the academic advantage they gain during preschool as they move through k&ndash;12 education in a phenomenon called fade out. A theoretical framework was constructed positing that material and psychological effects of poverty inhibit the ability of these families to support and maintain growth during this critical time when children are highly nested in the family unit. </p><p> Treating family income as a causal risk factor, a study was crafted to examine the fade out effect when family income increased during early childhood for children in low-income households. Using the ECLS-K data set, ex post facto, quasi-experimental methods were employed to analyze two comparison groups of low-income children who went through a center-based preschool program. One group gained the treatment of a constant increase in family income beginning during early childhood (LIP), while the other stayed within their starting low-income bracket throughout the study (LCP). Multiple regression analysis was used to test if this treatment would correlate to the LIP group retaining more of their preschool skills than the LCP group, measuring from kindergarten to eighth grade. Before the main dependent cognitive measures (math and reading scores) were examined, regressions on social competence variables were performed. After examination, these variables were added as controls to the academic regressions. </p><p> The results of the academic regressions showed that the LIP group correlated to nearly a one-half reduction in fade out as compared to the LCP group by eighth grade in both mathematics and reading. These findings lead to many implications for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers as well as open the door to future exploration into the subject.</p>

<p> The purpose of this case study was to explore the effects of a literature-based social-emotional learning curriculum on kindergarten students' social-emotional behaviors, awareness, and early reading skills in a large elementary school. The study examined beliefs/perceptions of kindergarten teachers in regards to what reading skills students possess, the progress students make during a semester, how social-emotional skills affect the classroom environment and whether a literature-based social-emotional learning curriculum has a general impact. Two experimental and two control teachers participated in the study. There were fifty-three (N = 53) students who participated in the study. Forty (N = 40) students were assessed due to time constraints; twenty (N = 20) in the experimental group, twenty (N = 20) in the control group. Students were assessed using the <i>Assessment of Children's Emotion Skills</i> test, (Schultz, Izard, &amp; Bear, 2004) to measure social awareness and emotional accuracy skills and the <i>Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills</i> (DIBELS) Next Assessment (Dynamic Measurement Group, 2011) to measure first sound and letter naming fluency both before and after implementation of Strong Start, the literature-based social skills curriculum. Qualitative data collected included teacher interviews, teacher reflective journals, fidelity check observations, communication logs, and researcher field notes. </p><p> Results showed that while there was a change in scores on the ACES and <i> DIBELS Next</i> assessments from pretest to posttest for all groups and from experimental to control group, scores were not comparatively statistically different. The change in scores could not be attributed to the social-emotional learning curriculum. Gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, nor group had any effect on the scores for the ACES. However, white children did better than "other" students on the letter naming fluency <i>DIBELS Next</i> subtest. Experimental group students did not lose ground in reading, improved their problem-solving skills and enriched their social-emotional vocabulary. The data revealed classroom schedules filled with primarily teacher driven activities, core academics, and structure. Teachers changed their own behaviors by focusing on students' social-emotional skills and behaviors, teaching social-emotional skills formally and explicitly, and by modeling social-emotional skills.</p>

Parental involvement during preschool has been linked with stronger pre-literacy skills, acquisition of mathematical skills, well-developed social skills, and positive attitudes toward school (Arnold, Zeljo, Doctoroff, & Ortiff, 2008; Powell, Son, File, & San Juan, 2010). Parents' active involvement in their children's learning is a recommended strategy in engaging families in children's education experiences (Henderson & Mapp, 2002). The purpose of the current study was to measure the impact of parents' active participation in a parent-directed early literacy intervention on parental home-based involvement, school-based involvement, and home-school conferencing among Head Start parents and their preschool-aged children. The study used a quantitative research design, in which preschool children and their parents were randomly assigned to an intervention or control group to assess later levels of parental involvement as a result of the intervention across three time points. This relationship was also examined in the context of parents' prior experience with their children's preschool education. Following implementation of the intervention, average levels of Home-Based Involvement increased among parents in the intervention group. Assigning Head Start parents an active role in developing their preschoolers' pre-literacy skills may be an effective strategy to increase home-based parental involvement activities.

<p>Outdoor spaces for young children are becoming increasingly recognized for their learning potential. A movement has begun to naturalize children's playgrounds. Designers and landscape architects are moving away from large, plastic superstructures, which allow children to climb and slide and instead creating spaces with interesting topography and water features which allow for more open-ended, imaginative play. In this study, research and data collection took place in three phases. Preschool playgrounds in Boulder, Colorado were evaluated using the Kritchevsky, Prescott, and Walling (1977) model to assess structures and layout for complexity and variety. Playgrounds were also assessed using the Preschool Outdoor Environment Measurement Scale (POEMS) developed by the University of North Carolina. In Phase II, four preschools were chosen to examine children's play. These schools were chosen based on their scores from Phase I. Play behaviors were assessed using scan sampling and coded with a modified Parten-Smilansky Play Scale developed by Shim, Herwig and Shelley (2001) as well as the behavior mapping definitions used in Dowdell, Gray and Malone's 2011 research. In conjunction with this data, a case study at Sunflower Preschool observed and interviewed children for a three-week period in the fall of 2013. The findings from this research indicate that the presence of loose parts and natural features may enhance the types of play displayed on playgrounds. This research focused on child-directed play as opposed to curriculum implementation in outdoor spaces and potentially enhances the credibility of programs like Nature Explore, which provides guidelines for creating a play space with less commercialized equipment and more natural features.

<p> This quantitative study explored the differences in paternal and maternal involvement based on the gender of the child, age of the child (between 0-36 months), and developmental domains in an 8 week period after parents received weekly child development intervention offered by a government funded agency in Southern California for parents of infants/toddlers. A total of 60 parents, 30 female and 30 male, participated in the study. Data was collected from weekly "parent participation forms" submitted by parents to the agency for about 6 months prior to the beginning of the study. The findings revealed some important differences in paternal and maternal involvement and rejected many of the existing stereotypes about lack of paternal involvement in young children's lives. Sampled fathers in the study were found to be more involved in developmental activities in most of the 10 domains of development examined by the study. Their involvement included children of both genders and ages (infants, mobile infants, and toddlers). The findings also indicated that maternal involvement was very close to paternal involvement in some domains especially with infants.</p>

<p> At the time of this study, school districts in the United States faced challenges relative to educational accountability, especially in the areas of language arts and mathematics. Research suggested that music held the potential to bolster student engagement and academic achievement to improve reading outcomes for students. An integrated music curriculum was designed and implemented by the researcher to support reading achievement in a Midwestern, suburban elementary school. The purpose of this counterbalanced research design was to examine the effect of an integrated music curriculum upon the reading achievement of kindergarten students. The lesson framework included brain-based and active listening warm-ups, the presentation of literature, an Orff-Schulwerk activity and literacy centers. Quantitative methods were used to answer four hypotheses statements including <i>t</i>-tests for difference in means, <i>z</i>-tests for difference in means, a chi-square tests for difference in variance, and an analysis of variance to determine the effects of the integrated music curriculum. </p><p> Although the quantitative results for three of the null hypotheses were not statistically significant, there were observable changes in the children's motivations and attitudes toward reading. Student growth in the content area of music was shown to be significant. The researcher concluded that music as a content area was valuable on its own, but could also make learning more powerful when utilized in reading instruction and other content areas. The new information gained from this study may help readers find effective ways of using music to enhance reading achievement.</p>

The purpose of my research is to disrupt the all-too-human body through art in early childhood education and care. This study begins by constructing the problem of the all-too-human body as it is practiced in the classroom and through art. With this study, I attempt to disrupt this way of reading the body through an art encounter. This involves rethinking/rewriting how we come to practice art making. To do this, I turn to the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari (1987) and employ three concepts: the Body without Organs (BwO), assemblage, and becoming. With these concepts, this thesis is inspired by an immanent relational materialist onto-epistemology. / Graduate

There is a lack of critical Canadian scholarship addressing questions of racialization in early childhood education, and yet questions of identity and diversity are at the center of education with young children. Substantive engagement with issues surrounding processes of racialization in early childhood education is often stunted by assertions of childhood innocence, discourses that normalize whiteness, or responses entrenched in multicultural discourse. Using early childhood educators' engagements with racialization and whiteness as starting points, this research employs feminist poststructural, postcolonial and sociomaterial theories to reveal and engage with how whiteness and processes of racialization are negotiated in politically, socially, geographically and temporally located spaces. An exploration of the forces of discourse, affect and materiality in shaping and silencing race opens up new spaces for challenging whiteness and processes of racialization in early childhood education and beyond. / Graduate

<p> Early Childhood Care and Education in Ethiopia was revitalized after the initiatives of Education for All campaign were introduced with the intention of expanding access and improving educational opportunities to children living in disadvantaged communities. In the process of expanding access to Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programs in Ethiopia, a greater need to grasp the meaning of early education in the context of children's historical, social, and cultural experiences emerged. </p><p> The purpose of this research study was to explore the integration of indigenous knowledge and cultural practices in ECCE programs in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Vygotsky's sociocultural theory in combination with Yosso's community cultural wealth theory served as the conceptual as well as the methodological framework advising the components of this research. This qualitative case study invited perspectives from local parents, teachers, directors, a university faculty member, and administrative personnel from Ministry of Education in Ethiopia. </p><p> Major findings uncovered that participants in this study associated language, <i> fidel</i> (the Ethiopian alphabet), traditional practices, and religion as core elements of Ethiopia's indigenous knowledge. However, when assessing the value of using indigenous knowledge, it was revealed parents' want for English and the personification English-speaking carries resulted in devaluation of Amharic and cultural practices in ECCE programs. Success with integrating indigenous knowledge by using native languages and culturally relevant materials was evident in schools serving low income families; but it was a challenge for these students when they advanced to all-English secondary schools. Other challenges to integrating indigenous knowledge were attributed to disproportionate numbers of private versus public schools, divergent education philosophy between rich and poor programs, lack of local resources, and absence of a stringent monitoring agency to enforce the national mandate of Amharic or mother's tongue as the medium of instruction. </p><p> The study bears important implications for ECCE programs, policy makers, educational researchers, and for Ethiopia. Recommendations include Ethiopia's adopting a three language system in primary grades beginning in ECCE programs. Further recommendations call for international and national support for developing indigenous resources, delayed introduction of English as a subject in elementary grades, and a comprehensive university-level ECCE teacher training program. </p>

<p> Community colleges in California are the primary source for preparing the early childhood care and education (ECE) workforce. The California child development lab school mission is to prepare ECE practitioners, provide a laboratory where college students can study and research child development/education, and offer a service to children and families. There are many benefits that are derived from laboratory schools but many community college lab schools have been reduced and/or closed over the past three years. The purposes of this Delphi study were (a) to examine the most pressing issues, problems and barriers facing California community colleges child development labs schools; (b) rate the importance of the issues, problems, and barriers identified; and (c) elicit experts' recommendations for the most viable solutions to help California child development laboratory programs maintain viability. A Delphi method was utilized procuring a panel of ECE experts that identified and rated the most pressing issues, problems and barriers, and generated viable solutions for California child development laboratory schools' viability. The key statistical processes used in this Delphi research were measures of central tendency and measures of dispersion. The ECE experts recommended solutions to increase a greater understanding of early childhood care and education, allow more support, and secure more financial assistance for the lab schools. A comprehensive infrastructure approach of government, policymakers, and community college leaders is required for California community college child development lab schools' viability. The data gathered from this study develops five potential benefits for laboratory schools including: (1) providing rationale for policy construction regarding statewide community college lab programs; (2) deciphering the most pressing problems and barriers that California community college child development laboratories are facing; (3) soliciting solutions to maintain viability for child development lab programs; (4) contributing to the development of statewide recognition and possibly legislation on funding sources for California community college child development laboratories; and (5) ensuring the survival of California community college child development laboratory schools.</p>