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| EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND EDUCATION |
| Quality early childhood care and education programs can enhance cognitive, emotional and social development, especially among low-income preschoolers (Kagan & Neuman, 1997). Participation in such programs can lead to immediate gains in cognitive test scores, better kindergarten achievement, lower rates of grade retention and special education placement and higher rates of high school graduation (Barnett, 1995). Several studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of quality early childhood education programs, particularly for children in poverty. These include the High/Scope Perry Preschool Project, the Carolina Abecedarian Project and the Cost, Quality and Outcomes Study. Two lessons about best practices in early childhood care and education can be derived from these studies: · Quality matters. Children benefit from environments that not only provide basic care, but that promote the development of cognitive, language, social and emotional skills, as well as health. Higher quality care settings, in addition to having better health and safety practices, are also more likely to have caregivers who offer care that is more stimulating and supportive (Vandell & Wolfe, 2000). Higher quality care involves interactions with care providers who are both more responsive and sensitive to individual children’s needs, and cognitively stimulating, providing language input and guiding the child to explorations of the environment. Structural features of care that facilitate such interactions include better staff-child ratios, group size, the education and training of caregivers, as well as the compensation of caregivers. · Contact between parents and the program is important. Parent involvement should be sought and encouraged so that parents know what their children are learning and are able to extend early education into their homes. The Head Start model emphasizes these collaborations between schools and homes, as well as with community programs and service providers to increase the likelihood that children will receive all of the services they need (Mallory & Goldsmith, 1991). |