Although the formal definition of kindergarten readiness includes cognitive and social skills, the prerequisite skills tested during the first 30 days of kindergarten by the State of Florida are the academic benchmarks and competencies from the Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK) curriculum. Student readiness rates for VPK facilities include assessment scores and the growth of the students who attended these facilities. All kindergarten students must complete the kindergarten screener regardless of VPK attendance. This convergent mixed-methods design aimed to identify issues that could account for differences in readiness rates for pre-kindergarten students. The researcher addresses six areas of instruction for the qualitative strand utilized by VPK teachers: (a) language, (b) phonological awareness, (c) print knowledge, (d) decoding, (e) numeracy, and (f) early writing. The quantitative strand addresses five covariates: (a) public vs. private facilities, (b) student-teacher ratios, (c) curriculum, (d) class size, and (e) teacher credentials for a possible statistically significant relationship between the covariates and kindergarten readiness rates. Data collection is concurrent with the quantitative and qualitative research approaches. The integration of the data for the results is accomplished with equal emphasis on both strands; neither strand informed the other. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]