Improving child care quality: A comparison of military and civilian approaches

New information on early childhood learn-ing and increasing demand for child care services have placed a spotlight on the need to improve the quality of early edu-cation and care in America. Research on brain development and learning has shown the importance of early education for young children (Shonkoff and Phillips 2000). Surveys of child care settings have documented the mediocre to poor quality of many of our child care programs (Helburn and Bergmann 2002). Mothers who work outside the home report that child care is a critical factor in their lives, and welfare reforms are intrinsically linke