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)

Attempts to determine the relationship between self-concept and the academic readiness of kindergarten children using a sample of 49 children from four to six years of age. Also investigated the relationship between self-concept and other variables such as educational level of parents, family income, and marital status of parents. (RH)

In America without excuse every child should start first grade ready to learn. This goal will require that we make high quality preschool available to all 3 and 4 year olds who are at risk of starting first grade behind. Otherwise, gaps in academic achievement between at risk and more affluent children will widen in the first, critically…

By enhancing the block play in classrooms, teachers can help children acquire the emerging skills they need--with numbers, vocabulary, and reading--for kindergarten readiness. Newburger and Vaughan provide a theoretical foundation describing why and how to use blocks, and give guidance on selecting blocks and block safety. With chapters on the…

"School Readiness Indicators: Making Progress for Young Children" was a multi-state initiative that used child well-being indicators to build a change agenda in states and local communities in order to improve school readiness and ensure early school success. The central premise behind this initiative was that top-notch school readiness…

This guide is designed to help parents prepare their children for higher education, a career, and life. The first section, "Why Get Ready?" discusses the benefits of higher education and dispels some common myths about higher education and its costs. Other sections of this first part discuss how to ready a child for college at home and at school.…

This report examines the evidence that high-quality preschool programs can help to improve the school readiness of at-risk children, focusing on 10 programs that have been the subjects of careful evaluations. These programs include four well-known "model programs" (High/Scope Perry Preschool Project, the Carolina Abecedarian Project, the…

Successful early childhood program transitions involve the coordination and continuation of developmental and comprehensive services from birth through age eight. This guide is designed to facilitate the successful transition of children and their families into and out of Early Head Start and Head Start programs and assists in planning for daily…

This issue of the "NCEDL Spotlights" describes the content of a new book, "The Transition to Kindergarten," based on a national transitions synthesis conference sponsored by the National Center for Early Development and Learning. The document delineates the chapter topics and describes four trends expected to have significant effect on the…

At the request of the Committee on Governmental Affairs of the U.S. Senate, this report presents findings of a study to determine the extent to which Title I funds are used to support education or developmentally appropriate activities for preschoolers, and what is known about the effectiveness of Title I-funded programs in preparing preschoolers…

In 1999, the Southern Regional Task Force on Child Care, comprised of appointees from 16 southern states including Oklahoma and the mayor of the District of Columbia, with additional appointees from the other agencies, was formed with the charge of developing a plan to improve access to child care assistance for low-income families in the southern…

This document consists of the two 2000 issues of the newsletter of the ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education (ERIC/EECE). Each issue contains a feature article and one or more short articles on topics related to early childhood education, calls for papers, announcements about Internet resources, news items about and lists…

A test for use as a preliminary screening device for learning difficulties of first graders had results which indicated a strong relationship between students' scores on the test and teachers' year-end evaluation of students' academic progress. (Author/KM)