NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
This report has been reviewed by a group other than the authors according to procedures approved by a Report Review Committee consisting of members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Bruce Alberts is president of the National Academy of Sciences.
The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Robert M. White is president of the National Academy of Engineering.
The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Kenneth I. Shine is president of the Institute of Medicine.
The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy's purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Bruce Alberts and Dr. Robert M. White are chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the National Research Council.
Support for this project was provided by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation Endowment Fund of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine.
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Board on Children and Families
Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education
National Research Council
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Copyright 1994 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
BOARD ON CHILDREN AND FAMILIES
SHELDON H. WHITE
(Chair),
Department of Psychology, Harvard University
JACK P. SHONKOFF
(Vice Chair),
Brandeis University
JOMILLS H. BRADDOCK II,
Department of Sociology, University of Miami
DAVID V. B. BRITT,
Children's Television Workshop, New York City
LARRY BUMPASS,
Center for Demography and Ecology, University of Wisconsin
PEGGY DAVIS,
Clinical Law Center, New York University
FERNANDO A. GUERRA,
Director of Health,
San Antonio Metropolitan Health District
BERNARD GUYER,
Department of Maternal and Child Health, The Johns Hopkins University
ALETHA C. HUSTON,
Human Development and Family Life, University of Kansas
RAY MARSHALL,
LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas
ROBERT MICHAEL,
Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago
PAUL NEWACHECK,
Institute of Health Policy Studies and Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Francisco
JULIUS B. RICHMOND,
Department of Social Medicine, Harvard University Medical School
TIMOTHY M. SANDOS,
City Council, Denver, Colorado
LISBETH B. SCHORR,
Harvard Project on Effective Services, Harvard University
CAROLE SIMPSON,
ABC News, Washington, D.C.
DEBORAH STIPEK,
Graduate School of Education, University of California, Los Angeles
DIANA TAYLOR,
Women's Health Program, Department of Family Health Care Nursing, University of California, San Francisco
GAIL WILENSKY,
Project Hope, Bethesda, Maryland
JOEL J. ALPERT
(Liaison),
Council, Institute of Medicine
ANN L. BROWN
(Liaison),
Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, National Research Council
RUTH T. GROSS
(Liaison),
Board on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Institute of Medicine
DEBORAH A. PHILLIPS,
Director
ROSEMARY CHALK,
Senior Program Officer
NANCY A. CROWELL,
Research Associate
DRUSILLA BARNES,
Senior Project Assistant
WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS
DEBORAH STIPEK
(Chair),
Professor,
Graduate School of Education, University of California, Los Angeles
DIANE AUGUST,
Executive Director,
Stanford Working Group, and Educational Consultant, Washington, D.C.
DAVID K. DICKINSON,
Associate Professor,
Education Department, Clark University, Worcester, and Senior Research associate, Educational Development Center, Newton, Massachusetts
RUSSELL GERSTEN,
Professor of Educational Research,
University of Oregon, Eugene
CLAUDE GOLDENBERG,
Associate Professor,
Department of Teacher Education, California State University, Long Beach
PATRICIA GREENFIELD,
Professor,
Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles
SHARON GRIFFIN,
Assistant Professor,
Department of Education, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts
KENJI HAKUTA,
Professor,
School of Education, Stanford University, Stanford, California
LUIS M. LAOSA,
Principal Research Scientist,
Educational Testing Service, Princeton, New Jersey
LUCINDA PEASE-ALVAREZ,
Assistant Professor of Education,
University of California, Santa Cruz
DELIA POMPA,
Consultant,
Boston, Massachusetts
BARBARA ROGOFF,
Professor,
Department of Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz
TIMOTHY SHANAHAN,
Professor of Urban Education and Director,
Center for Literacy, University of Illinois, Chicago
WILLIAM TEALE,
Department of Education,
University of Texas, San Antonio
Acknowledgments
Major support for this activity was provided by the Kellogg Endowment Fund of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM). This fund, established with a grant from the Kellogg Foundation that requires the NAS and the IOM to provide matching funds, is used to support activities in a variety of areas, including education and health, for which the wide dissemination of final products is critical. The decision to apply a portion of these funds towards work in the area of cultural diversity and early education is gratefully acknowledged.
Special thanks go to Eugene Garcia and Sharon Lynn Kagan, who originally conceived of this work in the area of cultural diversity and early education, and to Patricia Place, who oversaw the initial activities on this topic as director of the National Forum on the Future of Children and Families. A planning workshop on culture and education, chaired by Eugene Garcia, was held on April 22, 1993. Thanks are due to the participants in that workshop—Barbara Bowman, Ana Mari Cauce, Jane Delgado, Lily Wong Fillmore, Kris Gutierrez, Penny Hauser-Cram, Brian McNulty, Barbara Rogoff, Olivia Saracho, Howard Stevenson, Jaan Valsiner, Olga Vasquez, and Gordon Wells—for their contributions.
The success of the Forum and its many activities led the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine in May 1993 to establish the Board on Children and Families. Eugene Garcia, Deborah Stipek, Kenji Hakuta, and Diane August played instrumental roles in shepherding the work on culture and education through the transition from the Forum to the
Board. Deborah Stipek, member of the Board, was a masterful chair of the Workshop on Culture and Early Education: Assessing and Applying the Knowledge Base, held at the Beckman Center on November 29-30, 1993. This report is based largely on that workshop. Many other individuals, including Ron Mincy, Jerome Kagan, Ann Brown, Anne Marie Palincsar, Jim Stigler, and Ron Gallimore, made very helpful contributions to various stages of the work of the Forum and Board in this area. Laura Klenk and Andrea DeBruin Parecki, graduate students at the University of Michigan, prepared a background paper, “Preschool Development in Ethnically and Linguistically Diverse Populations: A Review of the Literature,” that provided extremely valuable input to the November 1993 workshop and to this report.