School Readiness Research in Latin America: Findings and Challenges.

Educational results in Latin America (LA) are well below those of developed countries. One factor that influences how well children do at school is school readiness. In this article, we review studies conducted in LA on the readiness skills of preschool children.

Experimental impacts of a teacher professional development program in Chile on preschool classroom quality and child outcomes.

We assessed impacts on classroom quality and on 5 child language and behavioral outcomes of a 2-year teacher professional-development program for publicly funded prekindergarten and kindergarten in Chile. This cluster-randomized trial included 64 schools (child N = 1,876). The program incorporated workshops and in-classroom coaching.

Teacher-child interactions in Chile and their associations with prekindergarten outcomes.

Quality of teacher-child interactions is central to prekindergarten children's learning. In the United States, the quality of teacher-child interactions is commonly assessed using the teaching through interactions conceptual framework and an associ/ated observational tool, the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS). This study examined: (a) whether there was evidence supporting three distinctive domains of teacher-child interactions in Chile (construct validity) and (b) whether these domains predicted end-of-prekindergarten language, academic, and executive function skills in Chile (predictive validity).

Proteomic analysis of free-living Bradyrhizobium diazoefficiens: highlighting potential determinants of a successful symbiosis.

Background: Strain CPAC 7 (=SEMIA 5080) was recently reclassified into the new species Bradyrhizobium diazoefficiens; due to its outstanding efficiency in fixing nitrogen, it has been used in commercial inoculants for application to crops of soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] in Brazil and other South American countries.