Following a high-quality early care and pre-K experience, the kindergarten-through-third-grade years set the foundation upon which future learning builds; and strengthening this continuum creates opportunities for later success. Key components of a quality experience in K-3 include school readiness and transitions, kindergarten requirements,…

Transition to school is recurrently pointed out as key to children's immediate well-being at school start, as well as to their long-term educational endeavors. Aspirations towards continuity during transition is a common denominator across research, policy, and practice, in Denmark as well as internationally. This theoretical-conceptual paper…

This study investigated the direct relationship between home play opportunity and prospective school readiness, and the indirect relationships as mediated through object and social mastery motivation among Hong Kong Chinese kindergarten children. Participants were 106 local children (44.4% girls, mean age = 60.0 months) and their parents and…

Substantial research has documented that Pre-Kindergarten (Pre-K) programs have important benefits for the school readiness of young children, especially those from low-income backgrounds. Recent studies in this arena have taken advantage of the Regression Discontinuity (RD) design to evaluate the impacts of Pre-K, due to ethical and pragmatic…

"The Upstart Great Plains TASK Force: Taking All to Success in Kindergarten" was a five-year Education, Innovation and Research (EIR) expansion grant (U411A180001) funded through the US Department of Education Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. Four research studies were conducted during the grant period of 2018 to 2023: a…

This study examines the development of children's social skills during the crucial transition from kindergarten to grade school. It explores the long-term connection between parenting styles and children's social skills. This study conducted a three-year longitudinal survey involving 121 children and their parents. The results show that early…

Background: Pre-k convergence refers to the tendency for the positive effects of pre-k on children's academic skills to diminish over time, observed across decades of observational and experimental studies (Ansari et al., 2020). Researchers have tested multiple mechanisms to explain convergence, with mixed results; none of the proposed mechanisms…

Kindergarten requirements are changing across the world as early school readiness has been linked to future school success. However, smaller European countries like Slovakia often lack a research base of their own, relying instead on research in other countries, particularly the US. The purpose of this study was to understand perceptions of…

The "first-grade problem" of the lack of concentration, listening, and following of instruction has been widely identified among Japanese kindergarten students. To promote their executive functioning and self-regulation to prevent this issue, we developed the Social Thinking and Academic Readiness Training (START) program. The…

Current conceptualizations of process quality in early childhood education highlight a variety of global classroom indicators that directly link to improved child outcomes. This conceptualization may need to be extended, however, to facilitate more meaningful change in children's development and readiness for kindergarten. To enhance our current…

Research Findings: In this study, a combination of variable-oriented and person-oriented statistical analyses was used to examine the links between three temperament factors (negative affectivity, surgency/extraversion, effortful control) evaluated before entry into kindergarten and the cognitive and socioemotional dimensions of school readiness…

Federal accountability policy mandates that states administer standardized tests beginning in third grade. In turn, third-grade test scores are often viewed as a key indicator in policy and practice. Yet literacy struggles begin well before third grade, as do racial and socioeconomic disparities in children's literacy skills. Kindergarten…

The purpose of this qualitative, exploratory case study was to research how a high-quality, state-funded preschool program academically prepared at-risk students for kindergarten in a large public school district in southeastern Virginia. The school district has over 20 elementary schools with seven of the schools housing Virginia's high-quality,…

Cross-national comparisons represent an avenue for investigating milestones achieved by one region that can help improve standards in another country. This study compares the development of executive functioning in Hungarian and Kenyan preschoolers as they prepare for school readiness. The study's cross-sectional design entailed sampling…

A southeastern state engaged in a systematic landscape study to identify needs and priorities for young children and their families. Early childhood and research methods experts, representing five Institutions of Higher Education (IHE), along with equity and family engagement experts developed three strategies to collect data from various…