This report examines the prevalence of selected accomplishments and difficulties in a national sample of 4,423 children from 3 to 5 years of age who had not yet started kindergarten. The data were collected as part of the 1993 National Household Education Survey (NHES). The report focused on 2,000 children who had turned 4 by the end of 1992 and…

This manual, which was developed to assist persons using the Helpful Entry Level Skills Checklist, includes typical developmental levels or ages for each skill addressed on the check list for children ages 3 through 6. The guidelines are designed to be used to target appropriate skills for intervention. Skills included in the check list include:…

This manual provides documentation and guidance for users of the public release data file for the School Readiness (SR) component of the 1993 National Household Education Survey (NHES:93). The NHES:93 was a random digit dial telephone survey of households developed by the National Center for Education Statistics and conducted by Westat Inc. For…

Two institutions initiated a long-term National Child Care Research Program in 1990. The program has two components: (1) examining the comprehensiveness of services offered by licensed center-based child care; and (2) documenting the development of children in licensed center-based child care. This publication reports the results of the first…

Over the past 10 years, kindergarten classes have escalated their academic demands in order to prepare children to begin first grade. In tandem with curricular changes, many parents have elected to "hold out" their children from first grade for an additional year, and increasingly, schools are using kindergarten retention in response to…

This document reports the findings of the 1989-90 process evaluation of the Saginaw, Michigan school district's state-funded prekindergarten program for 4-year-olds at risk of academic failure. As of January 29, 1990, a total of 255 pupils were participating in the program at 11 sites. The Michigan Early Childhood Education Preschool (MECEP)…

AN EXPERIMENTAL PRESCHOOL PROGRAM HAS BEEN DEVELOPED, THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE OF WHICH IS TO HELP THE CHILD TO LEARN THE PROCESS OF LEARNING. ORGANIZED ON THE ASSUMPTION THAT COGNITIVE GROWTH PROCEEDS FROM MOTOR TO PERCEPTUAL TO SYMBOLIC FUNCTIONING, THE PROGRAM EMPHASIZES THE IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE AS A TOOL FOR THINKING AND REASONING. AN…

Assuming the premise that "a child has gone fifty percent of the way in organizing the thinking patterns that we call his intelligence by the time he has reached the age of four, and the next thirty percent by the time he is eight," 50 Schenectady kindergarten-through-first-grade teachers and administrators formulated a chart of behavioral…

One of the most popular and enduring legacies of President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society programs, Project Head Start continues to support young children of low-income families--close to one million annually--by providing a range of developmental and educational services. Yet as Head Start reaches its fortieth anniversary, debates over the…

This guide is a planning tool for establishing Head Start-Parent Teacher Association (PTA) partnerships, building effective transition practices from preschool to kindergarten, and promoting continuity in parent and family involvement. Designed for use by coordinators of early childhood, parent involvement, and outreach activities, the guide can…

A 2-year project was undertaken to develop, test, and distribute a video-based program to train low-income parents in engaging their 3- to 5-year-old children in highly motivating play techniques in order to enhance children's cognitive, social and motor skills for school readiness. An evaluation was conducted of the Year One phase of the training…

Responding to increased interest in the development and education of children, many states have invested in initiatives to facilitate school success of prekindergarten-age children. Although national progress is encouraging, individual state initiatives are uneven, ranging from bold innovations with major funding to inaction and reliance on…

This booklet presents a short history of the Head Start program and discusses some of the challenges that the program will face in the 1990s. Project Head Start, begun in 1965, has helped 12.5 million children become better prepared to start school, and has grown to be the largest early childhood and family education program in the country. From…

A lack of education is a major cause of poverty among many Kentucky citizens. In 1986, Kentucky's dropout rate was the second highest of the 50 states. That same year, Kentucky established the Parent and Child Education (PACE) Program in an effort to combat the problems of insufficient education and poverty that tend to be perpetuated from…

Intended to enable parents to support and advocate for their children during transitions, this guide contains training activities and hands-on action tools to help parents and staff work in partnership as children transition into and out of Early Head Start, Head Start, child care settings, and elementary schools. The guide is divided into three…