This research review summarizes the current research literature regarding Gesell screening. It also explores the controversy over whether developmentally unready children should be held out of kindergarten, retained at the end of the kindergarten year, or placed in pre-kindergarten or pre-first grade classes. A seven-page bibliography on…

Screening programs are now widely used with children who are age-eligible for school entry. Screening is used to identify children who may be at risk of future difficulty in school (e.g., inability to meet academic expectations) and those who may have special needs in learning (e.g., extraordinary abilities and talents or handicapping conditions).…

Discusses two related early education issues: providing public school programs for younger children and serving children who do not do well in kindergarten. Recommends ungraded, child-centered developmental programs for all children from birth to age 9 and prekindergarten summer enrichment programs for children assessed at certain devlopmental…

What follows in this report is a comprehensive Five-Year Action Plan that, when implemented, will put Baltimore City on the road to making real and measurable gains in the school readiness of its youngest children, from birth to age five. The purpose in developing this plan is to identify the specific strategies and their associated action …

The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort 2000 (ECLS-B) is a study that will assess children's health status and their growth and development in domains that are critical for later school readiness and academic achievement. This paper is one of several that have been prepared in support of ECLS-B design efforts. It is anticipated that…

Describes the concept of school readiness and considers the purpose, content, and process of assessing children's school readiness. Notes that early childhood assessment is undertaken for numerous purposes but that these purposes are not always clear. Delineates different purposes for collecting data and discusses critical principles that could…

Although implementing the school readiness goal is clearly a shared responsibility of parents, schools, and community, activities beyond the schoolhouse must be matched by internal school efforts, including accessing knowledge and attitudes; evaluating existing strategies in training, screening, testing, service linkages, and classroom practices;…

In the past, early childhood programs provided either full day care for young children whose parents were employed, or part day enrichment experiences for families who did not need care for their children while they worked. Gradually these two strands (care and education) began to merge into the field which is now called childhood education and…

This paper reports the results of a Delphi study investigating young children's readiness in Korea. Twenty-two (22) Korean experts in early childhood education participated in a 4-stage Delphi consensus-seeking process. Results indicate that behaviors related to social adjustment to school were considered the most important components of school…

For more than a decade, Florida's Palm Beach County has been building an infrastructure of prevention and early intervention services to promote and support the healthy development and school readiness of children from birth to age 8. The county began this effort with a set of programs focused on serving families in four targeted geographic areas…

Brain research has strengthened our understanding of the first five years of a child's life as a critical period. Quality early care is important to the healthy development of young children, and their later success in school. Concurrently, many families depend on childcare outside the home. Programs that have knowledgeable and skilled staff,…

Research Findings: Integrated services for young children and families are part of the new policy landscape in early childhood, but there is limited evidence of the effectiveness of these programs and how they develop on the ground. This study examined the use of the Early Development Instrument (EDI) as both a summative program evaluation tool…

The first of the National Education Goals calls for every child to be ready to learn when entering kindergarten. Noting that children are more likely to succeed when schools and families are prepared for each other, this book describes the grassroots efforts of The W.K. Kellogg Foundation School Readiness Initiatives to link families, schools, and…

The GOAL ONE Project of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is designed to ensure that children have access to an environment that provides a foundation for school success. GOAL ONE is a national project involving model, community-based, collaborative programs that provide a nurturing environment for children whose…

A survey of 3,600 teachers by the National Center for Early Development and Learning (Pianta et al., 1999; NCEDL, 1999) found that teachers were concerned about children's transitions to school. Teachers reported that almost half (48 percent) of children entering kindergarten had moderate or serious problems adjusting to the new experience. These…