<P style="MARGIN: 0px">Today's early childhood educators are faced with a great deal of responsibility and are called upon to make numerous decisions every day.  They interact with children, families, colleagues, administrators, and policy makers.  To be effective, their actions have to be based not on their own personal opinions, but by an understanding of the complexities related to each new, potentially controversial issue and current research on child development and the best practices in early childhood education programs.  This unique book aims to address this need for advanced students and veteran educators to have a bipartisan reference of the most important issues of the day as addressed by the most advanced scholars in the field.  </P> <P style="MARGIN: 0px"> </P>To do this, the authors have called on eighteen of the most influential educators of the day to contribute a chapter on each topic covered in the book.  These multiple perspectives provide an unbiased overview of each issue.  The issues covered include families, advocacy, children with disabilities, and diversity.  Chapters on developmentally appropriate practices stimulate discussion of the influence of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC.)