Until recently, many early childhood educators, particularly those in nontraditional preschool spaces, leaned on a color-evasive approach to their work, largely ignoring systemic racism and bias, claiming love and acceptance of all children in their care. While well-intentioned, these practices left young children to construct their own…

Over the course of four meetings, the Hunt-Lee Commission engaged in comprehensive conversations around key education opportunities including transitions, structure and alignment, funding, and access. Each meeting included presentations from resource experts and opportunities for Q&A and small group discussions. The final report summarizes…

The personal and professional outcomes of experiential wilderness-based professional development programs for K-12 educators have not been adequately evaluated. This study used open-ended survey questions to identify a range of personal (i.e., self-awareness, new perspectives, self-confidence) and professional (i.e., changes in classroom…

Research Findings: The present study examined the transition practices reported by 59 pre-kindergarten (pre-k) and 186 kindergarten teachers in the rural Southeastern United States, and asked if transition practices related to skills at the beginning and end of kindergarten for 387 children. Analyses indicated kindergarten teachers offered more…

The Recognition & Response (R&R) model was developed and is being validated by a research team at the FPG Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. R&R has generated widespread attention in the early childhood field as a promising RTI model for pre-k (see entire issue of NHSA Dialog, Volume 12[3],…

North Carolina Family Impact Seminars (NCFIS) include annual seminars, briefing reports and follow-up activities designed specifically for state policymakers, including legislators and legislative staff, the governor and executive branch staff, and state agency representatives. The Center for Child and Family Policy at Duke University convenes the…

The purpose of this study was to examine the current practices and pre-service preparation of recent graduates of North Carolina Birth-Kindergarten (B-K) teacher licensure programs related to individualizing curriculum and instruction for children. Participants were 142 individuals who graduated from B-K licensure programs in four-year…