It is essential that a solid research base be established to provide a foundation that will enable the field of early childhood teacher education to examine whether, for whom, and in what ways teacher education matters. The purpose of this article is to review several important domains in early childhood teacher education to illustrate the…

The Quality Child Care Initiative, the federal apprenticeship program applied to the field of early care and education, has been implemented in over 40 states. This federal initiative was designed to reduce turnover, increase wages, provide a more stable environment for children, and lower the concern of parents. Rhode Island received funding in…

This narrative chronicles the continued evolution and development of the Rhode Island Early Childhood Summer Institute, an intensive 5-day inservice professional development program designed for educational leaders from various sectors of the early care and education field. The goal is to review the continued use of successful practices…

This article presents the theoretical basis and methods for the process and outcome evaluations of the Rhode Island Early Childhood Summer Institutes held in 2000 and 2001. The article also discusses the evaluation results that demonstrated the institutes were received as high-quality inservice professional development programs in which…