The position advocated within this article is that the construct of "school readiness" has a social component, and that attempts to evaluate children's interpersonal readiness for kindergarten should be judged in relation to their likely success at mastering specific social school entry tasks. Social school entry tasks, which most likely stem from…

Chapin Hall has been conducting an implementation and evaluability study of the ECCI (Early Childhood Cluster Initiative) project since the midway point of its first year. As described in the authors' first report (Spielberger & Goyette, 2006), the initiative made considerable progress in its initial year, particularly in implementing the…

Research Findings: This study analyzed the school readiness beliefs of parents of 452 children from public pre-kindergarten and the relations of these beliefs to socioeconomic status and children's readiness skills. Parents conceived readiness largely in terms of the ability to name objects, letters, or numbers, but few included inferential…

The foundation of an individual's optimum or less than optimum development is laid down during the early years of life, particularly during the age between birth and six years. This age covers pre-school education. This study was designed to investigate the effectiveness of Early Childhood Education programme in preparing Pre-school children in…

Research conducted in preschool classrooms has long relied on measures of classroom quality that were developed in the 1980s based on theory and data available at that time. They examine classroom quality broadly, provide limited detail about supports for pre-academic instruction, and only weakly predict variation in children's acquisition of…

The Saint Paul Public Schools' Project Early Kindergarten program aims to improve the school readiness of Saint Paul children. The program offers a rigorous academic approach and targets children who are English Language Learners, come from low-income families, or need Special Education services. Ultimately, the program intends to help close Saint…

This study sought to determine the mean differences in readiness test scores of three groups of children: (1) children whose parents volunteered to particpate in a training program and received the training before their children were tested (Experimental Group); (2) children whose parents volunteered to participate in the training program and…

Confident in what she knows, excited about what she's learning, eager to share her passion with others--this is Marsha Williams, director of In Arms Reach Home Day Care, Baltimore, Maryland. She enjoys being a family care provider, because with no more than eight children, she manages to give more individualized attention on a daily basis. She…

Research Findings: Using data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, this article relates neighborhood characteristics to the type of child care used in families with toddlers and preschoolers (N = 1,121; representative of children in Chicago in 1996-1998). Neighborhood structural disadvantage was assessed via U.S. Census…

To assist parents and their children in making a smooth transition when the children leave home to enter school, this handbook describes a series of school-related skills and activities. Eight brief sections compose the document, one intended for parents and seven focusing on children and reflecting common kindergarten experiences. The section for…

The validity of the Lollipop Test: A Diagnostic Screening Test of School Readiness was examined for 129 pre-kindergarten subjects using the Developmental Indicator for the Assessment of Learning as the criterion. Concurrent validity was demonstrated across the test batteries. The Lollipop Test appears to be an attractive alternative…

This study examined a 20-item diagnostic assessment designed to assess readiness of preschool children for kindergarten. Examination of student scores on the individual items of the assessment led to the proposal of the extraction of testlets composed of groups of related items to use information about students' scores better. This approach…

Quality early childhood programs produce beneficial outcomes for children and the community in which they live. The Colorado Preschool and Kindergarten Program (CPKP) provides funding to establish early childhood education programs that serve preschool and kindergarten children with the toughest educational challenges. Over the last eighteen…

Previous studies have identified the features of preschool programs that correlate with positive outcomes for low-income children, but the impact of economic integration has not been studied. This study compares the receptive language growth of two groups of children from low-income families. One group of children (N=35) attended economically…

As Universal Pre-K efforts sweep the nation, so does the development of state standards that define the skills and the knowledge that young children should be developing. The goal of these standards is to ensure the school readiness of all students. While the goals mentioned in this article are taken from the New Jersey Department of Education's…