Transition to kindergarten is an important developmental milestone for children and families. This study explored factors associated with kindergarten readiness focusing on the impact of a summer kindergarten transition program. A mixed-method design was employed, and the qualitative data from interviews with 16 randomly selected kindergarten…

The Ready for School, Ready for Life initiative in Guilford County, North Carolina, aims to support interconnected programs and services for young children and their families with the goal of having children enter kindergarten ready for learning. The initiative aims to strengthen connections among existing programs in Guilford County and provide…

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, the proportion of Americans living in moderate- and high-poverty neighborhoods increased. This trend was most pronounced among families with children. Numerous studies have linked higher rates of neighborhood poverty with less favorable outcomes, including low "school readiness," defined…

Making a smooth transition to the K-12 (kindergarten through Grade 12) classroom context sets the stage for academic success throughout the life course. Parents' early education-related behaviors are linked with children's adjustment, yet less is known about how parental school readiness beliefs motivate parenting practices at this educational…

The amount of intentional, instructional, purposeful play has decreased in primary grades, and didactic, test-driven instruction has increased. Emerging neuroscientific evidence is beginning to highlight the significant effects the toxic stress from poverty has on developing brains. Almost half of American children can be considered to come from…

The present study used a subsample of 450 children from the ECLS-B data set to examine longitudinal associations between multiple features of nonparental care at age 2 and socioemotional development at kindergarten entry, taking into account parents' attitudes and behaviors, family composition, poverty status, and child characteristics.…

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether or not a child's chronological age at the onset of kindergarten influences foundational literacy skills and if there is an impact on long-term reading achievement. Research indicates that there are several factors that influence school readiness and the foundational literacy skills that must be…

The majority of students in Maryland spent at least a portion of the last school year learning virtually, from public prekindergarten through college. Throughout the year, jurisdictions made individual decisions to allow for a gradual return to in-person school in a variety of ways. Lessons learned from the earliest stages of the pandemic made it…

We analyzed data from a large-scale (N = 39,213), longitudinal study of urban students to assess child factors (gender, ethnicity, English language learner status, school readiness skills, type of pre-K attended, early elementary school academic performance) prospectively associated with eventual gifted identification in elementary school.…

Research examining the effects of subsidized childcare prior to school entry for child development is inconsistent. This population-based study examines the relationship between two poverty levels (extreme poor and working poor) and children's developmental outcomes, as measured by the Early Development Instrument. It also determines the extent to…

In Maryland, one way children's wellbeing is measured is by looking at the data from the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA). While the data can illustrate how children perform on various indicators across literacy, math, social-emotional development and physical well-being, it's really a reflection of the "readiness" of Maryland…

Aim: The development of a trauma-informed approach to closing the poverty-related attainment gap called Readiness for Learning (R4L). This is a project funded by the Scottish Attainment Challenge (SAC). This paper reports on a strand of the intervention that took place in two Primary One classrooms over the academic session 2017/18. Method: This…

We present evidence of a positive relationship between school starting age and children's cognitive development from ages 6 to 18 using a fuzzy regression discontinuity design and large-scale population-level birth and school data from the state of Florida. We estimate effects of being old for grade (being born in September vs. August) that are…

Research Findings: Early reading and mathematics skills predict later academic success, and child self-regulation and secure parent-child relationships are both predictors of early academic skills. Self-regulatory and family relationship factors have rarely been studied together as predictors of early academic success in populations of young…

This report presents a snapshot of selected features of the condition of education in Wisconsin in 2019. With support from the U.S. Department of Education's Institute for Education Sciences, and in collaboration with colleagues at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI), the authors set out to measure practices in PK-12 education…