Despite a 100-year-old history and the existence of schools in nearly every country in the world, Waldorf education is a little known and poorly understood educational model that was developed in Europe by Austrian philosopher Rudolph Steiner. For many years it existed in the United States in the form of private schools. Few of their teachers or…

Researchers and policymakers use certification as a metric of teaching quality in subject areas as well as subfields of education. We examined the association between having a teacher with dual certification in elementary and special education and math and reading achievement for students with disabilities (SWDs). We also examined whether dual…

Parent engagement in early care and education (ECE) settings is a component of high quality childcare, yet little is known about mechanisms of parent engagement in centre-based care. Using a nationally representative U.S. sample, we examined centre, classroom, and teacher characteristics associated with practices ECE providers use to engage…

This study investigates kindergarten children's mathematics learning with a focus on the role of teachers' mathematics education and readiness beliefs, and home learning environment. Using structural equation modeling to estimate the individual differences in early mathematics learning, data from 5,845 kindergarteners was evaluated. Findings show…

This study investigated the extent to which student performance and teacher perception of student performance affect placement in eighth-grade mathematics classes for students with disabilities. Authors used the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study--Kindergarten dataset to investigate how each of the following factors predicted placement in…

The 2011 edition of the "Digest of Education Statistics" is the 47th in a series of publications initiated in 1962. The "Digest" has been issued annually except for combined editions for the years 1977-78, 1983-84, and 1985-86. Its primary purpose is to provide a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field…

The term the "female advantage" is commonly used to describe gender inequalities in education, including in early childhood. This study seeks to problematize this idea by including the intersection of children's race and gender. This article examines race and gender disparities in teachers' perceptions of children's problem behaviors and…

Using a nationally representative dataset of young children in the United States (the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study--Birth Cohort), the purpose of this study was to test the associations between teachers' perceptions of preschoolers' (N = 3350) school readiness and actual academic readiness levels, as measured by math and reading assessments.…

The introduction to this Special Topic Collection has two parts. To provide background and context for the articles in the collection, Part 1 tells the story of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study program at the National Center for Education Statistics. It offers an abridged history of this program and describes the designs of the two national…

This research empirically evaluates data sets from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) for design effects of ignoring the sampling design in weighted two-level analyses. Currently, researchers may ignore the sampling design beyond the levels that they model which might result in incorrect inferences regarding hypotheses due to…

The first rationale of the study was not only to determine the topics taught in Turkish early childhood settings but also to define the frequency and time allocation for teaching science (n?=?382). In the second phase, through semi-structured interview questions, the aim was to gain detailed information about Turkish early childhood teachers'…

Research Findings: Researchers and policymakers emphasize that early childhood is a critical developmental stage with the potential to impact academic and social-emotional outcomes (G. Conti & J. J. Heckman, 2012; J. J. Heckman, 2012; R. Murnane, I. Sawhill, & C. Snow, 2012). Although there is substantial evidence that children's early…

In this paper, the author looks at whether teachers give better subjective assessments to students of their own race and/or gender, conditionally on test scores. Subjective assessments are pervasive in schools; most teachers fill school records that include comments on the child's ability or behavior. And important decisions such as tracking,…

The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS) is a study that focuses on children's early school experiences beginning with kindergarten. The ECLS was developed by the National Center for Education Statistics. Approximately 23,000 children were selected as they entered kindergarten, and were followed as they moved through fifth grade. This paper…

This longitudinal study examined the extent to which developmentally appropriate practices of teaching and evaluation are accepted and implemented in primary schools and the relationship of teacher educational background and experience with the use of these practices. Data were obtained from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study kindergarten…