The Promise of Preschool

Erscheinungsjahr 2012
ISBN: 978-0-19-539507-5
Verlag: ACADEMIC

Buch, Englisch, 288 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 602 g

How did the United States move from seeing preschool as a way to give the nation's poorest children a "head start" to the goal of providing preschool for all children as the beginning of public education? Drawing lessons from the successes and failures of past efforts, advocates, policymakers, and experts have recently been pushing to make preschool education available to all children. They have had remarkable success at expanding preschool in many parts of the country, and are gaining support for federal action as well. Yet questions still remain about the best ways to shape policy that will fulfill the promise of preschool.

The Promise of Preschool investigates how policy choices in the past forty-five years-such as the creation of Head Start in the 1960s, efforts to craft a child care system in the 1970s, and the campaign to reform K-12 schooling in the 1980s--helped shape the decisions that policymakers are now making about early education. It traces decisions made by presidents from Lyndon Johnson to George W. Bush, and by members of Congress, governors, state legislators, educators, researchers, children's advocates, community activists, foundation leaders and others who have shaped our nation's approach to the care and education of young children.

Having explored the sources of today's preschool movement, the book then discusses policy questions that need to be addressed as we move forward: should preschool be provided to all children, or just to the neediest? Should it be run by public schools, or incorporate private child care providers? What are the most important ways to ensure educational quality? By looking at these policy issues through the lens of history, this book offers a unique perspective on this important area of education reform, and explores how an understanding of the past can help spur debate about today's decisions.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Rose, Elizabeth

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Schulen, Schulleitung Kindergarten & Vorschule
• Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Pädagogik Bildungssystem Bildungspolitik, Bildungsreform

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Introduction

- Part I: How We Got Here

- 1.: Promises and Politics: Head Start Sets the Stage in the 1960s

- 2.: Creating a Patchwork Approach to Child Care in the 1970s

- 3.: Separate Strands: Early Education and Child Care for Poor Children in the 1980s

- 4.: Opening Doors to Universal Preschool in the 1990s

- 5.: Preschool for All: Building a Movement in the 2000s

- Part II: Where We Are Going

- 6.: "Preschool for All" or Preschool for the Needy? Universal and Targeted Approaches in the States

- 7.: Mixed Blessings: Delivering Preschool Inside and Outside the "Education Tent"

- 8.: Putting the Promise of Pre-K into Practice

- Conclusion: History Lessons for Preschool Advocates

- Appendix A

- Appendix B

- Index

Über Autor(innen)

Elizabeth Rose is an Adjunct Professor and the Project Director of a Teaching American History grant at Central Connecticut State University. She is the author of A Mother's Job: The History of Day Care, 1890-1960 (OUP, 1998).