Kindergarten has changed significantly in the last two decades: children now spend more time being taught and tested on literacy and math skills than they do learning through play and exploration, exercising their bodies, and using their imaginations. Many kindergartens use highly prescriptive curricula geared to new state standards and linked to…

Discusses children's access to information through the media and parents' responsibility to protect them, noting what parents should know and how they can learn more. One sidebar examines parenting in the information age. Another sidebar describes how three states are helping parents use critical viewing to take charge of their televisions. (SM)

As a result of lengthy deliberations and review of evidence-based proven practices by the Leadership in Action Program in Maryland, this action agenda details 6 goals, 25 strategies, and 106 action steps determined as most critical to ensuring that all of Maryland's children will enter school ready to learn. The action agenda was submitted to the…