First-Time Kindergartners in 2010-11: First Findings From the Kindergarten Rounds of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11 - This brief report provides a demographic profile of the students who were attending kindergarten for the first time in the 2010-11 school year using new data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11 (ECLS-K:2011). The report presents information about the demographic and family characteristics of the 3.5 million first-time kindergartners in the kindergarten class of 2010-11, their overall achievement in reading and mathematics in the fall and spring of kindergarten, and their body mass index calculated from their height and weight in each of the kindergarten data collection rounds. (NCES, July 2012)...

The Facts about Full-Day Kindergarten - This fact sheet outlines policies throughout the nation regarding public funding and access to Full-Day K, as well as research regarding the benefits of Full-Day K as part of the Pre-K-3 learning continuum. (Children’s Defense Fund, January 2012)...

WWC Quick Review of the Report "The Effectiveness of a Program to Accelerate Vocabulary Development in Kindergarten - The study examines whether exposure to Kindergarten PAVEd for Success, a vocabulary instruction program, improved expressive vocabulary of kindergartners. The study analyzed data for nearly 1,300 kindergarten students in 64 schools serving predominantly rural and high poverty youth in the Mississippi Delta region and surrounding areas. WWC Clearinghouse indicates the report meets the WWC evidence standards. The study is a randomized controlled trial. (What Works Clearinghouse, IES, December 2011)...

One Size Can’t Fit All – Developing Smart Policies to Evaluate Pre-K-3 Teacher Effectiveness PDF - This presentation was used during the webinar entitled "One Size Can’t Fit All – Developing Smart Policies to Evaluate Pre-K-3 Teacher Effectiveness." The webinar took place on November 8, 2011 and featured (1) Lisa Guernsey, Director of the Early Education Initiative at the New America Foundation; (2) Robert Pianta, Ph.D., Dean and Novartis Professor of Education and Director of the Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning at the University of Virginia Curry School of Education; and (3) Cheryl Ohlson, Ed.D., Senior Master Educator, Early Childhood Education for the District of Columbia Public Schools. The panel was moderated by Karen Schimke, Project Manager for Early Learning at the Education Commission of the States....

Attendance in Early Elementary Grades: Associations with Student Characteristics, School Readiness, and Third Grade Outcomes - This report examines a sample of kindergarten students who participated in school readiness assessments in 19 school districts in California. The authors address the following questions: 1. How does attendance in early grades (kindergarten and first grade) relate to third grade performance? 2. Does the association between attendance and later outcomes depend on the readiness skills that students possess when they enter kindergarten? (Applied Survey Research, July 2011)...

Making the Most of Extra Time: Relationships Between Full-Day Kindergarten Instructional Environments and Reading Achievement - This brief provides some of the first evidence on how full-day kindergarten programs might structure instructional resources and practices in ways that prepare children for first grade and later school success. A summary of the brief is also available. (Amy Rathbun, American Institutes for Research, November 2010)...

Head Start Children Go to Kindergarten - This Head Start study followed the entire cohort of children who entered the program in fall 2006 through the end of kindergarten and found they continued to make progress in their cognitive and social-emotional development, even scoring above the norm in early reading and writing assessments. Also, whereas 11 percent of children were designated as needing special education services at the beginning of Head Start, just 6 percent were in this category by the end of kindergarten. Researchers also found that the more advanced the children were in their cognitive and social-emotional development at the end of Head Start, the better they did at the end of kindergarten. (Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation/Administration for Children and Families, 2010)...

Kindergarten Readiness Data: Improving Children’s Success in School - This Children Now brief asserts that a well-designed kindergarten-readiness assessment system that encompasses all major developmental domains in young children would benefit students and educators at the local level as well as administrators and policy makers at the district and state levels. The brief recommends that state leaders engage stakeholders to develop a common vision of what data are needed and what an assessment system should be and should not be used for, design a model assessment strategy, pilot the strategy and monitor its expansion, ensure that school readiness data are linked to the K-12 education data system, and make data accessible for teachers, parents, administrators, and policy makers. (Children Now, May 2009)...

Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play in School - Recent studies point to the conclusion that kindergarten is in crisis and the same illness may be passed on to preschools and even to programs for children ages birth to three. The crisis is the disappearance of children’s play. This report concludes that kindergartners need a balance of child-initiated play in the presence of engaged teachers and more focused experiential learning guided by those teachers. (Alliance for Childhood, March 2009)...

P-3 Successful Practices: A Guide to Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment - This guide stands at the intersection of research, policy, program and practice. Its chief aim is to show how research translates into policy, policy into program and program into practice. It examines what is know in two areas: (1) Successful curriculum, instruction and assessment practices; and (2) systems that support effective implementation. (Colorado Department of Education, November 2008)...

Longitudinal Effects of the Arkansas Better Chance Program: Findings from Kindergarten and First Grade - In this study, researchers at that National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) found mixed, though generally positive, pre-k outcomes. While children who attended pre-k, upon kindergarten entry, did significantly better than their peers on measures of vocabulary, basic reading skills, and early math skills, by the end of kindergarten the only evidence of significant impact was for vocabulary skills. Moreover, by the end of first grade, researchers found significant impact for early math and basic reading skills, but not for vocabulary....