This report summarizes Austin Independent School District's prekindergarten student data from 2001-2002 (half-day and full-day programs) and 2007-2008 (full-day program only), including student demographics, academic performance, and attendance.

Reading achievement in the United States has stagnated. In 2009, only 33 percent of Fourth Graders were proficient or above in reading--a mere two percentage points higher than in 1998. At the same time, double-digit achievement gaps between African American and Latino/Hispanic students and their white counterparts have changed little in nearly…

Many children come to kindergarten with insufficient social skills to participate in the activities necessary for academic achievement. Children enrolled in prekindergarten programs across the United States are expelled at higher rates than older students. Boys are expelled 4 1/2 times more often than girls. When children excluded from…

This paper presents Pennsylvania's Standards for Kindergarten. The goal of the Kindergarten Standards is to promote the development of a child who has the attributes of: inventiveness, curiosity, persistence, engagement, reasoning, problem solving, responsibility, imagination, and creativity. The Pennsylvania Kindergarten Standards are designed as…

In this technical report, we describe the development and piloting of a series of mathematics progress monitoring measures intended for use with students in kindergarten. These measures, available as part of easyCBM[TM], an online progress monitoring assessment system, were developed in 2008 and administered to approximately 2800 students from…

The goals of the early childhood business plan are to explain, inform, and guide public and private stakeholders and policymakers and the general public about the investments and activities required for all children to have opportunities for school success. The business plan presented in this report has two parts, an asset review and an action…

Research was conducted to evaluate how well the "Indiana Reading Assessment--Kindergarten" evaluates various reading skills of kindergarten students. Multiple analyses were conducted; while the results of all the analyses were encouraging, the results derived from the concurrent validity study were most significant. All correlations were…

In this article, the author examines the role the literacy coach at her school has played in supporting the kindergarten through second grade teachers. Using a theoretical framework for classroom communities (Pintaone-Hernandez, 2002), she reflects on how the literacy coach has helped teachers maintain a professional learning community in the wake…

The present study was designed to examine the relationship between performance on a standards-based assessment of reading comprehension in fourth grade and performance on a diagnostic battery of component skills of reading for a cohort of children who were followed from kindergarten through fourth grade. The findings demonstrate that the…

The appropriate age for students to begin school is an issue of debate for educators, administrators, and parents. Parents worry that young children may not be able to compete with older classmates; schools worry that young students will not be able to meet rigorous academic standards associated with school accountability. Past literature is…

A major challenge facing the prekindergarten-12 education system in the United States is the fact that as the population changes, the particular needs of children change with it. One of the largest demographic shifts over the last ten years is the sharp increase in the number of students in public schools who speak English as their second language…

Within a simple meeting framework, experienced teacher and presenter Donna Whyte shares hundreds of ideas she's used in her own classroom to: (1) meet state standards; (2) Keep kids focused and engaged; (3) Encourage every child to participate; and (4) Assess learning every day for every child. After an introduction, this book is divided into…

The goal in the development of this Arizona standard was to assure that the six strands and five unifying concepts are interwoven into a fabric of science that represents the true nature of science. Students have the opportunity to develop both the skills and content knowledge necessary to be scientifically literate members of the community.…

Representatives at the school, district and state levels, as well as scholars and researchers, have been working with the Education Commission of the States? National Center for Learning and Citizenship (ECS/NCLC) to define citizenship education in terms of three strands forming "a braid" of civic competencies. Beginning with the rationale and…

Most children are unaware of the process of molting, the periodic shedding and replacement of part or all of a coat or an outer covering of an animal, but it is an animal characteristic they are sure to be interested in and should have the opportunity to observe. In this article, the author shares how she and her students observed various…