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12 - Opportunity in Early Education: Improving Teacher–Child Interactions and Child Outcomes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
Andrew J. Mashburn  and
Robert C. Pianta
Edited by
Arthur J. Reynolds ,
Arthur J. Rolnick ,
Michelle M. Englund  and
Judy A. Temple
Arthur J. Reynolds
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
Arthur J. Rolnick
Affiliation:
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
Michelle M. Englund
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
Judy A. Temple
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
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Summary

INTRODUCTION

Attending preschool produces short-term and long-term benefits for children and benefits to communities that outweigh the costs of providing those programs (e.g., Barnett & Masse, 2007; FPG Child Development Institute, 2005; Lamb & Ahnert, 2006; Lazar, Darlington, Murray, Royce, & Snipper, 1982; Reynolds, 2000; Reynolds, Temple, Robertson, & Mann, 2001; Schweinhart, Barnes, & Weikart, 1993). The ability to realize these benefits for children and communities depends in part on whether preschool programs are designed and structured in ways that maximize opportunities for children to learn and develop within these settings. Policy makers are currently debating decisions to invest in specific program features intended to optimize outcomes for children, such as requiring teachers to have a bachelor's degree or specialized training in early childhood education, mandating small class sizes, adopting intensive professional development programs, and instituting systems of program quality monitoring. These decisions have implications for both the costs of providing preschool programs and the benefits for children who attend.

To help inform decision making about the optimal design of preschool settings, a generation of experimental and natural-history studies about preschool quality clearly demonstrates that variations in how programs are structured have consequences for children's physical and psychological well-being and development of social and academic competencies (e.g., Howes, 1990; NICHD-Early Child Care Research Network (ECCRN), 1999, 2002; Peisner-Feinberg & Burchinal, 1997; Peisner-Feinberg et al., 2001).

Type
Chapter
Information
Childhood Programs and Practices in the First Decade of Life
A Human Capital Integration
 , pp. 243 - 265
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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