Starting Early: Introducing the Issue

Public support is increasing for the investment in pre-kindergarten (pre-K) education for 3and 4-year-olds. 1 If physical activity is going to be an integral part of pre-K education, changes are needed in the training of early childhood educators and in the physical environments of pre-K programs. When teachers are trained and motivated to move with children throughout the school day and have the spaces to do so, both children and teachers can benefit. Frequent movement is developmentally appropriate for preschool children, promotes health and learning, and can also improve the physical and mental health of teachers. The main goal of pre-K and other early childhood education programs, such as Head Start, is to prepare children for elementary school. Efforts to increase young children’s physical activity are more likely to be implemented and sustained if they align with that goal. Therefore, movement needs to be promoted on the basis of its benefits for learning, not just for health. Movement can improve academic performance by developing cognitive functions, such as the ability to sustain and shift attention, remember information, and inhibit impulses. 2,3

Providing support for children’s home languages is a critical component of high-quality Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). We examine the types and availability of Pre-K programs for emergent bilingual children and their families under New York City’s (NYC) Universal Pre-K program. Currently, in the hyper-diverse linguistic landscape of NYC where the majority of children come from homes where a language other than English (LOTE) is spoken, bilingual Pre-Ks only represent 6% of all programs. This study describes Pre-K program types available in NYC that offer Dual Language (DL) or Enhanced Language Support (ELS) to the large populations of emergent bilinguals. We analyze the number of programs within each borough and compare these with census tract data on the percentage of children who speak a LOTE at home. Our findings show that the number of Pre-K bilingual programs offered is grossly inadequate and, in most cases, is not significantly correlated to the percentage of LOTE children in the corresponding Pre-K neighborhoods. Only within the borough of Manhattan are bilingual DL programs significantly associated with neighborhoods with high percentages of LOTE children. In the other boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, the higher percentages of LOTE children are served by ELS. Lastly, we compare the ratings of quality across Pre-K programs in each of the NYC boroughs. We present data demonstrating the inequity of access to high-quality programs that meet the community needs and discuss policy implications and recommendations.

The Tennessee Voluntary Pre-K Program (TN-VPK) is statewide full-day program that gives priority to children from low-income families. A regression-discontinuity design with a statewide probability sample of 155 TN-VPK classrooms and 5,189 children participating across two pre-K cohorts found positive effects at kindergarten entry with the largest effects for literacy skills and the smallest for language skills. The results contribute to the growing body of regression-discontinuity studies of state and local pre-K programs and affirm the statewide generalizability of analogous prior findings from a more specialized subsample in the parent Tennessee Pre-K Study. Furthermore, the respective effect sizes compared favorably with those found in other regression-discontinuity studies of public pre-K on the same outcome measures, providing one index of the quality of the TN-VPK program.

Putting the Child Back Into Child Care: Combining Care and Education for Children Ages 3‐5

Family engagement is considered a key component of preschool program quality, and early childhood education teachers and programs are increasingly expected to engage families in their programs. However, there is limited knowledge on what strategies preschool programs use to engage families and how these family engagement practices vary across programs. This study uses survey data collected from public pre-kindergarten program administrators and teachers in a mid-sized, urban school district to describe various types of family engagement practices and to examine associations between family engagement practices and pre-K program, classroom, and staff characteristics. We also conduct thematic analysis of open-ended survey responses to triangulate and complement our quantitative findings and to provide insight into teachers’ and administrators’ perceived barriers and facilitators of family engagement. We find that teachers frequently communicated with parents and provided involvement opportunities. Programs also provided various referrals and family support services. Family engagement practices were associated with staff’s professional training and classroom and program characteristics. Our findings highlight the importance of considering program structure, such as half- versus full-day program, and the importance of teachers’ knowledge and training in family engagement for shaping preschool programs’ family engagement practices.

Early childhood education and childcare have traditionally been dominated by nonprofit and other grant-funded agencies. However, public education agencies are increasingly involved with early childhood education through state funded pre-K program initiatives. As public pre-school programming has steadily expanded, programs such as Head Start have to compete for enrollment. As funds for these programs are tied directly to enrollment, the sustainability of these programs is uncertain. Not all such agencies view state funded pre-K as a threat however. Some have seized this as an opportunity to improve service delivery through interagency collaboration. This case study examines the partnership between an urban school district and its local Head Start program. Responding, in part, to the potential threat from state-funded Pre-K, Head Start partnered with the school district to provide enhanced services to Head Start eligible children in the district's early childhood education programs. Through an examination of secondary data and staff surveys, the collaboration is first evaluated in terms of the use of best practices. the success of the collaboration is measured through teacher and administrator perceptions. From these results, specific recommendations for early education and childcare providers are offered.

Dual language supports for dual language learners? Exploring preschool classroom instructional supports for DLLs' early learning outcomes

SummaryBackgroundThere is emerging evidence on the impact of social and environmental determinants of health on paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) admissions and outcomes. We analysed UK paediatric intensive care data to explore disparities in the incidence of admission according to a child's ethnicity and the degree of deprivation and pollution in the child's residential area.MethodsData were extracted on children <16 years admitted to UK PICUs between 1st January 2008 and 31st December 2021 from the Paediatric Intensive Care Audit Network (PICANet) database. Ethnicity was categorised as White, Asian, Black, Mixed or Other. Deprivation was quantified using the ‘children in low-income families’ measure and outdoor air pollution was characterised using mean annual PM2.5 level at local authority level, both divided into population-weighted quintiles. UK population estimates were used to calculate crude incidence of PICU admission. Incidence rate ratios were calculated using Poisson regression models.FindingsThere were 245,099 admissions, of which 60.7% were unplanned. After adjusting for age and sex, Asian and Black children had higher relative incidence of unplanned PICU admission compared to White (IRR 1.29 [95% CI: 1.25–1.33] and 1.50 [95% CI: 1.44–1.56] respectively), but there was no evidence of increased incidence of planned admission. Children living in the most deprived quintile had 1.50 times the incidence of admission in the least deprived quintile (95% CI: 1.46–1.54). There were higher crude admission levels of children living in the most polluted quintile compared to the least (157.8 vs 113.6 admissions per 100,000 child years), but after adjustment for ethnicity, deprivation, age and sex there was no association between pollution and PICU admission (IRR 1.00 [95% CI: 1.00–1.00] per 1 μg/m3 increase).InterpretationEthnicity and deprivation impact the incidence of PICU admission. When restricting to unplanned respiratory admissions and ventilated patients only, increasing pollution level was associated with increased incidence of PICU admission. It is essential to act to reduce these observed disparities, further work is needed to understand mechanisms behind these findings and how they relate to outcomes.FundingThere was no direct funding for this project. HM was funded by an 10.13039/501100000272NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship (ACF-2022-18-017).

Aloha Space Age:NASA and the Hawaiian Islands, 1957—1970 David A. Smith (bio) I have been part of that generation so inspired by the space program. Nineteen sixty-one was the year of my birth, the year that Kennedy made his announcement. And one of my earliest memories is sitting on my grandfather's shoulders, waving a flag as astronauts arrived in Hawai'i. For me, the space program has always captured an essential part of what it means to be an American: reaching for new heights, stretching beyond what previously did not seem possible. And so as President, I believe that space exploration is ... an essential part of that quest. —US President Barack Obama, 2010 1 When scholars and the general public recall the early years of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) space pro-gram, from Project Mercury through Project Apollo, the Cape and Kennedy Space Center in Florida and Manned Space Flight Center in Houston are the two earthbound locales that usually first come to mind. 2 Over the years, historians have also turned their attention to other sites outside of southeast Texas and Florida's space coast that played significant roles in space exploration. 3 One region that has [End Page 1] been almost universally overlooked by academic and popular authors alike, however, has been the State of Hawai'i, which became the fiftieth state just one year after NASA was established in November 1958. While the world's premier and perhaps most controversial astronomical site at Mauna Kea on the island of Hawai'i has been the subject of several studies (including one in this journal 4 ), the stories of the Hawaiian Islands' engagement with the movement of people to and from space and the Moon, including residents' responses to the Space Age, have not been told. From NASA's formative years through the early 1970s, the Hawaiian Islands played important and colorful roles in space exploration. On the island of Kaua'i, the Kōke'e tracking station was an integral part of the agency's tracking and communications network for the early human space flights that made up the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. O'ahu was the first port of call for astronauts returning from the Moon. The island of Hawai'i became the first choice for astronaut geology training and other lunar space-related activities. There were other significant, if less tangible, connections as well. From the aftermath of the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik I through the dramatic return of the Apollo 13 astronauts in 1970, most, if not all, of Hawai'i's residents, local press, politicians, celebrities, schools, and cultural institutions consistently embraced space travel programs and related activities with a sense of enthusiasm and "great aloha" (especially in terms of greetings for returning astronauts) with a participation rate far out of proportion to Hawai'i's small population. A variety of schemes for space launch centers and facilities, related exhibition and educational programs, and spontaneous celebrations of NASA successes seemed to be everywhere in Hawai'i during the 1960s. Examining the Hawaiian Islands' engagement and welcome of these NASA initiatives fills an existing void in the literature and provides a window, from a mid-Pacific perspective, into understanding why the space program experienced the highest level of public approval of all major US federal initiatives during this era. 5 Rockets, Missiles, and Moonports Most scholars accept that the Space Age began when the Soviet Union launched the world's first man-made satellite, Sputnik, on October 4, 1957. [End Page 2] The United States quickly took notice and began focusing more attention on its own fledgling space initiatives. In the post-war period, the US Congress was alarmed by the perceived Soviet threat to America's security and to its now questionable lead in world technology. As historian Andreas Reichstein contends: "The reaction of the American people to the successful launch of Sputnik . . . has been compared to the one after Pearl Harbor." 6 Troubled O'ahu residents once again looked to the skies and, in November, reported spotting the companion rocket to the Soviet's "first artificial 'moon'" as it...

본 연구는 드림스타트에 참여하는 저소득 가정의 유아들을 위해 균형적 언어교육 프로그램 모형을 개발하고 적용하는 데 목적이 있다. 프로그램 개발은 균형적 언어교육의 기본 관점 및 교수학습방법의 특징을 기초로 하였으며 교수체제 개발의 일반적인 모형인 ADDIE에 근거하여 분석-설계-개발-실행-평가의 절차에 따라 진행되었다. 개발된 프로그램은 균형적 언어교육 접근법의 관점에서 총체적 그림책 읽기와 구조화된 읽기, 쓰기 프로그램을 포함하는 프로그램의 내용, 교수학습 원리, 교수학습 전략 등의 교수학습방법, 교수학습평가체제가 제시되었다. 프로그램의 적용은 2015년 6월부터 11월 초반까지 드림스타트에 참여하는 유아 20명을 대상으로 이루어졌으며 유아 읽기 발달 검사, 교사 저널, 부모 만족도 조사를 통해 적용된 프로그램을 평가하였다. 적용결과, 유아들의 읽기 발달에 있어서 향상되는 경향성을 보였으며 교사저널의 질적 분석 결과 책 선호도, 글자에 대한 관심, 개별화된 언어교수법의 효과성 등 문해 발달의 기초적 능력의 향상에서 프로그램의 우수성을 찾을 수 있었다. 본 연구는 균형적 언어교육 접근법의 관점에서 저소득 가정 유아의 문해 발달을 지원하는 구체적인 프로그램의 실행방법을 제시했다는 점에서 그 의의를 찾을 수 있다. This study aims to develop and apply the language education program model - based on balanced language education approach - on development of literacy of young children in low-income families, specially participating in Dream Start public welfare service. Development of this languge education program was based on the basic view and characteristis of balanced language education. It was progressed in accordance with Analyze-Design-Develop-implement-Evaluate(ADDIE), which is an widely-used instructional design model. Educational contents including reading skills of picture books based on whole language approach and well-structured reading and writing sequences, teaching and learning method including the principles and the strategies and teaching and learning systematic evaluation method are proposed in viewpoint of balanced language teaching approach. The application of the program was conducted targeting 20 young children participating in Dream Start welfare service from June 2015 until early November. To evaluate the effectiveness of this program, word reading inspection and nonsense word reading inspection developed by Ko, Yeon-Kyung(2002) were performed. The reflective thinking journal of visiting teachers and the satisfaction reported by parents were analysed in the qualitative research method. As a result, reading skills of young children were improved. The superiority of the program - prefernce for the picture book, interests in written languages, effectiveness of individualized language education method - was demonstrated by qualitative analysis of reflective journal. This study has the significance on presenting the executable language education model for literacy development of young children in low-income families based on balanced language education approach.

Public investments in early care and education (ECE) a aim to provide low-income families with resources to help offset the challenges of living in poverty and increase the likelihood of economic mobility and self-sufficiency. 1 Affordable care arrangements allow low-income parents to more reasonably pursue employment or education and training opportunities.In addition, children from low-income families who experience high-quality ECE, especially in center-based settings, fare better in terms of developmental and academic outcomes than those who do not. 2spanic b households-home to roughly 1 in 4 U.S. children 3 -may especially benefit from public ECE investments because they have high rates of parental employment and experience significant poverty. [4][5]5][6] Yet Hispanic populations have historically underutilized government assistance programs aimed at serving low-income families, including those related to the care of young children. [7][8]][9][10] Although recent data suggest that ECE utilization is generally increasing among Hispanics, especially for preschool-aged children, there is also evidence of inequities and barriers that limit access for some groups of families. 11,12is review synthesizes the latest research on ECE access for Hispanic families, with an emphasis on low-income Hispanic populations, to highlight factors that facilitate or impede access for this large and diverse U.S. population.A more comprehensive understanding of these factors can inform policy and practice efforts to ensure equitable access and fully achieve public ECE investment goals.We focus the review on three broad questions:1. What is known about the child, family, and household factors (e.g., child age, parental needs and preferences, and ECE search processes) that shape ECE access for low-income Hispanic families with young children from birth to age 5?2. How do community contexts, such as the supply of available ECE providers or the presence and strength of social networks, impact Hispanic households' use of ECE?3. How do local, state, and federal policy contexts serve to potentially constrain or facilitate Hispanic families' ECE access?a Prior literature has at times treated child care arrangements made because parents are working or otherwise unavailable as distinct from early education programs more specifically designed to support child development (e.g., Head Start and prekindergarten [pre-K]).In this synthesis we use the term "early care and education" (ECE) broadly to refer to the full range of nonparental arrangements that provide basic care and early learning opportunities for young children.When describing study results, we specify which types of settings or providers were examined.b We use "Hispanic" and "Latino" interchangeably in this paper.Consistent with the U.S. Census definition, this includes individuals having origins in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Cuba, as well as other "Hispanic, Latino or Spanish" origins. Why research on low-income Hispanic children and families mattersHispanic or Latino children currently make up roughly 1 in 4 of all children in the United States, a and are projected to make up 1 in 3 by 2050, similar to the number of white children.b Given this increase, how Hispanic children fare will have a profound impact on the social and economic well-being of the country as a whole.Notably, though, 4.9 million Hispanic children, or 27 percent of all Hispanic children in the United States, are in poverty, more than in any other racial/ethnic group.c Nearly two-thirds of Hispanic children live in low-income families, defined as those with incomes less than two times the federal poverty level.d Despite their high levels of economic need, Hispanicsparticularly those in immigrant families-have lower rates of participation in many government support programs when compared with other racial/ ethnic minority groups.e,f,g High-quality, research-based information on the characteristics, experiences, and diversity of Hispanic children and families is needed to inform programs and policies supporting the sizable population of low-income Hispanic families and children.

Acute lower respiratory illnesses (ALRI) are the leading cause of death among children <5 years. Studies have found that biomass cooking fuels are an important risk factor for ALRI. However, few studies have evaluated the influence of natural household ventilation indicators on ALRI. The purpose of this study was to assess the association between cooking fuel, natural household ventilation, and ALRI. During October 17, 2004-September 30, 2005, children <5 years living in a low-income neighborhood of Dhaka, Bangladesh, were assessed weekly for ALRI and surveyed quarterly about biomass fuel use, electric fan ownership, and natural household ventilation (windows, ventilation grates, and presence of a gap between the wall and ceiling). Bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed using generalized estimating equations. Six thousand and seventy-nine children <5 years enrolled during the study period (99% participation) experienced 1291 ALRI. In the multivariate model, ≥2 windows [OR = 0.75, 95% CI = (0.58, 0.96)], ventilation grates [OR = 0.80, 95% CI = (0.65, 0.98)], and not owning an electric fan [OR = 1.50, 95% CI = (1.21, 1.88)] were associated with ALRI; gap presence and using biomass fuels were not associated with ALRI. Structural factors that might improve household air circulation and exchange were associated with decreased ALRI risk. Improved natural ventilation might reduce ALRI among children in low-income families. The World Health Organization has stated that controlling pneumonia is a priority for achieving the fourth Millennium Development Goal, which calls for a two-third reduction in mortality of children <5 years old compared to the 1990 baseline. Our study represents an important finding of a modifiable risk factor that might decrease the burden of respiratory illness among children living in Bangladesh and other low-income settings similar to our study site. We found that the existence of at least two windows in the child's sleeping room was associated with a 25% decreased ALRI risk. Increasing available natural ventilation within the household in similar settings has the potential to reduce childhood mortality because of acute lower respiratory illnesses.

IN FEBRUARY OF THIS YEAR, THE STATE CHILDREN’S HEALTH Insurance Program (SCHIP) Reauthorization Act of 2009 was officially extended through 2013. SCHIP is a joint insurance program between the federal government and the states, which provides health insurance for low-income children and pregnant women who are not eligible for Medicaid. That is, states provide SCHIP for children in families with incomes up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level ($21,000 to $42,000 for a family of four). SCHIP currently provides health care insurance to approximately 7 million children who otherwise would not receive health care benefits.1 There are an additional 6 million children who are eligible, but not enrolled in either SCHIP or Medicaid.2 As more families face job loss and the associated loss of health insurance, SCHIP is even more important for the health and development of infants and children in low income families.

This research focuses on the self-concept in children of low-income families. A questionnaire was given to elementary school-aged children(grades 3-6). 454 children from low-income families were surveyed. The major findings were as follows: first, the variables that affected the self-concept among the low-income families children were relatively different. For boys, the major influential individual variables were in the following order: grade, stress, and the father's affective attitude. For girls, the major influential individual variables were in the following order: stress, support from friend, father's affective attitude, and grade. Second, through this comparison, this study examined the relative influence of variables that affected children's self-concept. This study proposes interventions to improve their self-concept mechanisms.

The present study proposed to examine whether family factors are associated with child meal skipping in Korea. Family factors were divided into risk factors and protective factors on conceptual and theoretical bases. The sample was obtained from the Survey of Meal Service for Poor Children conducted by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs in 2007. A final sample was composed of 944 children in low-income families who are served by the public meal program. Child meal skipping was positively associated with risk factors and negatively associated with protective factors, as hypothesized. Single-father family, middle or small urban area, presence of caretaker after school, health level of caretaker, caretaker's concern about child's diet, and degree of family cohesion significantly predicted child meal skipping. The authors suggest a few implications for practice based on the study findings.