Transitions for Young Children: Creating Connections Across Early Childhood Systems

Smooth early childhood transitions are key to ensuring positive outcomes for young children the world over--but in today's fragmented early education systems, it's difficult to ensure continuity among programs and services. Early childhood professionals will help change that with this book, the first to propose a comprehensive, practical framework for repairing fissures in the system and making transitions successful for young children globally.

A groundbreaking resource for a wide range of professionals--including principals, school-based administrators, program directors, district supervisors, and curriculum specialists--this book brings together the best thinking on early childhood transitions from leading researchers and practitioners around the world. Focusing on both vertical and horizontal transitions, the expert contributors give readers the in-depth guidance they need to

• develop a coherent, connected framework of curriculum and instruction across the pre-K-Grade 3 continuum
• enhance transitions for infants and young children with disabilities and their families
• address the specific issues dual language learners face during transitions
• align early learning standards, curricula, and assessments
• improve all aspects of school readiness--ready children, ready schools, and ready families and communities
• establish continuity between the child's home and school environment
• support the quality and stability of the early childhood workforce
• improve transitions through better accountability policies
• understand how transitions are affected by a wide range of factors, including poverty, cultural and linguistic diversity, and the child's neighborhood

Through the invaluable case studies on diverse programs--both in key U.S. states and around the world--readers will get practical insight into what really works and apply the lessons of real-life success stories. And with the clear and useful analysis of up-to-date research, policy, and practice, professionals will see where the field is today and where it needs to go to support better transitions.

A must-have resource for any early childhood professional who plays a part in shaping high-quality programs and services, this book is also an ideal text for preparing tomorrow's professionals to lead future efforts. Readers will be ready to move the field closer to one of its critical goals: a cohesive system of services that supports effective, meaningful transitions for all young children.

Sharon Lynn Kagan, Ed.D., Virginia and Leonard Marx Professor of Early Childhood and Family Policy and Co-director of the National Center for Children and Families, Teachers College, Columbia University, 525 West 120th Street, Box 226, New York, New York 10027. Dr. Kagan is Professor Adjunct at Yale University's Child Study Center. Through her leadership in the field and her 15 books and 250 articles, Dr. Kagan has helped shape early childhood practice and policies in the United States and in countries throughout the world.

Kate Tarrant, M.P.A., Graduate Research Fellow, National Center for Children and Families, Teachers College, Columbia University, 525 West 120th Street, Box 226, New York, New York 10027.

Kate Tarrant is a doctoral candidate in Curriculum and Teaching, concentrating on early childhood policy. As a graduate research fellow at the National Center for Children and Families (NCCF), Teachers College, Columbia University, Ms. Tarrant works on the National and International Transitions analysis and the Policy Matters Project. In addition, she worked on the Early Care and Education Workforce Initiative and previously served as the Assessment Coordinator for the NCCF project with New York Cityâ (TM)s Administration for Childrenâ (TM)s Services to develop, field test, and evaluate a unified quality assessment tool for early care and education programs in New York City. Her research interests include the application of early care and education policy to practice in different types of early learning settings. She is also interested in the development of comprehensive and inclusive early childhood systems. Ms. Tarrant earned her masterâ (TM)s degree in public administration at Columbia Universityâ (TM)s School of International and Public Affairs, with a concentration in social policy. She has been a consultant for New York Cityâ (TM)s Administration for Childrenâ (TM)s Services Division of Child Care and Head Start. Previously, she worked as the public policy specialist for Good Beginnings Alliance- Hawaii, an early childhood intermediary organization.

Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Ph.D., Virginia and Leonard Marx Professor of Child Development and Education, Teachers College and College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, 525 West 120th Street, Box 39, 254 Thorndike, New York, New York 10027. Dr. Brooks-Gunn directs the National Center for Children and Families (http: //www.policyforchildren.org). She is interested in factors that contribute to both positive and negative outcomes across childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, with a particular focus on key social and biological transitions over the life course.

Richard M. Clifford, Ph.D., has training in educational administration with specializations in political science and research. He has taught and has served as a principal in public schools. For more than 25 years, he has studied public policies and advised government officials and practitioners on policies affecting children and families. His work focuses on two major areas: public financing of programs for young children and the provision of appropriate learning environments for preschool and early school-age children. Dr. Clifford is co-author of a widely used series of instruments for evaluating learning environments for children, including the Family Day Care Rating Scale (FDCRS; Teachers College Press, 1989), co-authored with Thelma Harms, and the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS; Teachers College Press, 1990) and the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale0-Revised Edition (ECERS-R; Teachers College Press, 1998), both co-authored with Thelma Harms and Debby Cryer. In 1993-1994, Dr. Clifford helped establish and served as the first director of the Division of Child Development in the North Carolina Department of Human Resources and helped with the design and implementation of the state's Smart Start early childhood initiative. He is a past president of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

Jocelyn Friedlander, Research Assistant, National Center for Children and Families, Teachers College, Columbia University, 525 West 120th Street, Box 226, New York, New York 10027. Ms. Friedlander received her bachelor of arts degree from Yale University.

Robert C. Pianta, Ph.D., is Dean of the Curry School of Education, Director of the Center for Advanced Study in Teaching and Learning and Novartis U.S. Foundation Professor of Education at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. A former special education teacher, Dr. Pianta is a developmental, school, and clinical child psychologist whose work focuses on assessment and improvement of teacher-student interactions and their role in fostering children's learning and development.

Dr. Pianta is a principal investigator on several major grants including the National Center for Research in Early Childhood Education and the Virginia Education Sciences Training Program, and he has worked closely with the Gates Foundation-funded Measure of Effective Teaching project.

He is the author of more than 250 journal articles, chapters, and books in the areas of early childhood education, teacher performance assessment, professional development, and teacher-child relationships, and he consults regularly with federal agencies, foundations and universities.

Craig Ramey, Ph.D., is the creator and founding director of the Abecedarian Project and its replicants including Project CARE and the Infant Health and Development Program. His program of research centers on the role of early experience, especially education â " across the human lifespan - in the development of competence and robust health. His approach relies largely on experimental interventions in education, psychology, and pediatrics that provide rigorous tests of plausible developmental mechanisms of stability and change within dynamic, multilevel ecologies.