Research shows that many primary grade students need extra-year options and benefit from them as they start their schooling. This book provides information about school readiness and transition programs in the United States, documenting the need for and success of such programs as a countermeasure to grade retention, as well as the negative campaign to eliminate these successful programs from U. S. elementary schools. The first section of the book provides a historical perspective on the development of readiness and transition programs, examining the reasons such options were initiated and showing how they have grown over the past few decades. The second section presents an in-depth look at the major issues raised by the recent attacks on readiness and transition programs. This section is intended to help readers understand the distortions and inaccuracies that form the basis of the attacks, and to judge for themselves whether or not individual local programs meet the suggested criteria and guidelines for such programs. Finally, the third section of the book contains the results of more than 50 research studies, summarized in an accurate and easy to understand format. Some of these studies have been previously reported, but their conclusions have been distorted. Others have never before been reported in the professional literature and now add much new data to the base of knowledge about school transition. Thirty-eight of these studies specifically address readiness and transition programs. These studies have been cross-referenced to help readers find particular types of data that interest them. (Author/AA)