Late school entry prevails in many developing countries, and a brief international comparison suggests it has a general negative impact on school retention rates. Yet this widespread phenomenon has received little attention. This essay investigates late school entry in one of the larger countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Mozambique, for which data…

In 1997, the government of Ontario announced the establishment of the Learning Opportunities Task Force (LOTF) to develop and administer a series of pilot projects to enhance the transition of students with specific learning disabilities into postsecondary education, and to identify what supports, services and accommodations would assist these…

This document consists of seven policy issue papers developed by the Connecticut Early Childhood Education Council, an action-oriented coalition of statewide organizations concerned with early childhood education. Members include teachers, school administrators, children's librarians, child care providers, Head Start directors, State Department of…

This study examined the social competence and academic achievement of 248 children who were enrolled in public schools in Washington, D.C. Of the children in the 77% recovered sample, 96 percent were African American, 68 percent had attended both prekindergarten and kindergarten, and 32 percent had attended kindergarten only. The prekindergartens…

This document consists of seven policy issue papers developed by the Connecticut Early Childhood Education Council, an action-oriented coalition of statewide organizations concerned with early childhood education. Members include teachers, school administrators, children's librarians, child care providers, Head Start directors, State Department of…

This study uses survival analysis to investigate when maltreated children may become at risk in their school performance. While past research captures the average effect of maltreatment on academic achievement, it has not addressed how the effect is distributed across time. Using a sample of 330 maltreated and 330 non-maltreated children,…

This study investigated the effectiveness of an intervention year prior to kindergarten for at-risk children age-eligible for school. The central question of the study asked if the experience of a developmental kindergarten was worth the extra year participating children must spend in the educational process. The format for the study was that of a…

This paper (1) presents a critical analysis of the literature on school readiness and school failure; (2) discusses the problems that ill conceived policies based upon readiness studies present to the education of learning disabled, regular class, and gifted children; and (3) offers guidelines for policies and programs. Methodological issues…

An investigation was made to ascertian perceptions and practices of parents whose children had been retained in kindergarten as well as parents' perceptions of their child's reaction to being retained. Also collected were data on the demographic characteristics of the families and their children. Specifically, data were obtained by means of a…

This follow-up study investigated the self-concept of students who had received an additional year of readiness experiences before entering first grade to see if their good self-concept in the first grade was sustained over a period of 6 years. Of 100 participants in an original study that found the self-concepts of first grade readiness subjects…

Meta-analysis of 17 studies was conducted to determine the effectiveness of retaining elementary school students in grade. Calculations with data from the 17 studies produced 217 effect size measures, most of which were measures of differences in reading and mathematics achievement. Some measures of differences in social adjustment, behavior, and…

Described in this symposium report are results from three studies exploring the relationship of home environments in infancy or early childhood to school performance. All studies used the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) and drew their data from the files of the Houston Parent-Child Development Center, a 2-year…

We evaluated contingent and noncontingent practice of an alternative behavior (appropriate play) as intervention for stereotypy that occurred with two play objects in a 5-year old boy with autism. Contingent practice was implemented as a consequence for stereotypy, and the rate of noncontingent practice was matched (yoked) to that schedule. On…

Effects of maternal-neonatal extended contact or separation were examined in 76 children (8 to 10 years old), five of whom were receiving special education services, and 28 who had been retained in their grade. Of the five Ss requiring special services, three were classified as slow learners and two as speech impaired, two conditions linked by…

Educators considering adoption of policies regarding the promotion of students from one grade to the next must consider several factors, including acceptable levels of student progress toward terminal objectives, student developmental and cognitive abilities, community attitudes toward student retention, and the educational benefits of retention.…