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This research examines the relationships between participation in an inclusive preschool program, children's understanding of disabilities, and their acceptance of children with disabilities. Subjects were preschool children enrolled in regular ( n = 31) and inclusive ( n = 29) programs. Children's understanding of competencies associated with specific disabilities, and their general acceptance of others, were assessed using interview questions and dolls. Children were interviewed to learn their ideas about the immediate and long-term consequences of physical and sensory disabilities. In addition, children provided ratings of the social acceptance of hypothetical children with and without disabilities. Children in inclusive classes had more knowledge about long-term consequences of disabilities than did children in regular preschool classes. In addition, children in inclusive settings gave significantly higher acceptance ratings to children with and without disabilities than did children in regular preschool classes. Finally, it was found that children's knowledge of disabilities, their overall acceptance of individuals without disabilities, and their participation in an inclusive class contributed significantly and independently to their acceptance of children with disabilities.

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Abstract:The purpose of the current study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R) with a large sample (1313 classrooms). We explored both the seven subscales and the possibility of fewer distinct aspects of quality being measured by the scale. The large sample size allowed both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to be performed. The results showed two distinct factors, Activities/Materials (nine items) and Language/Interaction (seven items), which accounted for 69% of the variance. High internal consistency scores, a moderate correlation between the factorbased scales, and a strong correlation between the combined factor-based scales and the overall ECERS-R score suggested these were distinct factors that could serve as a proxy for the larger scale. Structural aspects of quality and teacher education were examined in relation to the new factor-based scales and the overall score. Implications for practitioners and future research suggestions are provided Keywords: Preschool | Activities/Materials | Language/Interaction | Early Childhood | Teacher Education Article:The Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R) (Harms, Clifford, & Cryer, 1998) is perhaps the most frequently used measure of global quality in early childhood settings. As Scarr et al. have argued, instruments, such as the ECERS-R, have multiple purposes including regulatory, research, and consultative (Scarr, Eisenberg, & Deater-Deckard, 1994). Desirable properties of such instruments vary with the purpose. For research purposes, a streamlined, easier to administer measure is most preferable while for regulatory and consultative purposes a more detailed, longer scale may be more appropriate. Certainly, when a scale, such as the ECERS-R, is used for regulatory purposes, it is critical that the breadth of quality be examined in as comprehensive a manner as possible. When using the scale for research there are advantages in efficiency to having fewer items. The time to obtain inter-observer reliability and to administer the scale may be shortened. The use of factor analysis techniques to reduce the scale can also provide insight into underlying unique dimensions of quality rather than a single global indicator. Several factor analyses have been completed on the both the original ECERS (Harms & Clifford, 1980;Howes, Phillips, & Whitebook, 1992; Phillipsen, Bruchinal, Howes, & Cryer, 1997;Scarr et al., 1994) and the revised version (Holloway, Kagan, Fuller, Tsou, & Carroll, 2001;Perlman, Zellman, & Le, 2004;Sakai, Whitebook, Wishard, & Howes, 2003) with different results. Limited sample sizes in these past studies have not permitted both exploratory and confirmatory factor analytic techniques to be used. The large sample size in the current study allowed for a more statistically rigorous approach to determine if there are underlying distinct constructs of quality in the ECERS-R and if a shorter version of scale can be reliably used in research studies. Previous ...

While child care quality has been examined in numerous studies, the definition of quality and specifically, the concepts of structural and process quality, have not been adequately explored. In this qualitative analysis of the constructs of process and structural quality, a content analysis of the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R), a commonly used measure of process quality, was conducted to investigate its use as a measure of process quality. Through constant comparative analysis of the ECERS-R at the indicator level, definitions of structure and process were formulated. Results show that over half of the indicators of the ECERS-R are measuring structural quality rather than process quality. Further examination of quality as a dynamic exchange between individuals and context is needed to advance research in the area of early childhood program quality.