Halley Potter
This brief explains the steps New York City has taken towards integration of it's early care system. It describes the current early care landscape of New York City (birth through five years old). The author also presents brief information on the lack of diversity within the national early childhood education landscape. A summary of previous research findings of the benefits of integration are discussed. Additionally, the challenges and benefits of such intergration within the City are presented. The brief describes policy recommendations for the City's future efforts towards integration.
Carol Scheffner Hammer, Kelly Escobar, Barbara A. Wasik, Annemarie H. Hindman, Mary Alice Bond
This poster was presented at the 2020 Conference on Research Innovations in Early Intervention in San Diego, California. The poster describes the components of the ExCELL Professional Development model, and presents promising pilot data from the first year (2018-2019).
Haeny S. Yoon, Carmen Llerena, & Emma Brooks
This article tells the story of “Lucas,” a kindergartener with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The study includes multiple perspectives of Lucas including his mother, his teacher, and a teacher-educator in the classroom. The authors describe in detail how a play/writing project in the classroom was used as a tool for fostering inclusion. The article challenges some of the common assumptions of children with ASD and makes recommendations for using children’s play to encourage inclusion.
Jennifer M. Gilken, Jennifer M. Longley, & Jillian Crosby
This presentation was given at the New York City Early Childhood Research Network meeting on March 4, 2020. The presentation previews key findings and preliminary recommendations from the study examining the Infant-Toddler course content and the teacher education pipeline in New York State.
Mai Miksic & Kendra Hurley
This report from the Day Care Council of New York describes and examines the operations of 13 early childhood programs that remained open during the COVID-19 pandemic.The sample included nine center based providers and four family child care providers in New York City. The authors conducted interviews with representatives from each program. The report provides the findings from these interviews, including information on the daily schedule of the programs during the pandemic. It also describes the concerns of providers, including those related to public health requirements and economic viability. The authors suggest recommendations to be considered as New York City starts to reopen its early education system.
Jeanne L. Reid, Samantha A. Melvin, Sharon Lynn Kagan, & Jeanne Brooks-Gunn
This study compares the characteristics of New York City’s EarlyLearn programs for infants and toddlers that are located in centers and family child care (FCC) settings with a focus on their experience of EarlyLearn quality-enhancement efforts in the current policy landscape. The study also examines the views of directors and teachers in these settings on how best to promote the quality of programs for infants and toddlers.
Bruce Fuller, Talia Leibovitz, Declan Chin, Kaitlyn Du, Naomi Garcia, & Yoonjeon Kim
This report explores the range of quality across the pre-k sites located in New York City. It lays out some of the research related to equity in universal prekindergarten. Using City data from the 2016-2018 period, the authors describe racial segregation and disparities in pre-k quality in New York City. The report discusses how to mitigate some of the forces that lead to inequities.
Scott Latham, Sean P. Corcoran, Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj, & Jennifer L. Jennings
This paper provides new evidence on the distribution of prekindergarten quality in NYC by student race/ethnicity, and investigates the extent to which observed differences are associated with the spatial distribution of higher-quality providers. The authors discuss the findings including the high average quality of public pre-K providers relative to other jurisdictions. However, the paper also discusses the disparities in quality experienced by black and white students.
Beverly Falk & Mariana Souto-Manning
This research by the City College of New York and Teachers College, Columbia University, brings together the study of child development, the science of early learning, culturally responsive/relevant pedagogy, and multilingual development. The researchers conducted a study of nine prekindergarten classrooms over a year. These classrooms represented three different socioeconomic communities in New York City. Their findings illustrate how putting the seven articulated principles into practice promotes high-quality early learning.
Jennifer M. Gilken, Jennifer M. Longley, & Jillian Crosby
This final report explores how New York State's undergraduate early childhood education (ECE) preservice teacher programs prepare ECE educators to work with infants-toddlers by: 1) examining the scope of course content and fieldwork opportunities focused on infants- toddlers provided, and 2) analyzing the teacher education pipeline, career pathways and professional development opportunities afforded to infant-toddler educators. This study reveals a shortage of infant-toddler teachers in New York and the barriers to training early educators in the unique skill set required for working with children from birth-to-three. Chief among these are the lack of specialized college curriculum and coursework, faculty expertise, practical experience in building needed skills, and the difficulty transitioning credits from two-year colleges to four-year programs that lead to early childhood teacher certifications (birth to grade 2).
Elise Cappella, Travis Cramer, C. Cybele Raver, LaRue Allen & Pamela Morris
This final report provides a comprehensive look at early childhood educators' professional development in PreK for All programs. The mixed methods study explores three aims. The first aim investigates how teachers with different levels of teacher qualifications are distributed across UPK classrooms. The second aim examines the social networks that educators and other staff rely on to acquire and activate professional learning. The third aim delves deeper into social networks to examine the ways that administrators and teachers understand and use data about classroom quality to inform professional development and classroom practice. The findings suggest that teachers value training that use active learning principles and opportunities to plan how to implement professional development in classrooms. Additionally, the report provides information on the formal and informal channels used by teachers for knowledge dissemination.
Karen E. McFadden, Jacqueline D. Shannon, & Jahnavi DeSousa
Examining Perceptions of Early Intervention Services in Infant-Toddler Care Settings Across Diverse Urban Neighborhoods finds that New York City’s early childhood programs would benefit from additional supports to integrate early intervention services into the everyday classroom routines and children’s experiences, something that is federally mandated and proven to improve child outcomes.
R. Gabriela Barajas-Gonzalez
This first report by Preyecto Bienstar/Project Well-Being discusses findings from a cross-sectional survey conducted from June 2019 through February 2020. Participants were 88 educators, paraprofessionals, social workers, administrators, therapists, and family coordinators working in schools and centers in New York City. Findings indicate that respondents experienced stressors because of low incomes coupled with the restrictive, anti-immigrant climate.
Sharon Ryan and Zijia Li
This report provides key findings from the Time Use Study of Coaches in New York City’s UPK Program. The study employed time use methodology, and addressed the main research question: "How do a group of NYC pre-K site support personnel use their time?" It also sought to answer the sub-questions: "What are the common activities site support personnel spend their time doing and for how long?" and "How do activities and time use vary across the demographics and roles of site support personnel?"
Lacey E. Peters & Sherryl Browne Graves
This report highlights findings from a study on Authentic Assessment in UPK. It includes information from interviews conducted with head teachers in PreK for All (PKA) settings. These were a part of a multiple case study project that sought to examine the adoption of authentic assessment systems (AAS) in PKA settings. A purpose of this work is to demonstrate how teachers find and use effective assessment strategies to support their pedagogical decisionmaking.
Fabienne Doucet
In this essay the author discusses the definition of "useful research evidence." Specifically, the essay focuses on Critical Race Theory to explore how critical perspectives might inform the field of evidence use. The paper provides a brief history of the theory and then discusses how CRT can be used as a conceptual framework for informing studies and improving the usefulness of research evidence.
Fabienne Doucet
This essay builds on the previous paper Centering the Margins: (Re)defining Useful Research Evidence Through Critical Perspectives. In the current essay, the author discusses a definition of antiracist research and improving the use of evidence from antiracist research.
Seung Eun McDevitt
This qualitative case study investigates nontraditional teachers, particularly immigrant women of color, and their diverse pathways into early childhood classrooms. Implications point towards the importance of cultivating a more diverse teaching force and supporting teachers’ development.
Beverly Falk & Mariana Souto-Manning
This paper reports the findings from research by the City College of New York and Teachers College, Columbia University. It brings together the study of child development, the science of early learning, culturally responsive/relevant pedagogy, and multilingual development. The researchers conducted a study of nine prekindergarten classrooms over a year. These classrooms represented three different socioeconomic communities in New York City. Their findings illustrate how putting the seven articulated principles into practice promotes high-quality early learning.
Tiedan Huang, Chun Zhang, & Caitlin Coe
This report provides findings from the study of Classroom Quality and Support for Multiligual Language learners (EMLs) in New York City. The research, conducted from January 2018 to June 2019, finds that despite the high degree of emotional support, the gathering of EMLs background information, rich curriculum materials, and regard for student perspectives in the classrooms observed, there are opportunities for improvement in cultural inclusion and integration, assessment, and supports for EMLs’ home language.