Reinventing Early Care and Education

SHARON L. KAGAN,senior associate at the Bush Center in Child Development and Social Policy at Yale University, is a frequent consultant to national policy makers and is internationally recognized for her work in the early care and education field. NANCY E. COHEN was a research associate at the Bush Center in Child Development and Social Policy at Yale University and has examined programs and infrastructure services in early care and education.

?Reinventing Early Care and Education provides badly needed insights and solutions to the quality problem in child care and early education in our nation. Full of specific new ideas, this is essential reading for policy makers and practitioners.? --Governor Roy Romer, state of Colorado ?The comprehensive approach to improving the qualitative aspects of early care and education for children in the United States makes this volume a must for all who have made children a priority. The attention given to multicultural perspectives is encouraging and is a positive move toward examining the growing importance of placing this analysis in a global context. Children the world over need that which is recommAnded for children in the United States.? --GwAndolyn Calvert Baker, president and CEO, United States Committee for UNICEF ?This seminal volume on the need for a much-improved early childhood education system incisively demonstrates that our nation can do much better in meeting the needs of our youngest children. The book offers a superb synthesis of the latest research and available action strategies that should be considered of the highest priority by America's pivotal institutions.? --David A. Hamburg, M.D., president, Carnegie Corporation of New York ?Because child care will be crucial to the success of state welfare reform efforts, federal funding for child care will almost triple over the next six years. Unless steps are taken to improve the quality of these services--ensuring quantity with quality--I believe that increased funding is of limited value. The challenge is before us and we cannot afford to fail. Governors, state human service administrators, and child care providers will find Reinventing Early Care and Education an invaluable resource in the development of child care that incorporates high quality, early childhood education.? --Senator Nancy Landon Kassebaum, state of Kansas

• 1. Introduction: The Changing Context of American Early Care and Education Part One: Quality Programs: The Case for an Expanded Definition2. Parents' Perspectives on Quality in Early Care and Education (Mary Larner)3. Reframing the Quality Issue(Deborah Phillips)4. International Approaches to Defining Quality(Jennifer Bush, Deborah Phillips)5. Multicultural Perspectives on Quality(Nancy E. Cohen, Delia Pompa)Part Two: The Infrastructure: The Case for a Quality System6. Licensing: Lessons from Other Occupations(Anne Mitchell)7. Training and Professional Development: International Approaches(Eliza Pritchard)8. Regulation: Alternative Approaches from Other Fields(Katherine L. Scurria)9. Governance: Child Care, Federalism, and Public Policy(William T. Gormley, Jr.)10. Funding and Financing: Moving Toward a More Universal System(Martin H. Gerry)11. Quality Infrastructure for Family Child Care(Shelby H. Miller)Part Three: Implementing Change12. Media and Mass Communications Strategies,(Kathy Bonk, Meredith Wile)13. Citizen Participation: Transforming Access Into Influence(Christopher Howard)14. Organizing Communities and Constituents for Change(Ernesto Cortes, Jr.)15. Understanding the Complexities of Educational Change(Ann Liberman, Diane Wood, Beverly Falk)16. The Synchrony of Stakeholders: Lessons from the Disabilities Rights Movement(H. Rutherford Turnbull, Ann P. Turnbull)Part Four: Creating a Quality Early Care and Education System17. A Vision for a Quality Early Care and Education System(Sharon L. Kagan, Nancy E. Cohen)18. Getting from Here to There: The Process and the Players(Nancy E. Cohen, Sharon L. Kagan)