Child Development—Early Education

Universal Preschool? Wider Access, Stronger Quality

PACE researchers are studying the effects of early care and education in California and nationwide, working with the Language Minority Research Institute. We also are illuminating policy alternatives and evidence that advocates might consider.

• Universal preschool? Ideals, evidence, and policy options (2005) by Fuller, Livas and Bridges. PACE working paper 05-02.

• Preschool for California’s children: Promising benefits, unequal access (2004) by Bridges, Fuller, Rumberger and Tran. PACE policy brief 04-9 (technical report also available).

• Targeting investments for universal preschool: Which families to serve first? Who will respond? (2003) by Fuller and Huang. PACE working paper 03-1.
   
• Rich culture, poor markets: Why do Latino families forgo child care centers? (1996) by Fuller, Eggers-Piérola, Liang and Holloway, Teachers College Record, 97, 400-418.
   

Early Care and Education Workforce

First 5 Children and Family Commissions have invested heavily in training and retention incentives to upgrade the skills and nurturing capacities of teachers and child care providers. PACE has evaluated these ambitious initiatives for Sacramento and local counties.

• Upgrading the early childhood workforce: Final report on the First 5 training and retention initiative (2005) by Bridges, Hamre, O’Brien and Pai. PACE policy brief 05-1.

• Early care and education staff preparation, quality, and child development: A review of the literature (2004) by Hamre and Bridges. PACE working paper.

• Advancing the early childhood workforce: Implementation of training and retention initiatives in the San Francisco Bay Area (2004) by Johnson, Pai and Bridges. PACE policy brief 04-1.

• Training and retaining the early childhood workforce: First 5 training projects final report (2003) by O’Brien, Hamre, Bridges, Burr and Pai. PACE working paper.

• Inventory of early childhood education training in California (2001) by Burr. Working paper 01-4.

• The child care and preschool workforce: Demographics, earnings, and unequal distribution (2001) by Fuller and Strath, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 23, 37-55."
   

Availability and Quality of Child Care and Preschool

PACE researchers over the past decade have examined the distribution of preschool and child care or- ganizations among states and communities nationwide and within California. These papers detail gaps in availability and quality for differing families, as well as government’s remarkable strides in equalizing access. Much of this work is carried out in collaboration with the California Child Care Resource and Referral Network.

• Child care quality: Centers and home settings that serve poor families (2004) by Fuller, Kagan, Loeb and Chang, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 19, 505-527.

• State formation and the child care sector: Family demand and policy action (2004) by Fuller, Loeb, Strath and Carrol, Sociology of Education, 77, 337-358.

• Explaining local variability in child care quality: State funding and regulation in California (2003) by Fuller, Holloway, Bozzi and Suzuki, Early Education and Development, 14, 47-66.

• A stark plateau: California families see little growth in child care centers (2002) by Fuller, Waters Boots, Castilla and Hirshberg. PACE policy brief 02-2 with the California Child Care Resource and Referral Network.

• PACE – Department of Social Services child care planning project: Findings from the child care subsidy interview (2002) by Hirshberg, Derbin and Robison. Also, Which low-income parents select child care? Family demand and neighborhood organizations, appearing in Children and Youth Services Review (2005).

• Assessing child care quality with a telephone interview (2001) by Holloway, Kagan, Fuller, Tsou and Carroll, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 16, 165-189.

Early Care and Education for Poor Children—The Growing Up in Poverty Project

PACE researchers have been tracking a large group of low-income families since 1998 working with colleagues at Columbia and Stanford universities. These papers examine how families are faring as mothers go to work and their young children enter child care or after-school programs.

• Child care in poor communities: Early learning effects of type, quality, and stability (2004) by Loeb, Fuller, Kagan and Carrol, Child Development, 75, 47-68.

• How welfare reform affects young children: Experimental findings from Connecticut (2003) by Loeb, Fuller, Kagan and Carrol, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 22, 537-550.

• Does maternal employment influence poor children’s social development? (2002) by Fuller, Caspary, Kagan and others, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 17, 470-497

• Welfare reform and child care options for low-income families (2002) by Fuller, Kagan, Caspary and Gauthier, Future of Children, 12, 97-119.

• New Lives for Poor Families: Mothers and Children Move through Welfare Reform (2002) by Fuller, Kagan and Loeb. Berkeley-Columbia-Stanford technical report (Wave 2 findings, monograph).

• Child care selection under welfare reform: How mothers balance work and parenting (2000) by Mensing, French, Fuller and Kagan, Early Education and Development, 11, 573-595.

• Remember the Children: Mothers Balance Work and Child Care under Welfare Reform (2000) by Fuller, Kagan and others. Berkeley-Columbia technical report (Wave 1 findings, monograph).

Recent books

Good Parents, Good Workers? How Policy Touches the Daily Lives of Families (2005) edited by Jill Duerr Berrick and Bruce Fuller. New York: Palgrave.

Through My Own Eyes: Single Mothers and the Cultures of Poverty (2002 paperback) by Holloway, Fuller, Rambaud and Eggers-Piérola. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.