Penny Hauser-Cram is a professor at Boston College in the Lynch School of Education. She received her Ed.D. in Human Development from Harvard University in 1983 and her research focuses on children and adolescents with developmental disabilities and children and adolescents living in poverty.

• Foreword. Part One: The Movement Toward Earlier Education.1. The Need for Early Childhood Programs: Changing Social Realities for Families.The Benefits of Early Education: What Do We Know?3. The Current Debate: Should Public Schools Be Responsible for the Very Young?Part Two: The Brookline Early Education Project (BEEP).4. The Origins of BEEP.5. An Overview of the Program and Its Participants.6. Parent Education and Support.7. Educational Philosophy and Approach.8. The Bilingual Component.9. Health and Development Monitoring.10. What Parents Gain.11. Children's Future Success in School.Part Three: Implications for Policymakers.12. A Better Education for All Children.Appendixes.A. Questions and Issues Parents Have Raised.B. Questions to Structure Home Visits.C. List of Health and Developmental Measures.D. Evaluation Data.E. Early Education Philosophy Statement.