eady to take part and learn in a successful kindergarten program. Children begin kindergarten with different skills and knowledge. Whether a child is “ready” depends on who is defining “readiness,” the demands that the kindergarten places, the support it provides, and the child’s knowledge and skills. National kindergarten cutoff dates range from July 1 to January 1. Kindergartners in the same classroom range from younger than 5-years-old to older than 6, with a wide range of skills and experiences. A large-scale national study of more than 20,000 kindergarten children found that about 7 percent of parents delay their age-eligible children’s entry into kindergarten for one year or more. This assumes that some children are not mature enough to participate in or benefit from formal schooling. Some studies suggest that the developmental levels of children who are closest to the age cutoff may put them at a disadvantage for acquiring necessary academic skills.
Readiness has also been based on children’s attributes, abilities, and performance in relation to the expectations of kindergarten teachers. Although formal readiness assessments are prevalent in many schools, teacher perceptions of the demands of kindergarten can play an important part in influencing which children are ready for kindergarten.
Schools must pay attention to each child’s transition issues, preschool experiences and needs. It is equally important to ensure highly-qualified professional staff, with positive expectations for learning and succeeding in school, no matter what the socioeconomic or linguistic conditions. Schools need to support the professional development of those who interact with students as well as consider programs to help parents support children’s literacy and numeric skills. These efforts require schools to maintain strong, communicative leadership with the power to establish the resources schools need.
A variety of risk issues unfavorably affect the cognitive, language, and social skills of children entering kindergarten: their families’ socioeconomic status, parents’ educational levels and/or ethnic backgrounds, children’s health and living environments, etc. Children from low income or less-educated families are less likely to have the necessary support for healthy growth and development which may result in lower capability at school entry.
The effects of preschool on children’s skills are related to the overall quality of teacher education and training. Preschool excellence relies on various factors including class size, staff-child ratio, and physical environment. Quality education depends on the kinds of experiences children have within the classroom on a day-by-day basis with the class environment, their interactions with adults and other children, and educators’ knowledge of how children develop and learn.
Researchers have found that although kindergarten reading and math scores were higher for those children who participated in center-based care the year prior to enrollment in kindergarten, the largest benefits were for those children attending state-funded pre-kindergarten programs, because teachers in state-funded pre-kindergarten programs have Bachelors’ degrees related to Early Childhood more frequently than teachers in private preschool programs. Local, state, and national policymakers seeking to increase readiness face three key challenges: defining readiness, determining how it might best be nurtured and enhanced, and putting in place the programs and policies that will help children be ready for kindergarten.
The readiness skills children bring to kindergarten vary widely. The influence of these variations depends on the demands that kindergarten places on children. There is a lack of agreement regarding the implied and explicit demands of teachers and schools. Children who are seen as ready in one classroom or community— whether as the result of a cutoff date or specific assessment—may not be ready elsewhere. A clear definition of readiness in terms of potential for children and schools may help to make it possible to improve the preparation of both resulting in a much better match between children and schools.
Characterization of readiness must encompass what is “good enough” in each realm while recognizing the unevenness of early development. A distribution of abilities is to be expected, as every child does not need to meet the highest readiness standard in every domain. Despite the best preschool efforts some children will be less well prepared than others. A high-quality preschool program has an effective policy for improving readiness, especially for disadvantaged children. At the preschool, as well as the kindergarten level, content, length of school day, class size, teacher qualifications, and teacher professional development need to be considered. With some current trends in kindergarten, the demand for certain skills and behavior may be better if postponed because of the present difficulties for many children. This is particularly true if delayed attainment does not obstruct sufficient advancement concerning elementary school goals.
