Winton, p., & Catlett, C.(2009). "Statewide efforts to enhance early childhood personnel preparation programs to support inclusion: Overview and lessons learned." Infants and Young Children, 22(1), 63. Retrieved September 3,2009,from Research Library. Document ID 1623310961)

This article examines the need for more early childhood teachers that are qualified and adequately prepared to provide care and instruction for students with special needs. The study followed the implementation of the Natural Allies, a national program that focused on statewide preparation and support services for early childhood educators. Contrary to many opinions about bureaucracy in education, the authors of this study concluded that outside instigation of generating better training and support systems can be very effective, especially when this instigation is combined with a coordination in planning with the state facilitator of services. The study also found a general eagerness in current college and university students planning on entering the field of early childhood and/or special needs education to take part in the planning process. All in all, the authors found the Natural Allies program to be very effective, and encourage increased collaboration in the area in order to enhance progress already being made.

The scope of the study makes it more reliable than many other case studies; the fact that a national plan was being implemented gave the authors a unique opportunity to determine not only overall effects, but also specific variables that appear to have an effect on outcomes based on the numerous different regions studied. That being said, the amount of quantitative data -- or rather the thereof -- is somewhat disappointing. Many of the conclusions seem valid, and there is certainly a sound logical causal relationship between the program and many of the effects noted by the authors, but their findings would have been more convincing had they presented additional hard data to back them up. Still, this article points out many avenues of future research that could suggest even more successful methods of preparing and supporting teachers in early childhood special needs environments, thus better serving both the ethical duties and the federal mandates of the instructors and the educational institutions.