Transition to kindergarten is an important developmental milestone for children and families. This study explored factors associated with kindergarten readiness focusing on the impact of a summer kindergarten transition program. A mixed-method design was employed, and the qualitative data from interviews with 16 randomly selected kindergarten…

Numerous studies have examined influential factors on teacher-child relational conflict; however, only a limited number of studies have presented in-depth portrayals of teachers' conflict with children living in poverty at the preschool level. The purpose of this paper is to explore teacher, child, and contextual characteristics that influence…

A key to reducing reading difficulty, particularly for children living in poverty, is to provide high quality, explicit, and well-planned instruction from the start of a child's school career. Preschools that provide quality language, literacy, and content instruction have produced promising positive effects on children's later academic…

Living in poverty disadvantages young children reducing school readiness. "Pedagogy of listening" can potentially support resilience remediating against poverty's negative effects. Little, though, is known about how early childhood education and care (ECEC) practitioners work with children in poverty and the attainment gap between such…

This report presents a snapshot of selected features of the condition of education in Wisconsin in 2019. With support from the U.S. Department of Education's Institute for Education Sciences, and in collaboration with colleagues at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI), the authors set out to measure practices in PK-12 education…

Early childhood development (ECD) has gained substantial recognition in South Africa (SA) as a key issue to be addressed, but inequities and deficits remain evident, despite progressive policy and widespread effort by a range of role players in the non-governmental sector. ECD in SA requires far more attention if these are to be rectified, and…

As part of the federal Preschool Development Grant Program in late 2014, the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) was awarded a Preschool Expansion Grant (referred to as the Massachusetts PEG program) to expand high-quality early childhood education to four-year-old children from low-income families. The Massachusetts PEG…

This study used data drawn from a large, national sample to describe transition practices provided to 1989 children with disabilities as they entered their kindergarten year, obtained through a survey administered to kindergarten teachers. Using path modeling, we examined the child and family, school, and district factors that predict which…

Publicly funded prekindergartens are programs that most states use to promote school readiness, especially of 4-year-old children at risk for academic problems due to poverty. Despite large public expenditures, these programs have not been widely evaluated. We examined 240 randomly selected pre-kindergarten programs in six states with mature…

This policy brief provides the context and the research supporting the American Federation of Teacher's call for universal early childhood education. It focuses on the current challenges the nation faces in achieving such a program; and it includes the signs of progress, a description of what other industrialized countries are doing, the features…

In Arizona and around the country, there is an increased focus on ensuring that children start school ready to learn. Noting that the best way to know if Arizona's children are starting school ready to learn is to track their progress, this booklet details indicators or benchmarks in five categories used to measure the state's progress in school…