Since child and family services are expensive, legislatives and community leaders have called fro standards and greater accountability in government funded programs.  

There has been a push to improve education success, even at a young age.

• ex: No child left behind act / Head Start Child Outcomes Framework
• Works to mandate higher educational standards and increase assessment of learning

• Accounts of the strong kinship and tribal bonds suggests adults showed high degree of concern and caring toward children as they did towards members of their families and communities.

• Ancient stories, family histories, art and music support respect for all living things.  Children were a significant part of the natural order, and therefore, were highly cherished ad protected.

• Confucianism's focus on harmony led to the belief in both societies that children are inherently good.  
• Japanese and Chinese children were encouraged to learn through observation and imitation

• Promoted collectivism- family and non-family members to band together and pool resources and share caregiving tasks.
• Used firm and directive socialization practices to protect their children from dangers inherent in slavery or colonization- survival demanded children become more mature at an earlier age and promoted self-sufficiency so they could avoid harsh punishment by slave holders.
• Oppression led to valuing western education and academic achievement within a dominant society
• Also occurred to opposite- devaluing western education where families rejected mainstream ideas
• both were used to put children on right direction

• By using formal, controlled, and objective observation techniques, the results presented milestones in physical, mental, and social development for each age level of childhood.
• Issue- only included white, middle-class children.

• Two or more behaviors or developmental characteristics are observed for a particular group of children, and an effort is made to determine whether relationships exist among them.

• Factors of interest are examined by observing a group of children of many different ages only once or a small number of times.

• A group of children is followed over a period of time to observe changes in their behavior and development at various age levels.

• Just because two characteristics or behaviors are found to be related DOES NOT mean that one causes the other.

• The researcher intervenes in some way in children's lives and observes what happens.
• ex: designed a six week experiment to test strategies for improving young children's attitudes towards those of different cultures.  What they found was those who discussed both similarities and cultural differences of the characters in the story held the most positive attitudes.  Best way to reduce prejudice in children.

• Children are observed and their behaviors are tallied or rated numerically.

• Involves open-ended observations of children, usually in natural settings.  Used to provide a thick description of children's development that captures all aspects of their lives

• Type of qualitative research.  Method uses traditional procedures of the anthropologist to study children's development within cultural context.

• Whenever teachers or caregivers of young children observe them in a classroom and in a thoughtful and organized way the conduct informal research used to answer pressing question related to classroom life.

• Type of coding system for developmental checklist.  Teachers make a check or notation on a coding sheet every time a particular behavior is observed.  

• Teachers observe children at regular intervals and record interactions that occur within that time frame.

1. Selecting child or children to be observed.
2. Selecting the focus of the observation
3. Taking notes during observations
4. Writing up observations
5. Interpreting anecdotal records