How we raise young children is one of today's most highly personalized and sharply politicized issues, in part because each of us can claim some level of "expertise." The debate has intensified as discoveries about our development-in the womb and in the first months and years-have reached the popular media. How can we use our burgeoning knowledge to assure the well-being of all young children, for their own sake as well as for the sake of our nation? Drawing from new findings, this book presents important conclusions about nature-versus-nurture, the impact of being born into a working family, the effect of politics on programs for children, the costs and benefits of intervention, and other issues. The committee issues a series of challenges to decision makers regarding the quality of child care, issues of racial and ethnic diversity, the integration of children's cognitive and emotional development, and more. Authoritative yet accessible, From Neurons to Neighborhoods presents the evidence about "brain wiring" and how kids learn to speak, think, and regulate their behavior. It examines the effect of the climate-family, child care, community-within which the child grows.

Decades of research point to the need for a universal preschool education program in the U.S. to help give our nation's children a sound cognitive and social foundation on which to build future educational and life successes. In addition to enhanced school readiness and improved academic performance, participation in high quality preschool programs has been linked with reductions in grade retentions and school drop out rates, and cost savings associated with a diminished need for remedial educational services and justice services. This 2006 book brings together nationally renowned experts from the fields of psychology, education, economics and political science to present a compelling case for expanded access to preschool services. They describe the social, educational, and economic benefits for the nation as a whole that may result from the implementation of a universal preschool program in America, and provide guiding principles upon which such a system can best be founded.

As a result of the generally low quality of child care in the United States, quality rating and improvement systems (QRISs) are proliferating in the child-care arena. This study examines the QRIS developed by Qualistar Early Learning, a nonprofit organization based in Colorado, evaluating how reliable the system's components are, whether the QRIS process helped providers to improve, and whether and how much children benefit from such improvement.

Public education begins with kindergarten for most children, but an estimated 1 million prekindergarten children are also in public schools, and the number is increasing. In December 1997, the National Institute on Early Childhood Development and Education in the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement convened a group of national, state, and community early childhood and education leaders to discuss the interrelationship between preschool and public education. Meeting participants unanimously agreed on the need to move from the current state of fragmented programs to a coordinated preschool care and education system that is linked with the public school system. Based on discussions at that meeting and on recent related data and research, this publication is intended to provide schools, families, and communities with information and ideas about public school prekindergarten and other preschool care and education initiatives that are linked with public schools. The publication offers insights from meeting participants about public school involvement in early childhood, and provides examples of how states and communities are designing programs to expand and improve preschool care and education. Following an introduction and background information on the meeting, the publication explores the following questions pursued at the meeting: (1) "Why Should Schools Be Involved in Early Childhood?"; (2) "What Roles Should Schools Play in Early Childhood?"; (3) "What Facilitates School Involvement in Early Childhood?"; (4) "What Challenges Do Public Schools Face with Involvement in Early Childhood?"; (5) "What Are the Key Issues for Professional Development?"; and (6) "What Are the Key Research and Evaluation Questions?" The publication concludes with a 52-item bibliography and lists of meeting participants and state early childhood education contacts. (HTH)