A successful transition from preschool to school demands continuity in education between the institutions: continuity in pedagogy, values and institutional structures. One way to achieve continuity is to learn how to do "boundary work" in the borderline of two activity systems. This article examines what kinds of discourses frame the…

The elementary classroom offers a potentially favorable setting to impact student health. However, research indicates that Elementary Health Education (EHE) is frequently omitted or haphazardly delivered. Traditional efforts in educational change have had limited success and lack a theoretical foundation. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to…

Educator's perceptions and use of a state-mandated kindergarten entry assessment (KEA), the Alaska Developmental Profile (ADP), were investigated using a mixed-methods approach with 233 educators representing 23 districts in the state of Alaska. Educators reported inconsistencies in the administration, implementation, perceptions, and use of the…

While global enrollment in primary education has increased significantly particularly since it became a target of the United Nations "Education for All" initiative and one of the Millennium Development Goals, primary completion rates have remained virtually unchanged since 1999. Evidence from studies of individual programs in a range of…

Enrollment in eighth-grade algebra doubled from the 1990s to 2012 (National Center for Education Statistics, 2013) as research demonstrated that Algebra I operates as a "gateway" to advanced mathematics courses in high school (Adelman, 2006), and that students who succeed in Algebra I in middle school have more success in mathematics…

This timely book will help policymakers and practitioners convert their visions of high-quality early education into on-the-ground reality by providing a much-needed, richly detailed look at how states can design, fund, and manage exemplary programs. The authors describe and analyze how four states--Michigan, West Virginia, Washington, and North…

One of early childhood teachers' first questions of parents with regard to school readiness is whether the child knows the ABCs (Hyson & Tomlinson, 2014). Crucial pre-reading and writing skills, such as oral language, phonological awareness, print awareness, and alphabet letter recognition, are important to children's cognitive development…

This paper explores the concept of miniature students to interrogate the ways in which early childhood care and education systems in East Asian countries are being constructed. Experiences drawn from working in the Hong Kong education system and observations of teaching and researching in Hong Kong have enabled an analysis about the ways in which…

The present study explored the utility of a widely used performance-based assessment of children's readiness skills as a kindergarten entry assessment. In a sample of 520 kindergarten students across 52 classrooms, we compared students' school readiness skills as assessed by teachers using Teaching Strategies GOLD (TS GOLD) to direct assessments…

This study examined an urban school readiness initiative that developed parent leadership as a key strategy for increasing the likelihood that all children enter kindergarten ready to succeed. Parent Leaders were primarily immigrant mothers who conducted outreach activities and child developmental screenings with low income, under-served, urban…

Researchers are increasingly focusing on the home-based parental involvement experiences of low-income, African American families with young children. These studies document the positive ways that parental involvement can promote the school readiness of preschoolers who are at risk of not being ready for kindergarten. In light of the paucity of…

This article reports on an investigation into the influence stemming from school leadership as an important consideration in relation to school improvement. School readiness, based on [Schiemann, W. A. 2014. "From Talent Management to Talent Optimization." "Journal of World Business" 49 (2): 281-288.…

The Classroom Learning Activities Checklist (CLAC) is a brief classroom observation measure that assesses task-oriented and self-regulated learning in early childhood environments. We assessed the tool's dimensionality and validity in predicting prekindergarten (PreK) learning gains. The study sample is from the Midwest Child-Parent Center (MCPC)…

Sound assessment tools are needed to evaluate effects of mathematics interventions that familiarize children with early mathematics concepts before they enter the formal school system. We developed a short version of an existing early mathematics tool based on analyses of data collected in a nationally representative Danish sample. Research…

The article presents a new adaptation programme entitled 'With a smile to school' for pupils of the first year at primary schools. The adaptation programme comprises several methods and measures which are focused on the regulation of pupils' adaptation process. The efficiency and effectiveness of the adaptation programme were verified through an…