National Center for Education Statistics survey shows family members read to 35 percent of 3-8 year olds daily and to 58 percent of young children several times weekly or monthly. Children not enrolled in school watch about 3.1 hours of television or videotapes daily, those in nursery school/kindergarten about 2.5 hours, and primary grade…

Examined the narrative skills in 89 children from impoverished families, half of whom had received a preschool intervention aimed at preparing them for school. Found that the preschool experimental group performed better than the control group on comprehension and paraphrase of stories when assessed in the fall but not in the spring. (HTH)

This article presents a series of steps to help sending and receiving teachers of children with disabilities who are making the transition from preschool to kindergarten. The steps help teachers plan for transition, develop and implement child preparation activities, and integrate preparation activities with existing curricular goals and teaching…

Compared the Parenting Stress Index (R. Abidon, 1990), the Behavior Assessment System for Children (C. Reynolds and R. Kamphaus, 1992), and an informal letter/number probe as predictors of first grade reading and mathematics achievement for 92 children early in the kindergarten year. Results show that number and letter recognition were the best…

Examines the construct of emotionality, developmental relations between cognition and emotion, and neural plasticity and frontal cortical functioning. Proposes a developmental neurobiological model of self-regulation skills development, noting implications for children's school readiness. Suggests direct links among emotionality, use-dependent…

Fifty young children were interviewed concerning their experiences, expectations, and perceptions about starting school. Responses indicated strong focus on rules encountered in school and feelings about going to school. Conventional rules were mentioned most often, with moral and task rules negligible. Seventy-five percent of references to…

Delaying school entry for a year is most often viewed as an opportunity for children to mature and develop critical academic, social and emotional skills prior to entering kindergarten. Many teachers view delayed school entry as a kindness to younger, less mature students who need more preparation for the rigors of formal academics in 1st grade.…

The position advocated within this article is that the construct of "school readiness" has a social component, and that attempts to evaluate children's interpersonal readiness for kindergarten should be judged in relation to their likely success at mastering specific social school entry tasks. Social school entry tasks, which most likely stem from…

There is a widespread belief that high-quality early care and education can improve children's school readiness. However, debate continues about the essential elements of a high-quality experience, about whether quality means the same things across different types of care settings, about how to measure quality, and about the level of quality that…

The Yellow School Bus Project (YSBP) was created to provide homeless children with the supplies and clothes they need to succeed in school and feel good about themselves. When given these gifts, they receive the explicit message that they are smart and worthwhile, the implicit message that there are people in the community who are invested in…

In this study of Oklahoma's universal pre-K program, the authors relied on a strict birthday eligibility criterion to compare "young" kindergarten children who just completed pre-K to "old" pre-K children just beginning pre-K. This regression-discontinuity design reduces the threat of selection bias. Their sample consisted of…

The report provides detailed information about the methods and instruments used to evaluate school readiness initiatives, discusses important considerations in selecting instruments, and provides resources and recommendations that may be helpful to those who are designing and implementing school readiness evaluations. Study results indicate that…

Research is unequivocal in showing that the quality and intensity of a student's high school curriculum has the greatest impact on college success. But even rigorous academic preparation alone is not sufficient to assure that a student graduates from high school ready to succeed in college. Social support strategies that sustain the preparation…

Hispanics account for over one-fifth of newborns in the United States. Hispanic children, on average, achieve at lower levels from kindergarten forward than the non-Hispanic White majority and Asian Americans. Increasing the percentage of Hispanic children who enter kindergarten "ready" for school constitutes one of the nation's most…

Transition is movement or change without interruption. It should be a smooth flow from one place or condition to another. While the transition plan for a student receiving special education services is designed to prepare him or her for life after high school, transition can start when a child enters preschool. The second of six distinct stages of…