Early education is increasingly seen as a fundamental educational strategy that is necessary to children’s lifetime success. For that reason, a number of states are giving it increasing prominence. For over 15 years, AppleTree has operated full-day early education charter schools in Washington, DC, as well as supporting charter schools and community-based centers in other states (including Ohio and New York) who wish to implement their own early education programs. Based on this wealth of experience, this session will (1) highlight outcomes for charter schools that successfully implement early education programs, (2) describe opportunities, challenges and pitfalls in developing and implementing effective early-education classrooms, and (3) share best practices, pedagogical and operational matters and concerns, and lessons learned from building and aligning evidence-based Pre-K programs into various schools