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Elementary principals are increasingly responsible for the supervision, support, and evaluation of early childhood teachers and young children. Previous research demonstrated that principals may prefer to hire elementary-certified rather than early childhood-certified teachers and that principals without early childhood preparation may not advocate for developmentally appropriate practices. This study examines elementary principals' preparation for and perceptions of early childhood education, including their knowledge of child development and hiring preferences. We use state certification data to understand principals' preparation and survey data to explore principals' perceptions and practices. Findings indicate that few principals hold early childhood certification while most supervise early childhood teachers and young children. Principals also indicated a lack of commitment to the PreK-3 continuum. Along with previous literature, our findings suggest that principal preparation requirements should be revised to ensure that all who support and evaluate early childhood teachers and young children receive relevant coursework and experiences.

This case examines the complex interactions among university faculty, teacher candidates, and school-based mentor teachers during supervision. In early childhood, among other skills and dispositions, the use of developmentally appropriate practice and an equity focus are important to the overall advancement of teacher candidates' practice. However, supervisors do not have oversight of the classrooms in which early childhood candidates are placed for field experiences. In some cases, teacher candidates may be expected to conform to or demonstrate practices themselves which are not developmentally appropriate, or which are inequitable. What is the role of the supervising faculty member in these cases, and how can the supervisor navigate the relationship with mentor teacher and host school, while also supporting appropriate and equitable professional growth in the teacher candidate?

Young children's symbolic representations are important to emergent literacy; therefore, this study focused on children's spontaneous block building and picture drawing in preschool. The goals of this exploratory study were: (1) investigate the relation between the complexity of block play, picture drawing details, and performance on an emergent literacy assessment, (2) analyze block play complexity and its relation to details in picture drawing, and (3) explore the demographic variables related to block play and picture drawing. Nineteen preschool children from a university laboratory school were participants in this study. Results indicated that block play complexity (structure complexity, unique blocks used and total number of blocks used) were highly correlated to children's emergent literacy scores. Additionally, children's picture drawing showed strong relationships to the literacy assessment score. Further, a significant drawing-writing connection was revealed. There were no gender differences found for picture drawing; however, there was a significant gender difference in the number of blocks used during block play, with girls using more than boys. The study suggests that children who demonstrate more complexity in their block building also display more details within their picture drawing.