Promise of Preschool

How did the United States move from seeing preschool as a way to give the nation's poorest children a "head start" to the goal of providing preschool for all children as the beginning of public education? Drawing lessons from the successes and failures of past efforts, advocates, policymakers, and experts have recently been pushing to make preschool education available to all children. They have had remarkable success at expanding preschool in many parts of thecountry, and are gaining support for federal action as well. Yet questions still remain about the best ways to shape policy that will fulfill the promise of preschool. The Promise of Preschool investigates how policy choices in the past forty-five years-such as the creation of Head Start in the 1960s, efforts to craft a child care system in the 1970s, and the campaign to reform K-12 schooling in the 1980s—helped shape the decisions that policymakers are now making about early education. It traces decisions made by presidents from Lyndon Johnson to George W. Bush, and by members of Congress, governors, state legislators, educators, researchers,children's advocates, community activists, foundation leaders and others who have shaped our nation's approach to the care and education of young children. Having explored the sources of today's preschool movement, the book then discusses policy questions that need to be addressed as we move forward: should preschool be provided to all children, or just to the neediest? Should it be run by public schools, or incorporate private child care providers? What are the most important ways to ensure educational quality? By looking at these policy issues through the lens of history, this book offers a unique perspective on this important area of educationreform, and explores how an understanding of the past can help spur debate about today's decisions.

a detailed, engrossing book., No complete understanding of the major development of how our nation has firmly embraced the value of preschool education is possible without a close reading of this impressively researched historical overview. It is the most complete history of the preschool education movement written to date. Plus, the author even-handedly discusses the remaining issues that must be resolved before the full potential of preschool can be realized., It is rare to find in one volume acute historical analysis and good sense about current questions of public policy. The Promise of Preschool offers both, told in the form of a lively narrative. It's a book that should be read not only by scholars and advocates, but also by all who care about children and the futures they will create for all of us., Beautifully and accessibly written, The Promise of Preschool is a spectacular piece of scholarship. A highly original analysis, the book is a goldmine for anyone who wants to understand one of the most important issues in America today. Rose carefully examines the strengths and weaknesses of each side of the debate and provides a much needed voice of mediation in the battle over how to move forward in the rapidly growing world of preschool education. Anyone interested in the future of education should read this book. Our children and our country can't wait., The Promise of Preschool deftly employs stories about people, places, and reform movements to account for America's patchwork approach to preschool, and does so with an eye to broader theoretical questions about how history constrains and enables social change.

Elizabeth Rose is an Adjunct Professor and the Project Director of a Teaching American History grant at Central Connecticut State University. She is the author of A Mother's Job: The History of Day Care, 1890-1960 (OUP, 1998).