Research

Resource Lists on a Variety of Topics
List One of Resources
List Two of Resources

Building Child Care (BCC)
The Building Child Care Project exists to provide a centralized clearinghouse of information and services designed to improve child care providers' access to financial resources for facilities development projects in California.
Also: (Potential Grant Resources FOR Child Care Facilities Development IN California)

Building Culturally & Linguistically Competent Services to Support Young Children, Their Families, and School Readiness
This tool kit was developed by Kathy Hepburn of Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development for Casey to help promote early childhood development and school readiness. The tool kit defines cultural and linguistic competence and provides guidance, tools, and resources that will assist communities in building culturally and linguistically competent services and practices related to young children and families. It supports a holistic approach by encouraging cultural and linguistic competence across all systems that serve young children and their families so children can enter school ready to learn.

Census Bureau Releases Three Reports Pertaining to Mothers
Participation of Mothers in Government Assistance Programs 2001
Maternity Leave and Employment Patterns of First-Time Mothers: 1961-2000
Who's Minding the Kids? Child Care Arrangements: Winter 2002

Child Advocacy Tool: The State of America's Children® 2005
An essential tool for child advocates for more than two decades, this 2005 special edition takes a close look at 37 million people living in America (including 13 million children) who are poor and the growing numbers of families struggling to survive. The State of America's Children® 2005 includes most recent (September 2005) U.S. poverty data throughout; personal stories and photographs by leading photo-journalists Alison Wright and Steve Liss; in-depth analyses of the current status of family income, child health, child care and early childhood development, education, child welfare, and youth development; and personal and policy success stories and recommendations for just treatment for children and poor families.

Early Care and Education: Realizing a Collective Vision
The National Economic Development and Law Center offers its successful economic impact model for engaging policymakers, business and community leaders, and economic development professionals in "Early Care and Education: Realizing a Collective Vision."

Early Childhood Education at a Crossroads
A growing body of research has demonstrated the critical role high-quality early childhood education plays in students’ success, not only in the elementary grades but throughout their lives. The decisions we make now about the ways today’s preschool and early elementary students are taught will affect our society for many years to come. "Focus on Early Childhood Education" offers the full text of a Harvard Education Letter article series on preK-3 education, along with links to the latest research and other resources on early childhood education.

Easing the Transition from PreK to Kindergarten
What Schools and Families Can Do to Address Child Readiness: This strategy brief from the National Center for Family and Community Connections with Schools explores ways schools and families can work together to address children's readiness for school and provides strategies schools can use to begin transition activities before children enter kindergarten.

Education Report Exposes Problems in After School Funding
As early as 2008, California will significantly increase funding for after school programs under the guidelines of Proposition 49, the 2002 after school initiative. In anticipation of this milestone, Children Now has released a report that offers ways to strengthen California's publicly-funded after school programs before Prop. 49 is implemented. It also highlights results from our survey of after school programs about the barriers they encountered while trying to secure funding.

From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development (2000)
Research on brain growth and development, ages 0 to 5, indicates that social, emotional, and cognitive development – the essential elements of school readiness – are heavily influenced by early learning environments, both at home and in out-of-home care. (From Neurons to Neighborhoods, National Research Council)

Funding Preschool may help Balance Government Budgets
According to a new WestEd report, funding a national, high-quality, early childhood development program would help balance cash-strapped government budgets by creating year-over-year incremental savings. It would also directly benefit the children and families it would serve, especially poor children, who perform much better in school, experience higher graduation rates, and tend to stay out of trouble with drugs, alcohol, and crime when provided access to high-quality preschool. The report, by economist Robert G. Lynch, provides an overview of the characteristics of such a program and the benefits of investing in it on a large scale.

High/Scope Perry Preschool Study
Well-designed preschool programs can help children overcome serious deficits in their home environments. Such programs have been shown to have positive social effects including increasing high school graduation rates, reducing dependence on social services (welfare, etc.), increasing income, and increasing home ownership rates.

“How Young Children Feel Is as Important as How They Think:"
A New Social-Emotional Development Report: (excerpt from Action Alliance for Children) I am excited to be able to present to you the attached report on the centrality of social/emotional development in the overall development of young children. This report is the last phase of a three-part project whose goal has been to draw more attention to that key developmental truth. The project began by convening 48 multidisciplinary leaders in early childhood fields in a "strategy session" last March 11 at the United Way of the Bay Area in San Francisco. The second phase was the publication of a special issue of the Children's Advocate newsmagazine in July, with a collection of articles designed to bring this message to a nonprofessional audience.

Losing Ground in Early Childhood Education
“Parents can’t afford to pay, teachers can’t afford to stay, there’s got to be a better way.” This is a common sentiment held byprofessionals in early childhood education (ECE). This study shows that the ECE industry has, indeed, been unable to attract and hold onto qualified teachers over the past two decades.

National Education Association
A new guide from the National Education Association provides a multi-themed approach to closing the achievement gaps – focusing on Culture, Abilities, Resilience, and Effort (C.A.R.E.). The guide helps educators reflect on the causes of disparity in student achievement and explore ways to improve academic success by using innovative, research-based instructional strategies. By focusing on the themes of cultural, economic and language differences, unrecognized and undeveloped abilities, the power of resilience, and the importance of effort and motivation, "C.A.R.E.: Strategies for Closing the Achievement Gaps" advances the idea that if educators view these qualities of students as strengths, rather than deficits, they can be successful in closing achievement gaps.

Old Think vs. New Think on Brain Development

Pathways to Prevention
A comprehensive guide for supporting infant and toddler mental health: Infants and toddlers develop a sense of who they are and what they can expect in the context of their daily interactions with parents and other significant people. Although infants come into the world ready to communicate, they rely on caregivers to help them organize their emotions and focus their attention. Through interacting with parents and teachers and by observing parents and teachers interacting with one another, an infant achieves a more or less positive sense of emotional and social well-being and begins to explore and learn about the world. Relationships shape how an infant will express the unique blend of characteristics he or she brings into the world. This 45-page publication is designed for programs with different structures and leadership styles. It integrates practical considerations for carrying out a comprehensive approach to infant-toddler mental health and for accessing community resources. This resource can be used to assess current program effectiveness, plan next steps, and evaluate the outcomes.

Praise for Preschool
A new statewide poll of California public school kindergarten teachers finds that all children benefit from a preschool experience. The poll, conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates for Preschool California, found near-unanimous support for quality preschool among kindergarten teachers, no matter where they teach or for how long they have been in the profession.

SCC Children's Report Card
2005- report on status of children in Santa Clara County.

Silicon Valley Children’s Report
The Kids in Common Children's Report helps our community understand the needs of our children and to help build community commitment to meet those needs. It is a local "snapshot" documenting the status of our children: how healthy they are, how well they are doing in school and how safe their community is.

Smart Start National Technical Assistance Center
A brief list of recent reports and resources that members of the Alliance for Early
Childhood Finance have found helpful in their work. To guide the reader, the resources are grouped into categories and followed by a brief description and web link.

Special Needs - Autism
Get more information about autism.

Teacher Competencies in Early Care and Education: A Review of Current Models and Options for California
Discusses the purpose of teacher competencies, reviews the subject areas that competencies generally cover, outlines options for how they might be developed and structured in California, and gives examples of major efforts by national organizations and other states.

Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children's Entertainment (TRUCE)'s "Toy Action Guide"
The Toy Action Guide is an important resource for parents, teachers, or anyone concerned about the commercialization of children's play, particularly at this time of year. It contains information on how to select toys that promote positive play and reduce the influence of harmful toys on children. There is a list of TRUCE's 2005-2006 recommendations for "Toys for Healthy & Creative Play." You will also find a list of "Toys and Toy Trends to Avoid," many of which are related to electronic technology this year. In addition, TRUCE offers suggestions for "Shoe Box Gifts," an alternative gift idea that promotes play around themes with common objects often found around the house.

The National Task Force on Early Childhood for Hispanics
Various references to reports on bilingual students, Pre-kindergarten programs and child care, Academic achievement in early education, Families, health, and early education, Immigrants and schooling, Education policy in early education, Teacher quality in early education, and more.

Time to Revamp and Expand
"Early Childhood Teacher Preparation Programs in California's Institutions of Higher Education" presents the results of an inventory of nearly all (98.5%) of the California institutions of higher education that train adults to teach children under the age of five, including certificate, associate, bachelor's, master's and PhD programs. The report includes data on student and faculty characteristics, coursework and practica, challenges faced by these programs, and student supports.

UCLA Compendium of Early Care and Education Resources
UCLA Center for Healthier Children, Families, and Communities has compiled a list of Resources, Articles and Reports, and Websites pertaining to Early Care and Education of Children.

Publications

Early Intervention and Early Childhood Publications
National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center

Zero To Three
ZERO TO THREE is happy to bring you the following handouts on early childhood topics--free

Recommended Reading List
The 4C Council has compiled this recommended reading list to help both adults and children learn more about the following subjects or topics:

• Separation Anxiety
• Valuing Differences
• Children With Special Needs
• Conflict Resolution

In addition to the 4C Council Resource Library, go to your local library or the Internet to locate these recommended book titles.