Please note this is a 'Palgrave to Order' title (PTO). Stock of this book requires shipment from an overseas supplier. It will be delivered to you within 12 weeks. The U.S movement toward massive expansion of early childhood education and development has evolved into individual state-by-state initiatives. This volume sets forth the evidence that will encourage states to take up this cause, provide advocates with the information they will need to make their case, and guide states and advocates in building a public and political will for change.

NEW, ORIGINAL RESEARCH: Members of the Baker Institute at Rice University are known for their work to promote innovative ways to help bridge theory and research in a variety of subject areas with practical public policy. Contributors here have developed a set of proposed public policies to advance early childhood education and development. AUTHOR PLATFORM AND PROMOTION OPPORTUNITIES: Tarlov established the Texas Early Childhood Education Coalition which includes 220 member organizations, each with dozens, some with hundreds, of individual members interested in child development. The author is now on the board and can make the book visible on the website and potentially get TECEC to order a large batch of books (would like commitment before approaching them). The author is a long-standing member of the American Public Health Association and the D.C. organization Pre-K NOW, which he is confident he can get to help promote the book. PRESTIGIOUS CONTRIBUTORS: Chapter authors are nationally prominent interdisciplinary experts on early childhood education and development. The preface is being prepared by Professors Edward Zigler (Yale), Julius Richmond (Harvard), and Philip Lee (Stanford), the former U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health, Department of Health, Education and Welfare. INTERDISCIPLINARY ANGLE: The contributors touch on many disciplines and hail from diverse academic and professional backgrounds. The list includes policy-makers and organization presidents and CEOs, teachers and administrators in the childcare sector, academics in law, social policy, education, heath, sociology, and psychology. TIMELY: Preschool, early childhood development, and early childhood psychology are hot topics in the academy and beyond ¿ as we've seen with Building Blocks (Gene Maeroff's new book on pre-K education and learning) policymakers including several senators support new directions for early learning. This issue will only continue to heat up throughout the fall and all the way into 2008 elections. This will be one of the first solid collections to address significant topics in this area.

PART I:THE SCIENCE * Building Brain Architecture: A Primer for Policy Makers - Pat Levitt * National Scientific Council on the Developing Child: Working Papers - National Scientific Council * The Production of Human Development and Health - Alvin R. Tarlov * PART II:EARLY CHILDHOOD INTERVENTION PROGRAMS * Effective Early Childhood Programs: Turning Knowledge into Action - Susan Landry * Learning from Others: State Efforts to Expand Services and Build Systems of Early Care and Education - Kristie Kauerz * North Carolina's Early Childhood Initiative: The Smart Story and Its Evaluation - Donna Bryant * The Texas Plan - Kay M. Albrecht, Kaitlin G. Guthrow, Alvin R. Tarlov, James D. Calaway, Michelle Precourt Debbink, Todd Litton, Carol Shattuck, Karen Johnson, Jason Sabo, Thomas McIntire, James Strickland, Sandi Borden, Nancy Pechacek Hard, Sandra Lamm, Elizabeth Plaster &Shona Neigut * PART III:SOCIAL ACTION ANDPUBLIC POLICY ISSUES * Interventions to Enhance Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE): Potential, Limitations, and Requirements - Alvin R. Tarlov * Demographic and Related Economic Transformations of Texas: Implications for Early Childhood Development and Education - Steve H. Murdock * Can Society Profit from Investing in Early Education Programs? - Greg J. Duncan and Katherine Magnuson * Financing Early Childhood Care and Education Systems: A Standards-Based Approach - Anne Mitchell and Louise Stoney * Communications Research: Framing Messages for Early Childhood Development and Education - Susan Nall Balls