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…

Research has demonstrated that federal Head Start centers, which provide preschool care to children from low-income families, have little or no long-term academic value for children. This "Backgrounder" adds to the evidence that Head Start has failed to achieve its objectives and should be sunset, not expanded, by demonstrating a…

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 Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes (CEELO) was asked to provide information on how other states are approaching the development and implementation of Kindergarten Entry Assessment (KEA) as part of a comprehensive assessment system. Specifically, the request asked for information about KEA measures used by other states, the processes…

"Louisiana Believes" is the state's comprehensive plan to ensure every student is on track to a professional career or a college degree. This annual report details Louisiana's progress toward that objective during the 2012-2013 school year, along with strategy for the coming school year. "Louisiana Believes" has three…

This study of four national English language arts college readiness standards sets compares content alignment and level of alignment of the standards statements in three comparison sets to a benchmark set, the American Diploma Project (ADP), and analyzes the cognitive complexity of all four sets. Specifically, this report addresses two primary…

The Louisiana State-Funded Program for High-Risk Four-Year-Olds (SPHF) works to improve the readiness of preschool children eligible to enter kindergarten the following year who are at risk of being insufficiently prepared. This interim report qualitatively and quantitatively evaluates the implementation and effectiveness of the SPHF. Sixty-two…

This final report documents the findings of a study designed to evaluate the quality and efficiency of early education programs for handicapped children in Louisiana during 1985-86. More than 400 classes in 65 formal programs (residential, home-based, and center-based) serving approximately 5,000 handicapped children ages 3-5 were studied. The…

Act 619 of the 1984 Louisiana legislative session initiated the State-Funded Program for High-Risk Four-Year-Olds, which is intended to improve the school readiness of preschool students. This document is the program evaluation report for 1990 and 1991. Part 1 of the report is a comprehensive program description which provides information on: (1)…

This report outlines the national and state environmental context for the SECCS Initiative in supporting MCH strategic planning in early childhood systems building. This strategic context has implications for roles, relationships, and activities within a planning process and ultimately an implementation process. It summarizes the opportunities and…