The purpose of the study was to determine the attitudes and judgments of public school superintendents in the State of Indiana in regard to the public school system and early childhood programs. Early childhood education was defined as: parent education for parents of young children, nursery school (prekindergarten) for children of ages three and four, kindergarten for five year olds, and day care programs for children.A questionnaire containing forty-five items was developed and refined with the aid of the Northeastern Indiana School Study Council serving as the pilot study group. A questionnaire was sent to all 289 superintendents of public school corporations in Indiana. Two hundred five, or 71 per cent of the superintendents replied to the questionnaire. The data were analyzed and reported as raw numbers, percentages, and totals.Major findings included:1. Approximately 51 per cent of the superintendents indicated the present educational services available to all three, four, and five year old children were not adequate in the school districts represented.2. Approximately 80 per cent of the schools did not provide educational programs for adults relating to the role of the parent.3. Approximately 78 per cent of the superintendents strongly agreed the early childhood programs should have been concerned about all aspects of a young child's development.4. Over 95 per cent of the responding superintendents indicated strong agreement or agreement that the family had the primary responsibility and the rest of society had a supplemental responsibility for providing adequate health, education, and care of young children.5. Approximately 64 per cent of the respondents strongly agreed or agreed that teaching people ways to be better parents was an educational need in the community.6. Approximately 63 per cent of the superintendents disagreed that day care and nursery school programs in the community might have been best provided by the public school.7. Approximately 97 per cent of the superintendents strongly agreed or agreed the availability of revenue for financing programs for young children was limited.8. Approximately 87 per cent of the superintendents expressed agreement that an enriched experience in a planned educational program was important to a young child's development.9. A total of approximately 63 per cent of the respondents agreed or strongly agreed early childhood services could be effective when delivered through the public school system.10. Approximately 57 per cent of the responding superintendents disagreed or strongly disagreed that the nursery school for three and four year old children should have been operated as an integral part of elementary education in the public schools.Conclusions were:1. Early childhood programs, outside the home, were a need in the State of Indiana. Kindergarten programs were not available for all five year old children. The educational needs for all three, four, and five year old children were not being adequately met.2. A program teaching high school students and adults how to be competent parents was a need in the State of Indiana. A t the same time competency as a parent was judged to be an important element for the provision of meaningful experience in a young child's life.3. Approximately 75 per cent of the superintendent's attitudes and judgments concerning the philosophy of early childhood development was in agreement with the review of research and related literature.4. Superintendents expressed agreement that a Planned educational program was important in a young child's development and the public schools could effectively deliver the early childhood services. However, over one-half of the superintendents expressed disagreement that the educational programs for three and four year old children should be operated in the public schools.

This research study focused on early childhood education programs that were implemented by public school districts in Indiana. The research questions addressed in this study were as follows: 1. What benefits related to student achievement does an investment of financial and human resources in preschool and/or full-day kindergarten programs show for students and for a school district? 2. What means of funding do school districts utilize to implement an early childhood education program? 3. What characteristics do successful early childhood programs possess, as determined by school district administrators? The online survey, which was utilized to collect this data, was developed by the researcher. This survey was distributed to public school superintendents of 164 small and mid-sized school corporations in Indiana, of which 43 were small school corporations (0 to 1,000 students) and 121 were mid-sized school corporations (1,001 to 5,000 students). Of the total sample of 164 school districts, 48 surveys were returned, which resulted in a 29.3% response rate. The data collected in this study showed the following results: 1. Students in the preschool programs showed increased acquisition of socialization skills and improved motivation in school. 2. School districts utilized a combination of federal funds, state funds, and federal grants to support their preschool programs. 3. The preschool programs were designed to incorporate the best practice characteristics of a curriculum based on the state early learning standards. The programs also were staffed with teachers who have four-year college degrees and have small class sizes of 20 students, with a staff-to-child ratio of ten students per adult (10:1). These school districts could serve as a model for other school districts that are planning to implement a preschool program through a review of their experiences in designing the program, staffing the program, funding the program, and supporting the academics in the program. / Department of Educational Leadership

The purposes of the study were to determine who was taking care of three- and four-year-old children in Middletown USA, and to attempt to identify why parents of these children chose particular types of child care. A further purpose of the study was to supply data relative to the Muncie, Indiana, community which were not gathered in the Middletown studies. The sample consisted of 153 parents of three- and four-year-old children who lived on randomly selected city blocks in Muncie, Indiana.An informal questionnaire was constructed in order to gather information needed to test the null hypotheses and to obtain data relative to the community. Informal interviews were conducted at the home of each subject. Responses were recorded on the questionnaire forms. Null hypotheses were tested at the .05 level of significance.The observed proportion of parents who provided parental care for their three- or four-year-old children was significantly greater than .5. The observed proportion of parents who provided parental care for their three- or four year-old children because they wanted to take care of their own children was significantly greater than .5. The observed proportion of parents who arranged informal care for their three- or four-year-old children because of a need to work was significantly greater than .5. The observed proportion of parents who arranged group care for their three- or four-yearold children because of its educational value was considerably less than .5. For those parents who arranged informal care, cost, convenience, and the quality of care were equally probable stated reasons for specific choice of informal care. For those parents who arranged group care, stated reasons for specific choice of group care were not equally probable. Convenience, educational value, and social value deviated most from the expected mean.It was concluded that many more preschool children were being provided with non-parental care than results from previous Middletown research hid indicated. Parents most often saw their need to work as the primary reason for arranging non-parental care.

The study examined the literacy practices, general resources, and technological tools being used by parents to promote literacy at home. The primary purpose was to determine if differences existed in the literacy practices used by parents of preschool children with and without disabilities. The study also sought to determine if the age and education of parents had any effect upon the literacy practices utilized by parents.The population for the study consisted of 384 parents from six counties in Indiana. Each participant had a child between the ages of 3- to 6-years old who attended a preschool program. Over half of the participants had a child with disabilities. Preschool administrators who were selected for the study distributed the data-collection instrument, Parent's Views on Literacy Survey, which was developed by the researcher. The survey instrument consisted of demographic questions that addressed the study's independent variables and 20 questions that were designed to act as the study's dependent variables. The questions pertained to the types of literacy activities being provided in the home.A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was performed and a significant difference between parents of preschool children with disabilities and parents of preschool children without disabilities was determined. Parents of preschool children without disabilities used significantly more general literacy practices and literacy activities using technology. There was a significant difference in the types of activities and in the quantity of activities provided. It was also determined that the differences were not due to the factors of age or education of the parents. The second part of the questionnaire directed questions specifically to parents of preschool children with disabilities. The type of disability of the child, the types of assistive technology (AT), and the frequency in which AT was utilized to promote literacy activities were identified. A simple cross tabulation between the types of disabilities and the categories of AT revealed that there were also differences among the categories of AT used and disability types.Three open-ended questions were used to determine additional information about parents' literacy practices. The data collected was stratified and analyzed for emergent themes. Parents of typically developing children reported the need for more technological tools and resources while parents of preschool children with disabilities reported that more information on specific skill development was needed. Furthermore, parents of preschool children with disabilities expressed the belief that the greatest barrier for their child in developing literacy skills related to factors that were associated with the disability. It was also determined that parents of children with disabilities underutilized assistive technology devices for facilitating literacy skills.This research further supports the differences in the literacy practices among parents. Parents of preschool children without disabilities use general literacy practices and technological literacy practices with greater frequency than do the parents of preschool children with disabilities. / Department of Special Education