"Child Care Health Connections" is a bimonthly newsletter published by the California Childcare Health Program (CCHP), a community-based program of the University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing, Department of Family Health Care Nursing. The goals of this newsletter are to promote and support a healthy and safe environment…

This study used a developmental-ecological approach to investigate the relationship across the school year between early problems in preschool classroom situations and a comprehensive set of readiness competencies for urban low-income children. Study 1 identified 3 reliable and unique underlying classroom situational dimensions where behavior…

This report describes a program for increasing student readiness for and achievement in mathematics. The targeted population consists of third grade students in an expanding suburban community and kindergarten students in a culturally diverse urban community, both located in Northern Illinois. The problems of achievement in and attitudes towards…

The goal of Minnesota's early childhood development and care programs is to ensure that families of young children have the opportunity to choose affordable, high quality child care and participate in developmental programs that promote the skills and behaviors necessary for children to succeed in school. This information brief describes and…

One strategy that can provide immediate results in improving African American kindergarten students' success in school is improving attendance. This study examined the effect of school attendance on African American kindergarten students' learning readiness. Thirty kindergarten students in three classrooms at one Chicago school completed the…

This handbook, which was written by a retired kindergarten teacher with over 25 years of experience, is intended to bridge the gap between home and school. It describes 260 learning activities, each of which is based on a different concept. Most activities require materials usually found in the home. An activity is provided for each week of the…

Discussed are recommendations of California's 1987 School Readiness Task Force for the education of children 4 through 6 years of age. Recommendations call for: (1) provision of an appropriate, integrated, experiential curriculum; (2) reduction of class size; (3) provision of programs that meet the special needs of culturally and linguistically…

Children are generally identified as learning disabled as a result of their achievement and perceptual skills below an expectancy level which is based on mental age, grade level and/or chronological age. Despite its usefulness, Maturity is infrequently considered. The ages at entrance to school of a group of 67 learning disabled (LD) students…

THE BETTER TOMORROW FOR THE URBAN CHILD PROGRAM (BTU) ATTEMPTS TO HELP INNER-CITY CHILDREN BECOME MORE EFFECTIVE CITIZENS, BOTH EDUCATIONALLY AND SOCIALLY, THROUGH THE USE OF ADDITIONAL HUMAN AND MATERIAL RESOURCES. THE GOALS ARE TO RAISE THE LEVEL OF SCHOOL READINESS, TO DEVELOP A GREATER MOTIVATION FOR LEARNING, AND TO IMPROVE STUDENT SELF-IMAGE…

This paper discusses long and short range activities for helping children deal creatively with separation from preschool when they are ready for kindergarten. Long range activities should emphasize creating a positive school climate, involving parents in helping their children adapt to the new environment, and helping children develop…

Minimum language skills for kindergarten success are described and defined as "school readiness language." A school-readiness-language checklist gives a procedure for documenting a child's level of language skill. Specific techniques are presented to remedy documented gaps within the context of the kindergarten classroom. (Author)

The relationships between the Gesell School Readiness Test and standarized achievement and intelligence measures were examined. Children were tested before kindergarten, at the end of kindergarten, and at the end of first grade. Correlation coefficients varied from grade to grade, but did not show a higher correlation between related measures.…

All children should be started in school, and subsequently promoted, on basis of their behavior age rather than on basis of their age in years. Research data support this idea, and some schools that have adopted it as policy find that they can reduce failure by 50 percent. A child's school readiness can be tested with a behavior examination. (KH)

Presents findings on academic success of early entrants to school that show children younger at school entrance often have academic problems that last throughout their school careers. Suggests changing the cutoff dates for school entrance and using better developmental assessment to determine children's readiness to enter school. (MD)