The Countdown to Kindergarten (CTK) program was developed to increase family awareness of kindergarten expectations, create a positive relationship with families, and support smooth school transition and kindergarten readiness for children who were from diverse backgrounds and/or had adverse experiences. We used a mixed methods design to study the…

Characterizing students' knowledge and skill upon kindergarten entry has implications for early learning and K-12 outcomes and systems alignment. Large-scale entry assessments measure skillsets shown important for later success, so that meaningful comparisons and appropriate decisions can be made. Consequently, it is important to document the…

This paper emerged from a national evaluation of concepts of school readiness, which adopted a mixed-methods approach comprising sixty-two interviews with parents, pre-school and kindergarten teachers, fifty-seven child conferences and an online survey distributed to 1,000 pre-school and kindergartens, eliciting a response rate of 29.6% and 23.8%…

At MERGA, I presented a paper entitled "Mathematics in the Pre-School," which was a summary of tentative ventures into this emerging field. The role of the prior-to-school years in children's mathematics learning was not yet under serious consideration but an understanding of the importance of play in children's experiences was building.…

Preparing students for entry into kindergarten is a key priority within the educational sector. Research has shown that students with lower levels of cognitive and socio-emotional competencies are less prepared for kindergarten entry and consequently perform more poorly on assessments in later grades (Duncan et al., 2007; Ensey Hoever, 2014;…

This article represents an amazing reversal of linguistic analysis. Usually Montessori language is translated into "state" terminology. In this case, Sarah Werner Andrews puts state quality assessment terms into Montessori language. For example, domains for school readiness include 1) physical wellbeing and motor development, 2) social…

Parental reports of 585 children's childcare experiences during the year preceding kindergarten were used to index the extent of children's involvement in three types of childcare: center-based (e.g., daycare center, Head Start, preschool), informal (e.g., relative-based or sitter-based) and parental. Childcare choices covaried with household SES,…