The purpose of this study was to examine the role of preschool education in Bahrain by studying the effects of three different preschool settings (care-oriented, educationallyoriented, and home) on children's cognitive and socio-emotional performance. A profile of six culturally adapted and translated (Arabic) parametrical instruments were used to measure children's progress (W = 140; M age = 48.7 months) over one academic year. Multiple regression analysis which considered several family and school background factors indicated that children attending preschools performed significantly better on language, memory, vocabulary, counting, and conceptual maturity measures when compared with children who stayed at home. Children attending educationally oriented centers significantly outperformed children at care-oriented centers and at home on all cognitive function and ability measures, including self-esteem, self-confidence, and emotional conduct. Most family background variables (mother's years of schooling, mother's age, months in preschool at entry and father's occupation) were not significantly related to outcome measures. Gender had a positive effect on some outcomes (language, perception, counting and emotional conduct problems) with boys scoring higher than girls. Age was a positive predictor of higher scores for children on the perceived competence outcomes.

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The aim of this study was to test reliabilities and validations for the Arabic translation of the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale, Revised (ECERS-R) scale [Harms, T., Clifford, R. M., & Cryer, D. (1998). Early childhood environment rating scale, revised edition. New York: Teachers College Press]. ECERS-R mean scores were tested for reliability at the indicator, item and total score levels. Test-retest, inter-rater and internal consistency correlation agreements were used on a sample of 50 childcare centres randomly sampled, representing category (national or private), region, type of childcare provision and classroom level (3-6 years) in Bahrain. High agreement levels (Cohen's kappas) between raters for mean total (0.797), item (0.78) and indicator (0.91) scores and internal consistency, 0.95 (Cronbach alpha) support ECERS-R as a reliably translated measure of quality identifiable in Arabic. Content, concurrent and predictive measures of validity included the Caregiver Interaction Scale significantly related with the ECERS-R (r = .56 Pearson product moment) and higher staff qualification levels which predicted higher ECERS-R scores, ANOVA F(1, 49) = 3.81, p = .05. Factor analyses identified high item loadings (>.69) for the total ECERS-R scale and also with the two factors: teaching and interaction and provisions and learning (Clifford, R., Reszka, S. and Rossbach, H. (2010). Reliability and validity of the early childhood environment rating scale. Chapel Hill: FPG Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina), demonstrating the ECERS-R in Arabic to be a reliable and valid instrument. Further research evidence using the Arabic scale is needed. Reliability and validity of ECERS-R in ArabicAn instrument's reliability refers to the consistency of scores over time and between different raters. Importantly, the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale, Revised (ECERS-R) has used several types of reliability which include test-retest reliability, internal consistency and inter-rater reliability. The procedures for analysis include calculating the total scores by summing the scores from each item, and then finding a mean item score giving each item an equal weight in the total score calculation. All items from the scale are used in the analysis so as not to affect the total scores. In addition, the authors recommend that subscale scores not be considered as Downloaded by [University of Nebraska, Lincoln] at 13:55 03 February 2015independent unit measures of quality to be compared across studies (Clifford, Reszka, & Rossbach, 2010).The ECERS-R Arabic version is the translation of the well-known and established original ECERS-R scale. It maintains the same conceptual framework, scoring approach and administration. The original ECERS-R is reliable at the indicator and item level, and at the levels of the total scores. Percentage level of agreement across the full 470 indicators in the scale was 86.1%, with no item having an indicator agreement level below 70%. Exact agreement at the item level was 48%...

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