ABSTRACT
At our University, the Child Development Lab (CDL) has a great reputation for oering a top-notch early education program for young children and their families. There is a long waiting list for children to enroll and the common wisdom around town is that as soon as expectant parents tell their families about the impending birth, their next call is to the lab school to reserve a future place in the program. This story is common across the country and I have heard it numerous times during my 35-year involvement in higher education administration and early childhood education. During this time, I have been a lead teacher in a lab school, a CDL director, the chair of a department that administered a CDL, and now I serve as dean of a college that is home to one. Based on these experiences, I have seen the value of lab schools rsthand, as well as their vulnerabilities. Most importantly, I have come to believe in their potential as valuable vehicles for 21st century scholarship.
