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Professional collaboration is widely seen as an important component in educator professional development, but we know little about the interactional processes that undergird teacher learning in collaborative workgroups. This paper focuses on four collaborative workgroups in a yearlong, mathematics-focused professional development series for pre-Kindergarten teachers. Using a communities of practice framework, we analyzed teacher workgroup conversations to understand how these interactions mediated teachers' learning. We identified three modes of participation that characterized workgroup conversations and influenced the availability and quality of learning opportunities afforded to participants: interpersonal management, validation, and collective reasoning. Findings provide insight into how interactional processes in teacher workgroups may advance or inhibit teachers' learning.

This article applies to class size research Grant and Graue's (1999) position that reviews of research represent conversations in the academic community. By extending our understanding of the class size reduction conversation beyond published literature to the perspectives of researchers who have studied the topic, we create a review that includes political histories of, contextual details about, and assumptions undergirding the conversation. We find divergent (and sometimes competing) perspectives on identifying beneficiaries of class size reduction (or CSR) and the correct context in which to view CSR research. By contrasting the logic and assumptions embedded in pupil-teacher ratio (PTR), class size (CS), and class size reduction studies, we conclude that sometimes research conflates these constructs and their associated theories of action, and such distortion poorly serves the needs of policymakers and stakeholders in education. We recommend that future inquiry focus on mechanisms of change, particularly instruction--both in terms of instructional strategies that capitalize on the resource of a smaller group and the types of support needed for teacher and administrator professional development. (Contains 1 table and 6 footnotes.)

This study investigated the contributions of curriculum approach and parent involvement to the short- and long-term effects of preschool participation in the Title I Chicago Child-Parent Centers. Data came from the complete cohort of 989 low-income children (93% African American) in the Chicago Longitudinal Study, who attended preschool in the 20 Child-Parent Centers in 1983-1985 and kindergarten in 1985-1986. We found that implementation of an instructional approach rated high by Head Teachers in teacher-directed and child-initiated activities was most consistently associated with children's outcomes, including school readiness at kindergarten entry, reading achievement in third and eighth grades, and avoidance of grade retention. Parent involvement in school activities, as rated by teachers and by parents, was independently associated with child outcomes from school readiness at kindergarten entry to eighth grade reading achievement and grade retention above and beyond the influence of curriculum approach. Findings indicate that instructional approaches that blend a teacher-directed focus with child-initiated activities and parental school involvement are origins of the long-term effects of participation in the Child-Parent Centers. (Contains 4 figures, 12 tables and 4 notes.)

This article describes how early childhood teachers engaged in a public preK professional development program. We examine how developing teacher identities mediated engagement with the discourses of developmentally appropriate practice, early mathematics, and funds of knowledge and how they connected present practice to an imagined future. We found that helping them to connect practice experience and new mathematical content knowledge through play allowed them to envision a meaningful place for math with young children.

In this article we explore an effort to rethink curricular decision-making with a group of public pre-K teachers working in a context of curriculum escalation and commitment to play-based pedagogy. Through a professional development program designed to support developmentally and culturally responsive early mathematics, we examine how teachers took up the idea of engaging in mathematics with 4-year-olds in a way that married content knowledge and home practices. We look specifically at three teachers as they negotiated our vision of responsive practice, using the notion of improvisation as a metaphor to understand how they took up this new role. We found that just having the knowledge about developmentally responsive practices, funds of knowledge, or early math was a first step but it was not enough. How teachers took up the elements of the professional development was contingent on their capacity to improvise in their teaching, responding to children's resources and interests in authentic ways.

Despite previous and successful attempts to outline general criteria for rigor, researchers in special education have debated the application of rigor criteria, the significance or importance of small n research, the purpose of interpretivist approaches, and the generalizability of qualitative empirical results. Adding to these complications, the breadth of qualitative research methods makes a single set of universally applicable criteria difficult to identify and use. Based on input from qualitative researchers across the social sciences, we augment and expand the oft-cited criteria for rigor established in special education, thus broadening the potential application and contribution of qualitative research in the areas of disability and education. We identify exemplars from special education research and use these to illustrate ways qualitative research can push the field to strengthen the theoretical foundations of empirical work, as well as to acknowledge more forthrightly the roles of the researcher in the research endeavor.

Background/Context: Early childhood education joined the standards movement in 2002 with the Good Start, Grow Smart initiative (Brown, 2007), with advocates arguing that standards were a tool for creating more continuity and coherence in PreK systems (Bowman, 2006; Kagan 2012). Critics posed concerns about a perceived poor fit between standards-based and developmentally appropriate practices, pointing to standardization and pressure from the K-12 system (Brown, 2009; Goldstein, 2007). With growth in public PreK programs guided by state early learning standards, we set out to understand what guides PreK programs. Setting: We sampled two states with mature PreK programs: New Jersey (NJ), a targeted, highly regulated full-day program for 3- and 4-year-olds and Wisconsin (WI), a universal, local control half-day program for 4-year-olds. Both programs implement PreK programs in schools, Head Start, and child care classrooms. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: The purpose of the project was to compare the role of standards in PreK programs in NJ and WI, analyzing standards conceptualization and enactment by district administrators and teachers. Research Design: We designed a multi-state, comparative case study including interviews with state actors who identified rural, midsize, and urban districts for fieldwork, weekly observations of PreK classrooms in elementary schools, Head Start, and childcare centers and interviews with the teachers in these sites. Conclusions: Policy and standards alone were not very good predictors of the PreK programs' enacted practices. The logic of practice embedded in standards evolved through policy enactment in the local context, through the work of actors, like local child care advocates, the administrative designs of district leaders, and the policies of the adjacent K-12 system. The nonlinear implementation of early learning standards in this study shows the importance of looking beyond policy inputs and child outcomes and the need to include the administrative and instructional practices between if we are to understand how to best support young learners and their teachers.

This article traces the evolution of kindergarten from its focus on children, to its focus on outcomes, to its current focus on literacy and math. The early childhood parts of kindergarten are losing ground to growing allocation of kindergarten time to academic content. A more ecological approach to kindergarten involves reincorporating play into the curriculum and taking time to build relationships with students. The kindergarten experience should be broad based, contextual, and inclusive of all dimensions of development.

Background: This article builds on three years of qualitative research on Wisconsin's Student Achievement Guarantee in Education (SAGE) program, a class size reduction policy in Wisconsin. Objective: In this article, we take a practice-oriented perspective on assessment, examining how assessments in schools that participated in a class size reduction program intersected with forces of accountability. The goal of this article is to broaden the understanding of what it means for schools and teachers to be held accountable for student learning and to discuss how different accountability frameworks affect instructional practices in classrooms. Setting: The research took place in nine elementary schools across South and Central Wisconsin. Research design: Data for the qualitative case studies were generated through multiple methods, including ethnographic observations, interviews, administration of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS), document and artifact collection, and analyses of school-level standardized test scores. Results: The current political and educational context oriented our focus to an intersection of issues: the implementation of class size reduction, instructional practice, assessment, and accountability. We identify three aspects of assessment practices that affect this intersection: alignment, audience, and action. Conclusions: We found that coherent and collaborative assessment practices were more likely to take place in schools where there were explicit connections through assessments to varied communities of interest: district, school, teachers, students, and families. In supportive assessment systems, teachers had tools that they understood and that they could use to improve their practice to meet the needs of their students. In contrast, assessment in lower quality classrooms took place in disjointed systems that focused primarily on summative rather than formative assessment. A focus on accountability without attention to the quality of instruction and the quality of assessment resources is inherently flawed.

The traditional kindergarten program often reflected a rich but generic approach with creative contexts for typical kindergartners organized around materials (manipulatives or dramatic play) or a developmental area (fine motor or language). The purpose of kindergarten reflected beliefs about how children learn, specialized training for kindergarten teachers, and working mothers. Noisy, messy, and playful--kindergarten was all the things people associate with young children. The value of learning through play was emphasized in yesterday's kindergarten, but the value of what was learned became less clear as the elementary curriculum was clarified through standards and curriculum alignment. Today's kindergarten is more focused on literacy and numeracy. Public perception is that kindergarten is what 1st grade used to be. Today's kindergarten children are caught in a triple bind. They have more formal schooling but less time to explore, practice social skills, or build relationships with peers and adults. The expectations they face are steep, pitched at what was once seen as 1st grade. And despite all this change, the author points out, kindergartners are young children whose needs are distinctly different from their older school peers. The author urges schools to restore a developmental approach for their youngest learners, resisting demands to turn playtime into structured formal instruction.

A contextual approach to understanding class size reduction includes attention to both educational inputs and processes. Based on our study of a class size reduction program in Wisconsin we explore the following question: How do class size reduction and classroom quality interact to produce learning opportunities in early elementary classrooms? To address this question, we analyze data from 3 years of fieldwork in 27 classrooms in 9 schools implementing a class size reduction reform. Data generation included multiple ethnographic observations and interviews with teachers and principals, administration of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System, document and artifact collection, and analyses of school-level standardized test scores. We present multiple vignettes to illustrate that class size reduction provides opportunities that can be activated by organizing and implementing high-quality classroom practices. We argue that high-quality classrooms combined with class size reduction contexts create a synergy for learning. (Contains 7 notes, 3 tables, and 4 figures.)

The traditional kindergarten program often reflected a rich but generic approach with creative contexts for typical kindergartners organized around materials (manipulatives or dramatic play) or a developmental area (fine motor or language). The purpose of kindergarten reflected beliefs about how children learn, specialized training for kindergarten teachers and the degree to which women worked outside the home. Noisy, messy, playful--kindergarten was all the things people associate with young children. The value of learning through play was emphasized in yesterday's kindergarten, but the value of what was learned became less clear as the rest of the elementary curriculum was clarified through standards and curriculum alignment. Today's kindergarten is more focused on literacy and numeracy. The public perception is that kindergarten is what 1st grade used to be. Today's kindergarten children are caught in a triple bind--they have more formal schooling but less time to explore, practice social skills or build relationships with peers and adults. The expectations they face in kindergarten are steep, pitched at what was once seen as 1st grade. Despite all this change around them, the author points out that kindergartners are young children whose needs are distinctly different from their older school peers. From her position with the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, the author urges schools to restore a developmental approach for their youngest learners, resisting demands to turn playtime into structured formal instruction.

Recently a school district colleague recounted a conversation with a young kindergarten teacher that had shaken her to her core. The kindergarten teacher (let's call her Ms. Post) said that nobody talks about developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) anymore--everyone is way past that. The author and her colleague, two mature early childhood veterans, gasped in recognition of this crystallization of a reality. Kindergarten, which always represents to her a window on early childhood, was evolving in ways that were heart-wrenchingly disturbing. How is it related to a special issue on teaching in early childhood education (ECE)? The author sees it as a snapshot of a moment in time--a window into broader issues related to teaching and learning in ECE. In this essay, the author explores the context for this story, making connections to what she sees as the state of knowledge about ECE. In addition, the author examines metaphors that have shaped the thinking and therefore the action related to research on ECE teaching. Finally, the author suggests what she sees as the heart of the matter. (Contains 2 footnotes.)

In this study, the authors explore the implementation of a statewide class-size reduction program in nine high-poverty schools. Through qualitative methods, they examined how schools used class-size reduction to change staffing patterns and instructional programs. Requiring changes in space allocation, class-size reduction was accomplished through attention to pupil:teacher ratio, with classes ranging from 15:1 to 30:2 team taught. Most partner classes used tag-team teaching, with one teacher leading and the other doing clerical work. Working without specific professional development to enhance teaching in smaller classes, it made sense that teachers continued to solo practice. Class-size reduction is both a programmatic and instructional reform, and as such, it requires specific professional development to promote change. (Contains 3 tables and 3 notes.)

Although readiness is often posed as the answer in early childhood education, there is typically confusion about exactly what question this complex term responds to. In this article, I explore common uses of the term readiness, examine their theoretical and empirical problems, and suggest a more synthetic conception that merges attention to the child, the school, and the community. I argue that readiness is an ethical responsibility we have to children that encompasses coordinated systems of early care and education and receptive schools that are developmental, inclusive, and accountable to all.

This article examines how prospective teachers just beginning a professional education program think about working with parents. Through interviews with students in an elementary teacher education program, I explore how biography shapes dispositions toward families by setting expectations for the roles and the activities of participants. Merging cognitive, cultural, and narrative frameworks for teacher development, I suggest that prospective teachers must cross-traditionally consider cultural boundaries of race-class-gender but are also challenged as they move from being a child and student in family and school to the professional position of teacher. I argue that the role of teacher education is to manage the identity work necessary to integrate the tools of biography and the process of learning to relate to others in a new role.

Although there is widespread support given to the idea of strong home-school relations, little attention is paid to the issue in teacher education programs. To understand the perspectives prospective teachers bring to their professional program about working with families, we surveyed students just beginning elementary and secondary teacher education programs. Results of the survey indicate that teacher education students enter their professional preparation with constructions of family and education that reflect their own experience and that assume that families support teacher work in the classroom. Out of these assumptions, prospective teachers develop strategies for interaction with families in the future. These limited constructions and expectations of families constrain opportunities for support, knowledge, and collaboration by holding parents at a distance. Thus, teacher education programs must provide opportunities for students to expand their theoretical background while gaining experience working with families in a variety of settings.

Highlights recent experiences editing an educational research journal, noting problems in teacher education research and lessons learned. The paper offers a new way of examining inquiry, locating it in the social realm as a cultural and political practice, and suggesting a situated look at questions about research that might inform the community about its involvement in scholarly conversations and interchange. (SM)

This article discusses the history of research on review and critical theory. Topics include educational research, literary criticism, and genre.

The new editors of the "Review of Educational Research" recognize their charge to be comprehensive in the process of review of educational research and to be of service to educators. They also acknowledge the challenge to be nurtured by the scholarship of the times and innovations in education. (SLD)

This article describes how early childhood teachers engaged in a public pre K professional development program. We examine how developing teacher identities mediated engagement with the discourses of developmentally appropriate practice, early mathematics, and funds of knowledge and how they connected present practice to an imagined future. We found that helping them to connect practice experience and new mathematical content knowledge through play allowed them to envision a meaningful place for math with young children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]