Several years ago, the state of South Carolina turned to experts in early childhood education to address the school readiness issue for its K-2 schools. Rather than asking, "Is this child ready for school?," the state created a program assessment system that reframed the question of school readiness by asking, "Is this school ready…

Families often use music as a way to teach children how to behave according to the precepts of society. Beginning in infancy, musicality exists at the core of family interactions and forms the basis for social and emotional communication throughout the life span. For many families, musical parenting practices permeate daily life, facilitating…

A sample of 244 children (average age: 61 months) and their parents from the Dallas and Fort Worth (DFW) metroplex area in Texas were surveyed to investigate children's mathematics readiness. This study was conducted as part of a project funded by a local child care council, composed of business, civic, and education leaders in the community. The…

Reviews studies investigating the language and conceptual abilities of children from different types of home background and the relationship of these abilities to school readiness and to later school achievement. (MP)

State-level policy attention to young children's early learning opportunities burgeons; a sense of urgency exists to identify reform agendas that are both effective and sustainable. "P-3" often is used as the term for the first level of a seamless P-20 system that stretches from early childhood through post-secondary education. While it…

The present study investigated demographic differences in school readiness within Jordan, a particularly interesting context because of widespread national reform currently sweeping the education system in Jordan. Teacher reports and researcher direct assessments of the school readiness of a national sample of 4681 Jordanian first grade children…

The Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES), sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), was first launched in 1997 as a periodic longitudinal study of program performance. Successive nationally representative samples of Head Start children and their families,…

This Technical Report is designed to provide technical detail to support the analysis and findings presented in the "Head Start Impact Study Final Report" (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, January 2010). Chapter 1 provides an overview of the Head Start Impact Study and its findings. Chapter 2 provides technical information on the…

The authors interviewed Black and Latino students from five high-poverty high schools as they attempted to make the transition into college. Their ability to exert individual agency with regard to their entrance exams and their college transition was circumscribed by the messages and behavioral norms that dominated their low-performing high school…

In 1985, Virginia state law was amended to change the birth date for automatic eligibility for kindergarten from December 31 to September 30. The law allowed school districts to admit young children with birthdays from October 1 through December 31, provided the children were tested for kindergarten readiness. Testing for admission to school for…

The information in this booklet has been developed in response to the many questions and concerns of parents whose children are nearly old enough to enter kindergarten in Nebraska. Questions answered include: What is kindergarten? When may a child enter kindergarten? Are children required to begin school when they turn 5-years-old? What about…

This document is comprised of the three 2002 issues of a newsletter devoted to identifying and promoting strategies to reduce the poverty rate of young children and to improve the life chances of children still living in poverty. The Winter issue includes the following articles: (1) "NCCP [National Center for Children in Poverty] Responds to…

Twenty five-year-olds performed a 15-minute vigilance task, and four weeks later they completed the Metropolitan Readiness Test. Vigilance performance was significantly correlated with scores on the Metropolitan. Older children performed better than younger children on the vigilance task. (Author/RD)

Analysis of birth dates and school entry ages of 188 gifted children (grades five through eight) revealed that over 60 percent of the Ss were late entering school. Results supported earlier studies in which a large percentage of learning disabled children were found to be early entering. (CL)

The Early Childhood Education Committee in a California school district has forged partnerships with local preschool and day care centers, established preschool programs, and reached out to parents to help them work with their children. (MLF)