A year-long cooperative study examined school readiness and academic achievement of normal and at-risk students. Subjects were 360 Russian and 400 American first-graders. A Russian-developed diagnostic screening instrument was used to identify at-risk individuals. Data were then collected through achievement tests at the beginning and end of the…

The study was based on a year's work with Crow Indian children, grades 1-4, at Pryor, Montana. Five tests were given and evaluated: the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, the Metropolitan Achievement Tests, the Gesell Developmental Examination, the Lowenfeld Mosaic, and 3 selected tasks from Piaget. The 21 pupils used for this study were broken…

The National Household Education Survey (NHES) is a data collection system of the National Center for Education Statistics that collects and publishes data on the condition of education in the United States. It is a telephone survey of the noninstitutionalized population of the country, and it focuses on issues that are best studied through…

This paper reviews the literature on the effects of preschool attendance on academic success in elementary school and reports on a study designed to investigate the effect of preschool education on the academic achievement of at-risk, minority-group kindergarten children. The Test of Basic Experiences (TOBE) was administered at the beginning of…

This booklet provides a variety of checklists to assist parents with their children's learning process and needs from the time they are in preschool to high school, as they begin to consider options for college. Examples of checklists include: Know What Your Preschooler Needs; Watch for School Resources; Partner with Teachers and Counselors; and…

Whether the transition to primary school is smooth or abrupt for children depends on whether early childhood and elementary school programs work together to build bridges between their services. This report presents several examples of collaborative efforts to smooth the transition to school. Specifically, it describes how various elements of five…

The effect of month of birth on skill development in language, reading, and mathematics was examined separately for kindergarten and first grade children. The study looked at the strength of the relationship at the beginning and end of the school year and as a function of the type of program in which the child was enrolled. One hundred and…

Longitudinally examines the stability of the association between maternal behavior and preschool children's cognitive abilities. Outcome measures included both school readiness (assessed at ages five and six) and achievement on mathematics and vocabulary subtests of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills at grade six. (Author/RH)

This follow-up study examined the outcomes of children who had participated in the Michigan School Readiness Program (MSRP), a preschool program for 4-year-olds identified as being at risk for school failure, up to 5 years following their participation in the program. For the evaluation, 338 children who had participated in the state-funded…

Findings from the Beginning School Study, conducted in Baltimore (Maryland) are used to show how differences in family circumstances translate into beliefs and activities that help or hinder children's development. The Beginning School Study started in 1982 and has followed 790 randomly selected Baltimore students from first-grade in 1982 through…

This report describes an investigation to determine the frequency and consistency with which elementary school children are identified by their teachers, over a period of years, as presenting behavior problems within the school setting. A large sample of urban white children, measured on a number of school-related variables (SES, IQ, school…

This study compared the academic progress of children who had been recommended for and attended a Readiness program with those children whose parents had declined the Readiness program placement for their children. Participating were 215 students chosen over an 11 year period who had been recommended for a Readiness program and a comparison group…

Assessed correlations between 415 first graders' scores on the Metropolitan Readiness Test (MRT), and their scores on standardized achievement tests in mathematics and reading in grades 3, 6, 9, and 10. Concluded that the MRT has potential for contributing to readiness decisions in early grades. (MM)

Used longitudinal data collected from parents, teachers, and children to test social psychological predictors of early school adjustment of 1,255 low-income children from kindergarten to fourth grade. Found that parent involvement was positively related to achievement and teacher ratings of school progress. (MM)

Smart Start is a statewide initiative to ensure that all of North Carolina's children arrive at school healthy and ready to learn. A formative evaluation assessed, from the perspective of local participants in the original twelve Smart Start sites, how well these process goals are being met in the implementation process. Focus group and individual…