US: First-grade classrooms need improvement

Study says most 1st grade classes not high quality

Education Week  February 28, 2009

The Study of Early Child
Care and Youth Development, a 17-year-long research effort financed by
the federal National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, has found that most 1st grade classrooms  are not as "warm, friendly, and
academically stimulating" as educational experts think they should be.  Only 23% of the classrooms studied at 820 schools across the country were found to be of "high quality."