50 years after the "Brown v. Board of Education" decision, a high-stakes testing movement, significantly boosted by provisions contained in No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, has emerged with the potential of both positive and negative implications. This paper argues that assessment generally is not tied to the 3 positive outcomes of…

This study explored the congruence in reading and teaching patterns of low-income, young African American mothers while interacting with their preschool-age children in their homes (N = 126). Survey and standardized test data were collected on maternal education and language ability, and videotape data were collected, transcribed, and coded on…

This study investigates whether working memory skills of children are related to teacher ratings of their progress towards learning goals at the time of school entry, at 4 or 5 years of age. A sample of 194 children was tested on measures of working memory, phonological awareness, and non-verbal ability, in addition to the school-based baseline…

The Comprehensive Services Program of Palm Beach County, Florida, was an ambitious and innovative effort to improve the school readiness of low-income children in Palm Beach County by identifying needs early and providing early intervention services to support physical, cognitive, and emotional health and development. Services were delivered to…

The purpose of this report is to examine college readiness among Latino students using results from EXPLORE[R] (for students in grade 8 or 9), PLAN[R] (for students in grade 10), and the ACT[R] test (for students in grade 11 or 12). Latino students include Mexican American/Chicano students, Puerto Rican students, Cuban students, and other students…

Adult secondary education learners approach the goal of college-level postsecondary education through three assessment gateways: (a) measures of adult education program learning gains, (b) a high-school equivalency exam, and (c) college placement tests. On the surface, the assessments in this sequence might appear to work in concert and point…

This report describes findings on the quality of the More at Four Program and the outcomes for children during pre-k from two program years: 2003-2004 (year 3) and 2005-2006 (year 5). Separate results for the 2005-2006 cohort are presented to provide a picture of the program in its most recent year of operation as well as results from the 2…

In a world shaped by global competition, preschool education programs play an increasingly vital role in child development and school readiness. There is growing awareness that early learning's impacts persist across children's life spans, affecting educational achievement, adult earning and even crime and delinquency. Preschool education is…

As Harold Lasswell and his colleagues observed of the rhetoric of power (Language of Politics, 1965), some words become magic, with "inexplicable powers" attributed to them. "Access" has become such a word in the discourse of higher education. The sloganistic use of the term implies that someone, somewhere, is preventing somebody from doing…

The purpose of this guide is to provide analyses and advice that help philanthropists determine where their capital can have the greatest impact in the lives of U.S. disadvantaged students. To meet this objective, three critical questions were addressed: What is a meaningful change to target? What activities lead to that change for at-risk…

This report summarizes findings from the second year of an implementation study of the Early Childhood Cluster Initiative (ECCI). ECCI is a prekindergarten program in ten elementary schools and a community child care center in Palm Beach County, based on the design of the High/Scope Perry Preschool model. The initiative is characterized by low…

This publication reports findings from the second year of an implementation study of the Early Childhood Cluster Initiative (ECCI). ECCI is a prekindergarten program in ten elementary schools and a community child care center in Palm Beach County, based on the design of the High/Scope Perry Preschool model. The initiative is characterized by low…

Austin Independent School District provided full-day prekindergarten to 5,196 4-year-olds in 2008-2009 at 66 schools. Seventy percent or more of students made measureable gains on a test of receptive vocabulary, and average gains showed growth about two times greater than that expected for 4-year-olds after a 7-month period.

This chapter describes a school readiness program that has been implemented in rural Galicia (Spain) since 1977. Data reveal that 70 percent of Galicia's population lives in rural areas, the economy remains primarily agricultural, Galicians earn less than the national average and have the largest number of public assistance recipients, and there…

An in-depth assessment of all aspects of the San Francisco School District's Child Development Program (CDP) was conducted. Assessment measures included: (1) on-site observations of preschool, kindergarten, and school-age child care classroom environments and of teacher behaviors and sensitivity; (2) reviews of physical environments and provisions…