Although widely implemented, the effectiveness of the Even Start program and other programs involving home-visiting and bilingual education in improving preschool literacy outcomes, particularly among Latino students, is uncertain. This study used a non-equivalent groups design to compare preschool literacy outcomes (measured by the PALS-PreK…

This portion of a larger comparative study of full day kindergarten (FDK) versus half-day kindergarten (HDK) classrooms highlights the effects of FDK versus HDK on the achievement of students with low/moderate income status. Authors collected statistical and semi-structured interview data from one large and two other school corporations in the…

The purpose of this study was to further test the psychometric properties of a scale developed to measure children's perceptions of their after-school teacher and to understand the scale's relationship to the quality of the school-age child care program. Eleven after-school programs were observed and rated on program quality, and 146 children…

The purpose of this study was to investigate how early childhood teachers in Korea understand developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) and follow DAP's instructional guidelines. In order to obtain insights for developing "educare," an integrated system for the education and care of young children in Korea, a comparison of early childhood…

This issue highlights five distinct studies. The first study looks at achievement and its association to Montessori programs, magnet programs, and traditional schooling programs. The second provides evidence on the efficacy of the Even Start program in comparison to Title I programs. The third examines the effects of full-day and half-day…

Previous scholarship on farm families emphasizes the importance of socializing children to become farmers. This study is the first to focus on the parental socialization factors that are associated with preadolescent children's attachment to, and plans to take over, the family farm. Forty-seven 7- to 12-year-old children and their farming parents…

This yearlong qualitative study is an examination of 10 undergraduate preservice teachers' lesson planning for the classes and/or individual lessons they taught in a university string project. Data analysis revealed that these preservice teachers held differing views of lesson planning from each other and from their supervisor. Five themes…

Preservice and experienced teachers (N = 58, from 7 universities) wrote lesson plans for a hypothetical beginning band lesson, using one page from a band method book as source material. Lesson plans were analyzed for word count, level of detail, and for strategies that appeared most frequently. Experienced teachers used fewer words than…

High school students aspiring to become music educators (n = 116) and upper-level music education majors (n = 130) took part in this investigation comparing higher-order thinking skills in an observation analysis task. We used certain procedures from previous investigations (Sheldon & DeNardo, 2004; Standley & Madsen, 1991). Upperclassmen…

High school singers (N = 198) individually sang two melodies from notation, with and without a 30-second practice opportunity. Overall accuracy scores were significantly higher with preparation time. The less accurate singers, however, did not benefit from practice time. Analysis of videoed tests indicated that high scorers tonicized (vocally…

This study is the second in a series examining the relationship between conducting and ensemble performance. The purpose was to further examine the associations among conductor, ensemble performance expressivity, and festival ratings. Participants were asked to rate the expressivity of video-only conducting and parallel audio-only excerpts from a…

Preschool children's listening time responses to free versus directed listening activities were compared. For the free condition, children were instructed just to "listen as long as you would like." The directed condition was a written task designed to focus attention on specific aspects of the music and give children something concrete to do…

This 2-year evaluative self-study of a cohort teacher preparation program in rural eastern Oregon explored preservice teachers' perceptions of their preparedness to teach diverse students. Using qualitative methods, teacher educators examined preservice teachers' assumptions about student diversity in rural schools where they planned to teach.…

This article describes the teaching practices at Upper Rill School, a 1-teacher school in rural Nebraska. With its 8 students, grades 1 through 8, the teacher considers the school?s size and continuity of student enrollment flexible and generative. Subject matter and grade levels are regularly integrated though common curricula. Instruction is…

Using PISA 2000 data, this article examines cross-national variation in rural mathematics achievement among 15-year olds in 24 industrialized nations. Rural mathematics scores were significantly lower than scores in urban and medium-size communities in 14 of 24 countries. However, patterns were complex. Most commonly, a linear relationship…