In a spring 2010 survey, Austin Independent School District prekindergarten teachers with more than 18 students reported a greater frequency of students' disruptive behaviors than did similar teachers with fewer students. Most teachers gave positive ratings to their support team, central office staff, and the curriculum.

Research Findings: Parental engagement with children has been linked to a number of adaptive characteristics in preschool children, and relationships between families and professionals are an important contributor to school readiness. Furthermore, social-emotional competence is a key component of young children's school readiness. This study…

This article reviews the findings from our assessments of children and their families in two Head Start programs using the Family Map. Specifically, we used the Family Map assessment tool to identify risks to children associated with alcohol and drug use in families with young children. Practical suggestions are offered to administrators about the…

This report compares the circumstances and characteristics of Black immigrant mothers in Palm Beach County, Florida, to those of Latina immigrant and Black native-born mothers, focusing on those living in distressed areas. The study also compares the early developmental outcomes of their children. When controlling for parental and child…

Past research on school-level factors that predict children's development has focused largely on associations between a limited number of characteristics, such as school size and school resources, and children's academic achievement. Few studies take a more comprehensive look at the measurement of school climate or examine its relationship to…

This study investigates the effects of the Family and Child Education (FACE) prekindergarten program on school readiness. The FACE program is located in Bureau of Indian Education-funded schools on some of the most rural American Indian (AI) reservations in the United States. It explicitly integrates the language and culture of the communities in…

The United States faces the challenge of adapting to the demands of a globalized economy. Jobs have become more specialized and more driven by technology, requiring higher levels of education and training than did many of the jobs available to high school graduates of the past. Students must graduate from high school ready for the demands of…

The academic success of students in schools across the state is a top priority for California policy-makers. But for some students, academic goals set by the state remain out of reach. The issue of "CenterView" concentrates of the situation of the more than 74,000 children in the California foster care system. By the standard measures…

This article explores perceptions of community college students and their characteristics, focusing on issues of responsibility, perceptions of self and others, personal experiences, and academic preparedness relative to community college status. A brief survey was developed to measure these perceptions in both community college and 4-year/senior…

Evidence from over four decades of research affirms that family involvement in a child's learning is one of the strongest predictors of social, emotional, and academic development; however, Euro-American, middle-class families tend to be more involved in schools than minority and low-income families. A major factor influencing family involvement…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) "The High Cost of Low Educational Performance": New OECD Report Finds that 25 Point Increase in PISA Scores…

How good does an early childhood program have to be in order to achieve school readiness outcomes for children? This is known as the "threshold question," and policy makers and others have wanted an answer to this question since the onset of public investments in early care and education (ECE) programs. With expansion of Head Start and…

Background: Socially disadvantaged children with academic difficulties at school entry are at increased risk for poor health and psychosocial outcomes. Our objective is to test the possibility that participation in childcare--at the population level--could attenuate the gap in academic readiness and achievement between children with and without a…

The traditional kindergarten program often reflected a rich but generic approach with creative contexts for typical kindergartners organized around materials (manipulatives or dramatic play) or a developmental area (fine motor or language). The purpose of kindergarten reflected beliefs about how children learn, specialized training for…

The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) review in this topic area focuses on interventions that have a primary focus on outcomes associated with the school readiness of children with disabilities, including outcomes in the areas of cognition, communication competencies, literacy, mathematics achievement, social-emotional development and behavior,…