Report on Travel to Former Yugoslavia,April 17–May 7, 2008

The author traveled primarily to Sarajevo, Bosnia‐Herzegovina and Skopje, Macedonia. She attended the 4th International Convention of Slavicist Librarians in Sarajevo and visited the Sarajevo Book Fair. In both capitals she met with book vendors and visited bookstores and libraries. She also learned that travel between the successor states is more complicated now than before the breakup of close Yugoslavia.     

Reading Among Young Russians: Some Modern Tendencies

This article is a preliminary summary of the results of a huge study of reading among urban high school students (ages 14–17) in many regions of Russia. It considers such aspects of the topic as: the place of reading in the structure of high school students' life plans and leisure activities; their motives for reading, their preferences, and the amount they read; the level of their culture of reading and information seeking; and the influence of family, peers, libraries, and the Internet on their reading habits.     

Predictors of Global Quality in Family Child Care Homes: Structural and Belief Characteristics

Research Findings: With a substantial number of young children receiving care in family child care settings, an examination of the characteristics, both structural and attitudinal, that predict program quality is warranted. The current study examines gaps in the research by examining both structural characteristics and provider beliefs that influence observed global quality in family child care homes. Results of this study suggest that belief characteristics can predict the quality of family child care homes above and beyond structural characteristics alone. Practice or Policy: Providing support to help all providers understand appropriate developmental expectations for children and how to effectively guide children is critical for quality improvement efforts. In addition, providing support to decrease job stress and improve professional motivation is highlighted.     

Ethnic Variation in the Association Between Family Structures and Practices on Child Outcomes at 36 Months: Results From Early Head Start

Research Findings: This study analyzed data from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Study (EHSRES) to examine whether the association between family structural characteristics (maternal education, number of parents, employment status, and number of children), parenting practices (sensitive and negative parenting, cognitively stimulating home environment, authoritarian parenting), and children's outcomes (receptive language, cognitive development, and problem behaviors) differ across ethnicity. A sample of 2,777 low-income families included 39% European Americans/Whites, 36% African Americans, and 25% Hispanics. Results indicated ethnic differences in some family structural characteristics, parenting practices, and child outcomes. With the exception of employment status, there was limited evidence that ethnic differences in family structural characteristics were related to differences in child outcomes. Though there were also ethnic differences in parenting practices, there was no evidence that ethnicity moderated the relation between parenting practices and children's language, cognitive, and behavioral outcomes at 36 months. Practice or Policy: The implication of this study is the need to foster and focus on positive parenting practices, rather than negatives ones, because of their importance to children's language, cognitive development, and behavior management. Ethnic differences may matter, but they may not in the face of other stressors such as economic fears, job instability, health concerns, and neighborhood safety.     

Field-Based Evaluation of Two-Tiered Instruction for Enhancing Kindergarten Phonological Awareness

Research Findings: This study reports on the outcomes of a multisite, two-tiered, response-to-intervention instructional model for delivering phonological awareness instruction and intervention to kindergartners. Fifty-seven kindergartners from 3 classrooms participated in a supplemental phonological awareness program, and 56 kindergartners from 3 classrooms received the prevailing school-adopted literacy curriculum. All children in the supplemental condition received supplemental classroom-based phonological awareness instruction in addition to the adopted literacy curriculum. At mid-year, 6 low literacy achievers were identified in each supplemental classroom (n = 18) to participate in an additional 12-week small-group intervention. The classroom-based supplemental curriculum did not produce statistically significant gains for typically achieving children on measures of letter–sound knowledge, word recognition, or developmental spelling. However, an add-on tier of supplemental instruction exerted a substantial advantage for low-achieving children on a measure of developmental spelling. Practice or Policy: Results suggest that a 2-tiered intervention model provides an effective means for improving the literacy outcomes of low-achieving kindergarten children.     

Physical Discipline Use and Child Behavior Problems in Low-Income,High-Risk African American Families

This article has been retracted.     

Assistant Teachers in Head Start Classrooms: Comparing to and Working With Lead Teachers

Research Findings: The purpose of the present study is to examine the degree to which assistant and lead teachers work together in Head Start classrooms in 3 domains: emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support. Pairs of lead and assistant teachers from 14 Head Start classrooms were simultaneously observed for 1 morning to examine the quality of teachers’ interactions with students in these 3 domains. First we examined the mean levels of the 3 domains and how they differed among teachers. Overall, results indicated moderate levels of emotional support and classroom organization and low levels of instructional support. In comparing lead and assistant teachers, we found that lead teachers offered significantly higher levels of instructional support than assistant teachers. Next we examined how the quality of lead and assistant teachers’ interactions were related over time. Concurrent correlations were nonsignificant. Lagged correlations suggested that lead and assistant teachers’ interactions with students were related over time. Practice or Policy: Assistant teachers offered comparable levels of emotional support and classroom organization but did not offer the same levels of instructional support. This suggests that assistant teachers are able to help provide a nurturing environment and help with structuring activities despite having lower entry-level qualification requirements. This study supports the notion that assistant teachers as well as lead teachers should be included in quality improvement efforts.