Transition to kindergarten and child outcomes

August and September mark the start of the school year for America's children, and for the more than 3.7 million children who the U.S. Department of Education estimates will enroll in public kindergarten this fall, this time represents a critical period of transition. Child care and early education programs and schools undertake a variety of research-based practices and approaches to facilitate children's adjustment to kindergarten. Particular attention has been paid to the transitions of children with special needs; the U.S. Department of Education funded the National Early Childhood Transition Center to examine factors that promote successful transitions for young children with disabilities and their families. However, for typically developing children, there has been less research examining the practices and programs that support their kindergarten transitions. This Topic of Interest identifies the reports and journal articles in the Research Connections collection that offer research findings on the relationship of transition practices and programs to the developmental and school outcomes of typically developing children

National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE) bibliography

This bibliography lists resources in the Research Connections collection related to the National Survey of Early Care and Education and is intended as a reference tool for researchers and policymakers. It is divided into sections: data sets; user guides, training webinars, and methodological reports; official research findings; studies using NSECE data; and instruments. Within each section resources are listed alphabetically by author and then by year and title. (author abstract

Off-site coaching in early childhood center-based settings

Of the elements in a strong professional development system, one promising approach is coaching, which typically involves on-site, ongoing individualized expert technical assistance. Literature reviews on the sizable body of research on early childhood coaching conducted by Mathematica and Child Trends, both published in 2011, show it can have positive outcomes for teachers and children. Because in-person professional development approaches such as coaching can be costly and logistically complicated to deliver, interest is growing in the use of technology to deliver off-site support. A recent project funded by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) examined the role of technology in early childhood practice. The final report provides in-depth descriptions of evidence-based professional development approaches that incorporate technology to support off-site delivery, including two coaching programs: Classroom Links to Early Literacy and My Teaching Partner. This resource list expands on the OPRE project by identifying research in the Research Connections collection on additional approaches to using technology for off-site delivery of coaching in early childhood center-based settings

Child care and early education for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) families: Research-to-policy resources

This Research-to-Policy Resource List compiles empirical research on American LGBT families' experiences with ECE and providers' experiences and preparation for working with LGBT families. The three reviews that begin the list summarize the research literature published through 2012. The remaining resources on the list include the research literature published after the period covered by those reviews. They have been divided into those that focus on LGBT families and those that focus on providers

Statewide kindergarten entry assessments: Research-to-policy resources

This Research-to-Policy Resource List provides resources in the Research Connections library on statewide KEAs. It does not address local KEA efforts or broader issues related to child assessment more generally. The first section presents publications that discuss issues surrounding the development and use of KEAs. The second offers a list of resources that contain information on multistate scans of KEA practices. The final section is divided by state and includes publications for each state, where available, on the development and selection of its KEA, as well as KEA results

Child care during nonstandard work hours: Research to policy resources

In November 2014, the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act of 2014 was signed into law, reauthorizing the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF)--the federal child care subsidy program--for the first time since 1996. In December 2015, the U.S. Office of Child Care issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, which updated CCDF regulations in light of the CCDBG Act of 2014 and research that has been published since the passage of the original 1996 law. Included in the proposed rule are provisions to increase the supply and quality of child care during nontraditional hours. Nontraditional hours child care, often also referred to as nonstandard hours child care, has been defined as care provided outside of the standard working day, including during evening, overnight, and weekend hours. This Topic of Interest includes resources from the Research Connections collection on the supply of nonstandard hours child care, child care arrangements of parents working nonstandard hours, and access to child care subsidies of parents working nonstandard hours

Provider experiences of the child care subsidy system: Research-to-policy resources

The federal child care subsidy system supports low-income working families with child care financial assistance through the Child Care and Development Fund, which is administered by the Office of Child Care (OCC), Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The most recently available data from OCC show the federal child care subsidy system in the United States served 1.4 million children in 847,400 families in fiscal year 2015. While an extensive body of research has examined numerous aspects of the system, a less-studied component is the experiences of the participating providers, who numbered 339,000 in fiscal year 2015. This Research-to-Policy Resource List compiles publications in the Research Connections collection on providers' experiences of the child care subsidy system, particularly their decisions to participate in and their experiences of it. Only research that collected data directly from providers about their experiences is included. Following an overview document and research conducted in multiple states, the remaining resources are grouped by individual state

Infant and toddler child care quality measures bibliography

The Research Connections collection contains records for more than 1,300 instruments that have been used to conduct studies in the child care and early education field. This bibliography provides records for instruments in the collection that can be used to observe child care quality in center-based settings serving infants and toddlers. In addition to citations and descriptions for the various versions of instruments, this bibliography contains links to all of the studies in the Research Connections collection that have used that instrument