In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused a mandatory shift from in-person instruction to online learning for many young children. Teachers needed to adjust to virtual teaching, children were isolated from their peers, and parents played a bigger role in learning during the pandemic. In 2021, the shift back to in-person learning occurred. Research has…

The purpose of the present study was to examine Frog Street Pre-K curriculum efficacy by comparing learning outcomes for pre-K students in schools with access to Frog Street in Texas during the 2021-22 school year to outcomes for pre-K students in Texas schools without Frog Street. This study is designed to replicate and extend those employed by…

Elementary school principals play a key role in leading school personnel to provide prekindergartners and kindergartners with the support needed to ensure their short- and long-term school success. Yet, few studies examine how principals conceptualize what it means for children to be ready for school and how principals support students as they…

The purpose of this study is to examine the perceptions of kindergarten teachers concerning the skills that demonstrate the five components of readiness as organized by the National Education Goals Panel (NEGP) and to identify which skills kindergarten teachers believe are most important for students to be successful. In November 2023, 136…

The availability of early childhood education to students in poverty continues to grow across the United States. Pre-kindergarten programs provide intervention for four-year-old students to close early learning gaps and prepare students for kindergarten. Little research exists to show if pre-kindergarten programs in Texas achieve this goal. This…

In most states kindergarten entry assessments (KEA) are employed primarily to inform parents and teachers. KEAs can serve as a key indicator of child development at formal school entry to inform education, but also could serve as a baseline for assessing progress in the early grades. However, their usefulness for this purpose is limited because…

E3 Alliance is a regional, data-driven education collaborative based in Austin, Texas. They are helping to build the strongest educational pipeline in the country to drive regional economic prosperity. They are focused on educational systems change, and use data to inform those efforts. Given that their approach to supporting educational…

Kindergarten in the United States has fundamentally changed. It is the new first grade where children are taught increased academic content and experience more standardized testing. There is much debate among education stakeholders about these changes, but such discussions are often siloed-- making it difficult to know whether these changes…

Being ready for Kindergarten is of the most important metrics for success, and ensure that students are on track for reading at grade level at third grade. For six years, E3 Alliance has tracked Kindergarten Readiness in Central Texas using the most comprehensive, student-centered readiness standard in the state. This year, the early warning…

There is a significant need for kindergarten entry assessments (KEA) that meet state education agency (SEA) requirements and are psychometrically sound measures of a broad range of school readiness domains such as language, literacy, math, science, executive function, and social-emotional skills. Research Findings: In this paper, we describe five…

A growing number of states are interested in tracking the readiness of children entering kindergarten. In 2010, just seven states (Alaska, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, Minnesota, and Vermont) collected Kindergarten Entry Assessment (KEA) data for the purposes of aggregating data at the state level. Since this time, most states report…

The focus on improving children's readiness for kindergarten has intensified globally. While most studies examine this issue prior to children entering kindergarten, little is known about how education stakeholders make sense of readiness once children enter kindergarten. This article addresses this gap by examining how a range of stakeholders…

This report examines the beginning-of-year (BOY) 2018-2019 performance of English learner students (ELs) who attended Austin Independent School District's (AISD) summer school in June 2018. Summer school ELs' performance on Texas Kindergarten Entry Assessment (TX-KEA) and iStation Indicators of Progress (ISIP) was compared to the performance of…

This study examines the long-term effects of a home visiting program, Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters, on students from mostly low-income, Latino families (n = 254). Children who were in the home visiting program during their early years were compared with a similar demographic group who participated in prekindergarten in the…

This study evaluated Earobics Step 1, a commercial literacy program, and examined whether impact varied with children's school readiness and classroom instruction. Participants included 247 kindergarteners from 37 classrooms in nine Title 1 schools. Children were randomly assigned to receive 21 weeks of computerized instruction with Earobics or…