Quality of Prekindergarten: What Families Are Looking for in Public Sponsored Programs
Titel:
Quality of Prekindergarten: What Families Are Looking for in Public Sponsored Programs
Auteur:
Barbarin, Oscar A. McCandies, Terry Early, Diane Clifford, Richard M. Bryant, Donna Burchinal, Margaret Howes, Carollee Pianta, Robert
Verschenen in:
Early education and development
Paginering:
Jaargang 17 (2006) nr. 4 pagina's 619-642
Jaar:
2006-12-01
Inhoud:
This study describes the meaning of program quality for a representative group of parents of children enrolled in public prekindergarten programs. Educators often conceptualized quality in terms of structural or process indicators; parents most often cited teacher experience and relationship to children. Families, like educators, emphasized enhancing readiness as central to program quality. In addition, families identified 3 classes of indicators not usually included in educational research or professional discussions of program quality: comprehensive service provision, convenient location, and home-school collaboration. In the decision to enroll children in a program, Whites more often relied on indicators of the classroom emotional climate, Latinos more often examined the provision of comprehensive services, and African Americans more often weighed the quality of home-school partnerships than their ethnic counterparts. For Latinos living in poverty, the concern about dual language development was salient. African Americans emphasized the importance of a close relationship with staff.