Federal accountability policy mandates that states administer standardized tests beginning in third grade. In turn, third-grade test scores are often viewed as a key indicator in policy and practice. Yet literacy struggles begin well before third grade, as do racial and socioeconomic disparities in children's literacy skills. Kindergarten…

The purpose of this qualitative, exploratory case study was to research how a high-quality, state-funded preschool program academically prepared at-risk students for kindergarten in a large public school district in southeastern Virginia. The school district has over 20 elementary schools with seven of the schools housing Virginia's high-quality,…

Federal accountability policy mandates that states administer standardized tests beginning in third grade. In turn, third-grade test scores are often viewed as a key indicator in policy and practice. Yet literacy struggles begin well before third grade, as do racial and socioeconomic disparities in children's literacy skills. Kindergarten…

In this article, Amanda Williford, Jason Downer, Kate Miller-Bains, Jenna Conway, and Lisa Howard tell us how a university research center, an early education advocacy group, and a state department of education joined forces in a research-practice partnership to develop and implement a more comprehensive assessment of young Virginia children's…

While most community colleges admit all students who apply for admission, the vast majority have required students to demonstrate specified levels of literacy and numeracy before they can take college-level courses. Typically, students have been assessed using a single placement test, such as the College Board's ACCUPLACER. Colleges--or sometimes…

Kindergarten entry assessments (KEAs) are frequently used to understand students' early literacy skills. Amidst COVID-19, such assessments will be vital in understanding how the pandemic has affected early literacy, including how it has contributed to inequities in the educational system. However, the pandemic has also created challenges for…

This document compiles information from multiple sources to offer readers a snapshot of Preschool Development and Expansion Grant (PDG) states' progress towards implementing a full comprehensive assessment system, as well as the tools they are using for each of the components.

The present study considered the ways in which interactional quality in the classroom and teacher--child relationships independently and synergistically shaped the early academic, social-behavioral, and executive function outcomes of 1,498 preschoolers from low-income families from a large, culturally, and linguistically diverse county. The…

Currently in the United States, 50 states, 5 territories, and the District of Columbia have established prekindergarten (pre-K) age 4 learning standards that are intended to outline skills and knowledge that set children on a path to success in kindergarten and upcoming grades. These standards are emphasized as a centralizing force in early…

Ten years ago, MDC's report, "The State of the South 2007: Philanthropy as the South's 'Passing Gear,'" (ED519455) examined how philanthropy can accelerate progress toward a South that is both equitable for all its residents and competitive with other regions of the country. A decade later, our second iteration, commissioned by the…

According to the United States Department of Education, approximately 4,172,347 four-year-olds are eligible to attend publicly funded preschool programs. Of this number, only 1,709,607 of those eligible are enrolled in a publicly funded preschool program (U.S. Department of Education, 2014). Because of a lack of quantitative and qualitative data…

This fact sheet provides demographic information for the young Dual Language Learner (DLL) population in Virginia, based on Migration Policy Institute (MPI) analysis of U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) data pooled over the 2011-15 period. DLLs, defined as children ages 8 and under with at least one parent who speaks a language…