Kindergarten has become increasingly academically oriented, and U.S. kindergarten teachers are increasingly called upon to implement policies that require assessment and promote accountability. However, little recent research has focused on kindergarten teachers' beliefs about kindergarten readiness. The authors examined teachers' beliefs related…

The goal of this longitudinal study is to examine the relationships between early child factors (i.e., age at identification, enrollment in early intervention, oral language skills) and school readiness skills (i.e., conceptual knowledge) in a group of young children with hearing loss (HL). Standardized language, cognition, and conceptual…

Current preschool learning guidelines, created in response to NCLB requirements, focus on three areas of human development in an effort to ensure that preschoolers are ready for kindergarten. This study examined four New England states' preschool learning guidelines, looking at how each detailed its support for preschoolers' development. The…

Bearing in mind the requirements of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation, Louisiana's Steering Committee projected performance targets through the year 2014 for the important areas of: (1) Graduation with a Diploma; (2) Dropout Rate; (3) Placement, ages 6-21 and ages 3-5; (4) Achievement Performance Levels, and (5) Discipline. Annual gains were…

The reauthorized Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), signed on December 3, 2004, required that, not later than one year after the date of enactment of the reauthorized IDEA, each state is required to have in place a performance plan evaluating the state's implementation of Part B and describing how the state will improve such…

Efficacy of an explicit phonological awareness intervention embedded within repeated shared book reading with preschool children from low-income backgrounds with language delays was investigated. A multiple-baseline design across behaviors assessed the effects of phonological awareness training on rhyme and letter-sound knowledge with 13 preschool…

This study reports on the developmental functioning levels of children from birth through age 2 in early intervention services and children ages 3-5 in early childhood special education services at the time of entry into services, using data from the Oregon Early Childhood Assessment System. The assessment system contains data on the assessed…

Background/Context: Culturally authoritative texts such as Text Revision of the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual-IV [DSM-IV-TR](American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2004) describe literate impossibility for individuals with disability labels associated with severe developmental disabilities. Our qualitative research challenges the…

In this article, the author features the Children's Support Services (CSS) project in Lowell, Massachusetts, which is an interagency, multidisciplinary program that provides young children and their families a range of child development, mental health, and family support services. The CSS project, which was begun in September 2000, addresses the…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 2004 established a requirement that all States develop and submit to the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) a performance plan designed to advance the State from its current level of compliance with the statutory and regulatory requirements of the law…

Interest in foreign-language instruction in preschool is growing, both among parents and early-childhood educators trying to meet the demand. The interest, though, comes at a time when some districts are scaling back on such programs in the elementary grades in order to spend more time on reading and mathematics--the subjects currently tested to…

The early childhood educational field has garnered attention with initiatives to foster skill acquisition in young children prior to kindergarten entry. These initiatives, in conjunction with the rigorous demands of curricular reform and a burgeoning accountability movement, invoke questions regarding the adequacy of the instruments used to assess…

This article describes the frequency, characteristics, and predictors of father-school communication in preschool and kindergarten in a sample of children "at risk" for school failure based on family sociodemographic characteristics. Data were gathered during the implementation of the National Center for Early Development and Learning…