School readiness is a core goal of teachers and parents, but those two simple words capture one of the most complex challenges in early learning, as experts struggle to define what it means and why it matters.

School readiness could cover everything from listening skills and social development to early literacy and even mathematics. In practice, Oregon officials are learning it’s not easy to measure, the Statesman-Journal reports in “Tracking Children’s Readiness for School Proves Complicated: State struggles with consistency in assessments.”

The story devotes a lot of space to Oregon’s various school readiness assessments and the idea that it remains a work in progress. It also highlights why school readiness matters: It can shape public policy, set priorities and help a child get a good or a bad start to school.

"It changes people's perceptions. It can change a teacher's perception of likely success in school. It can create parental anxiety. Worst of all, it can make a small student feel stigmatized and less capable," (Samuel) Meisels, (president of the Erickson Institute, which focuses on early learning) said. "If any one of those consequences occur, based on a poorly designed test, it's inexcusable to me."

In Washington, the definition of school readiness surely will remain a major topic in the state’s still emerging comprehensive early learning plan. Congress will also confront the issue when lawmakers debate the core federal K-12 law, No Child Left Behind, maybe next year.

What do you think should define school readiness at this critical juncture in early learning? Do not limit yourself to existing terms. Let’s add some new thinking to this debate.

More Babies: The American Academy of Pediatrics reports U.S. births hit a record level in 2007 - more than 4.3 million babies were born – up one percent from the year before. 

The report also found:

Teen births rose roughly one percent, running against a long-term decline.

Cesarean births were up two percent.

Infant mortality remained relatively stable, and the United States still ranks poorly in this critical area.

Watch a video about East Yakima's Kindergarten Transition Program: Yakima elementary school's early start program

This week, many students will begin school, but hundreds of East Yakima kindergarteners started two weeks ago as part of a program to help them get off to a great school year and, hopefully, years of school success, the Yakima Herald-Republic reports in “Kindergarten Transition Program a Positive First Step."

National

• Obama to appear in back-to-school program – 8/19/09, The Washington Post

News

• Getting ready for kindergarten – 8/15/09, Estherville Daily News News
• Connecting Anxious Parents and Educators, at $450 an Hour – 8/17/19, The New York Times

Analysis

• Early intervention is the smart way to cut crime – 8/15/09, Deleware Online

Economy

• Kids Count's No. 2 is a warning signal – 8/17/09, The Star-Tribune (MN)

As the first day of school looms, parents are preparing their kids for kindergarten, and apparently some parents started awhile ago.

Today, heading to the first year of formal school involves more than back-to-school shopping and haircuts. This week, MSNBC.com reports on “Tutoring tots? Some kids prep for kindergarten.”

The idea of tutoring ahead of kindergarten raises a bunch of questions for educators and parents. In this era of focus on quality early learning, how hard should parents work to get their children ready for kindergarten? What roles do preschool, pre-kindergarten and child care play in preparing these kids? And do we risk going too far and taking too much creativity and free play from the first years of life?

Apparently, some parents think they need to do a lot of work.

Today, many children go to two or three years of preschool and some stay on for another year of pre-K. Like (Heather) Rubesch, some parents have begun signing their kids up for summer classes or one-on-one tutoring to improve their reading, math, writing and overall "kindergarten readiness." – MSNBC.com, 8/18/09.

I should admit we feel lucky that we can send our kids to a school that doesn’t worry if they read in kindergarten and isn’t constrained by federal testing standards.

But many public kindergartens are under tremendous pressure to meet federal guidelines and test students, a point the MSNBC.com article makes.

Critics of the state of early education say there are problems all around. The pressure, they say, largely starts at the top with efforts such as the NCLB, the federal act that pushes schools to increase performance or face penalties. That puts pressure on superintendents and principals, who put pressure on teachers, who in turn increase their focus on academics for even the youngest children.

(Check out the story, it’s a good read.)

If kindergarten is the new first grade, what does that make pre-kindergarten?

The first day of kindergarten is right around the corner and research suggests many kids will show up overweight and unprepared.

Nearly 12 percent of incoming kindergarteners were obese and students who came from family, friend and neighbor care were significantly more likely to be obese than children from other types of care, according to research published in Pediatrics.

The study didn’t criticize family, friend and neighbor care. Instead, it pointed out those types of arrangements could be opportunities to intervene and tackle the growing problem of childhood obesity.

Our research points to the need to better understand how the specific features of child care environments may promote or protect against the development of obesity. For Latino and other populations of children at greatest risk of obesity, a crucial task is to understand how social, cultural, and economic influences interact with features of child care environments in the development of obesity. This understanding can then lead to the design and development of targeted interventions to reach children and families in child care settings. – “Preschool Child Care Participation and Obesity at the Start of Kindergarten,” 8/08, American Academy of Pediatrics, Pediatrics.

Though researchers didn’t establish exact reasons why different care led to different rates of obesity – or a causation link – they had a few ideas.

Most family, friend, and neighbor caregivers are relatives (grandparents in particular) whose own income and educational backgrounds generally mirror those of the child's parents. Yet, our findings show that caregiver influence on children's physical development may be different from that of parents. For example, grandparents may be less physically active than parents. Another possibility is that indulgent grandparents may be less likely than parents to restrict their grandchildren's television viewing or access to energy-dense favorite foods, believing that "grandparent time" should be a time when children's whims rule.

In related news, a new survey out of Michigan found only 65 percent of incoming students are ready for kindergarten, the Detroit Free Press reports. (Thanks EarlyStories for highlighting this story.)

Finally, if you have any thoughts or opinions about the Early Learning Challenge Fund moving through Congress, you can join the dialogue over at the National Journal’s Education Blog, “How Would You Assess the Proposed Early Learning Challenge Fund?”

My kindergartener has always liked math, whether he was organizing his blocks, learning to count to ten or tackling basic addition.

Now, a new report from the National Research Council calls for a systemic approach to teaching math in preschool. It argues preschoolers are not only ready for mathematics, but that basic arithmetic can help close the achievement gap.

This is particularly the case for economically disadvantaged children, who start out behind in mathematics and will remain so without extensive, high-quality early mathematics instruction. —“Mathematics Learning in Early Childhood: Paths Toward Excellence and Equity.” In fact, academic activities such as mathematics can be a context in which social-emotional development and the foundations of language and literacy flourish.

The report later suggests math could follow on the success of the early literacy effort, which has taken hold at so many schools.  This idea doesn’t sound farfetched in our high-tech world.

Given the increasing importance of science and technology in everyday life and for gaining entry into many careers, it's crucial that we give all children a strong foundation in math and that we start many years before they enter formal schooling. —The report, as quoted by ScienceDaily.   

While we may not be able to argue with the importance of arithmetic, the report adds another layer of recommendations to those already weighing down early learning educators and policymakers. For example, authors offer the common suggestion of more training, but many preschools already struggle to pay for training in established subjects and skills.

Yet, the report suggests this is an investment we can’t skip because math is a key to resolving one of pre-k’s greatest challenges: closing the achievement gap.
How would you get math into preschool?

(Thanks to ScienceDaily and Pre-K Now for breaking the news and highlighting this report.)

The New York Times magazine ran an interesting article Sunday about the rise of standardized testing in kindergarten, and after a little digging I learned those tests are invading early learning classrooms.

Peggy Orenstein lays out a tight argument against shoving standardized tests in front of kindergarteners.

Instead of digging in sandboxes, today’s kindergartners prepare for a life of multiple-choice boxes by plowing through standardized tests with cuddly names like Dibels (pronounced “dibbles”), a series of early-literacy measures administered to millions of kids; or toiling over reading curricula like Open Court — which features assessments every six wpoeeks.

According to “Crisis in the Kindergarten,” a report recently released by the Alliance for Childhood, a nonprofit research and advocacy group, all that testing is wasted: it neither predicts nor improves young children’s educational outcomes. More disturbing, along with other academic demands, like assigning homework to 5-year-olds, it is crowding out the one thing that truly is vital to their future success: play. – “Kindergarten Cram,” NYT Magazine, 5/3/09.

This kind of assessment of young children should not be confused with what Washington state is considering. Thrive by Five Washington, the state Department of Early Learning and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction continue to research options for a statewide kindergarten assessment process that could better inform individual student instruction upon entering kindergarten and help improve both the early learning and K-12 systems. The assessment process would not be a barrier to kindergarten. Driving this work is the desire to give all children the chance to start school ready to succeed – or get them help as soon as possible.

I checked in with Alliance for Childhood executive director Joan Almon about what’s happening, and she surprised me with worries that those tests are seeping into preschools.

Nearly 20 years ago, Almon saw Head Start classrooms use computers to teach numbers. She has also seen instructors use songs to teach kids how to darken those test bubbles. Part of the problem is mounting pressure on schools to perform under the federal  No Child Left Behind Act, which should come up for revision or reform in the next couple of years.

“They made the stakes so high,” Almon said in an interview. “The pressure to get children ready for testing has come down the ladder.”

The good news is that Almon detects a backlash among parents sick of all the tests and the disappearance of play.

“I think we are beginning to see a backlash. I can’t say it is huge yet,” Almon said. “It is just the very beginning it of it.”  

But, there are two sides to this issue. Parents may have an abstract worry about all those tests, but it is countered by anxiety about giving their baby every advantage to succeed.

This was a week about early learning money. The news was full of stories about fragmented funding for preschool, pre-kindergarten and child care in California, how to spend economic stimulus cash on child care ratings and Texas money on better classes.

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• In One Pocket and Out the Other for Preschool Funding

 A promised deluge of federal stimulus funds for preschools, a major priority for President Barack Obama, will start flowing to centers in San Diego just as state funding is being clipped.

That might sound like a blessing, but dollars from state, federal and other programs cannot be easily swapped to plug gaps. The push-and-pull on preschool money is putting many centers in the paradoxical position of juggling expected cuts with investments in better programs and training, benefiting some families and not others. The fates of different preschools and their different programs will vary dramatically depending on where they get their money, and whether they can find ways to tap the stimulus. – VoiceofSanDiego.org, 4/28/09 (Thanks to Early Stories for finding this news.)

• A Stimulus for Second-Generation QRIS (Quality Rating and Improvement System)

The stimulus presents a unique opportunity for states to invest in QRIS, which can help them ensure the quality of their growing investments in pre-K and early childhood programs while also driving improvements in child well-being and educational development across the ECE sector. Several states have “shovel-ready” plans for QRIS expansion or pilot programs that could put stimulus funds to work immediately. – New America Foundation, April Issue Brief.

Plus: Making a Connection Between Social Behaviors in Preschool and Kindergarten Success

Hanish and her colleagues also found that, in preschool, children who play well with their peers are more likely to do well in preschool teachers' assessments of their math and literacy skills, as well as their ability to pay attention and follow instructions.

Contrary to what some researchers expected, however, the data did not show any significant link between social behaviors in preschool and literacy and math skills in kindergarten. – Early Ed Watch, 4/28/09.

• New Peabody institute to conduct first-ever assessment of Tennessee's pre-k program

Vanderbilt University’s new Peabody Research Institute and the Tennessee Department of Education today announced a partnership to conduct the first statewide evaluation of the effectiveness of Tennessee’s Voluntary Pre-K Program. (Cost is $6 million). – Vanderbilt University, 4/27/09.

• Childhood nutrition: WIC's workload grows as others' shrink

Oregon WIC is now at 103 percent of capacity, serving more people than they're actually funded for. – The Oregonian, 4/26/09.

• No teacher can wrangle an infinite number of 4-year-olds

In Texas, though, the sky’s the limit. Of the 38 states that sponsor pre-K classes, Texas is the only one that doesn’t cap student-to-teacher ratios. In the Houston area, we hear of classrooms in which a lone teacher wrangles a herd of 28.…The Texas Legislature is considering bills to raise the quality of our state’s pre-K programs. – Houston Chronicle, 4/28/09

(Thanks to Pre-K Now for finding many of these news stories.)