Evaluation of a Scottish national pilot "baseline assessment" of preschool and primary students included interviews and surveys of preschool and first-grade teachers and head teachers in schools participating in the pilot. Most welcomed the professional judgment approach to student evaluation but identified significant issues related to…

Discusses the young child's home-community links and less strong school-community links. Examines reasons for schools becoming isolated from their communities. Emphasizes importance of teachers finding ways to relate child's learning to the community and finding ways to let parents share in their children's learning at school. (LFL)

Examines the role of early-education research in addressing issues of educational disadvantage and inequality, particularly in light of 1990s politics, which emphasizes the marketplace metaphor. Discusses the culture of achievement and failure, effects of disadvantaged background on young children's understanding of the learning task, teacher…

Evidence from interviews with 87 mothers of mentally handicapped children indicates that anxiety scores and perceptions of family problems are not consistently related to children's handicaps. It also questions whether "protectiveness" by mothers of the severely handicapped should be considered "overprotectiveness" since this…