Investigated the outcomes from a transitional first grade school readiness program (SRP). Students recommended for SRP placement yet not placed did not exhibit significant second grade differences compared with the year-older SRP-placed students across achievement, related services, parental factors, or teacher rating outcomes. This finding is…

Provides examples of practices utilized by school-based family support programs, explaining how family support programs work to ready children for school. Considerations for staffing family support programs are examined, including what type of staff to hire, components of a quality workplace, and types of staff development necessary. (SM)

The relationships among transitional first-grade referrals, school characteristics, and children's personal and school readiness characteristics were studied with 223 students referred to developmental first-grade programs. Results indicate the complexity of referrals to transitional first-grade programs and identify characteristics of children…

Globalization trends are creating a new world order that in term affects the lives of children. It is importance to maintain an international perspective when addressing the issues related to children's readiness to learn. Both public and private funding are increasingly becoming available to help children begin school ready to learn, even in…

This qualitative study examined experiences of teachers, parents, and administrators related to standardized kindergarten entrance assessment to identify strengths and weaknesses of standardized testing in kindergarten. Strengths emerging from the data included consistency of information with core curriculum, and the time and opportunity to begin…

Survey conducted of public and private school districts (N=755) in New York ascertained procedures and instruments used to conduct kindergarten screening. The Developmental Indicators for the Assessment of Learning, and the Brigance K and 1 Screen were the most widely used instruments. The majority of respondents (95%) reported that screening is…

A mother of one set of boy-girl twins observes that boys and girls use different strategies for learning. Contends that educators and child development specialists need to reevaluate the criteria they use to determine readiness for school. (MLF)

The current study examined how individual differences in children's temperament and motivation relate to attention skills in children from economically disadvantaged families. A total of 73 motherchild dyads participated in this study. Children were between the ages of 3 and 5, and all attended a Head Start program. Using multiple hierarchical…

A coalition of small high schools in New York state is challenging the notion that using standardized tests and curricula is the best way to prepare all students for college-level work. The New York Performance Standards Consortium is a network of 40 schools that have agreed to use common performance assessments as a requirement for graduation,…

The quality of the home environment is widely recognized as a strong contributor to young children's emergent literacy and social competence and to their subsequent educational success. The present study examined the relationships between family variables (socioeconomic status (SES), social risk factors, and home learning variables) and children's…

California State University, Long Beach, in collaboration with Long Beach Unified School District's Head Start and Child Development Centers, and the community childcare agency Young Horizons implemented an intervention and evaluation program to improve children's school readiness. The focus of Readiness and Early Activities for Children from the…

Research makes it clear that the critical factor in whether a student succeeds in college is the "quality and intensity" of the curriculum he or she takes in high school. For many Latino students, access to a high-quality, rigorous K-12 curriculum is limited. In those states where there was an existing movement to align the local P-16…

This invited special issue of "Early Education and Development" presents research related to the Early Development Instrument (EDI; Janus & Offord, 2007), a community tool to assess children's school readiness at a population level. In this editorial introduction, we first sketch out recent trends in school readiness research that call for a…

This article is a commentary for the special issue on the Early Development Instrument (EDI), a community tool to assess children's school readiness and developmental outcomes at a group level. The EDI is administered by kindergarten teachers, who assess their kindergarten students on 5 developmental domains: physical health and well-being, social…

To investigate issues in transition to kindergarten for children with special needs, we explored several sources of information (peer-reviewed literature, government websites, parent surveys, and interviews with professionals). We found that administrative issues like lack of integration and the evaluation of services available to children and…