Kindergarten Readiness

Although educators have long been interested in fostering children's readiness for schooling, defining readiness is not as easy as you might think.  Schools often use chronological age to determine eligibility for entry, but several studies have shown that age is not a good predictor of academic success or learning (Carlton & Winsler, 1999; Morrison, Griffith, & Alberts, 1997).

National surveys have asked parents and kindergarten teachers what they think are important readiness indicators. Both parents and teachers emphasize children's overall physical health, verbal communication skills, and enthusiasm. Teachers also emphasize social skills and ability to follow classroom rules and procedures. And parents—but not most teachers—see academic knowledge, such as familiarity with the alphabet or counting skills, as an important prerequisite (Lewit & Baker, 1995). Other educators believe that self-control over behavior and emotions, the ability to keep attention focused, and the ability to avoid impulsive responding are major factors that underlie readiness; research indicates that self-regulation of behavior is significantly related to growth in both reading and math skills (Blair, 2002; Fantuzzo et al., 2007; McClelland et al., 2007; NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2003a). Many school districts use standardized assessments to assess readiness. Although these tests are improving, many show only low to moderate levels of predictive validity (Carlton & Winsler, 1999; Duncan & Rafter, 2005).

How ready are our nation's children? On national surveys in the early 1990s, kindergarten teachers rated approximately 65% of their students as ready for kindergarten on all five of the readiness characteristics the surveys assessed—rested, able to verbally communicate clearly, enthusiastic and interested, able to take turns and share, and able to sit still (Lewit & Baker, 1995). The overall health of children entering school, including immunization rates, improved over the 1990s (National Education Goals Panel, 1999). One study assessed a nationally representative sample of 22,000 children who entered kindergarten in the fall of 1998. The majority of children had basic letter and number knowledge, showed good prosocial skills, persisted at tasks, were eager to learn, and could pay attention (West, Denton & Germino-Hausken, 2000). However, almost all the measures varied according to factors such as age (older kindergarteners, those from 6 to 6.5 years, score higher than those just turning 5); family type (children from single-parent homes tend to score lower); mothers' education (the higher the mothers' level of education, the higher the children's scores); race/ethnicity (non-Hispanic white and Asian children score higher than African American and Hispanic children, especially on teacher ratings of behavior); and/or socioeconomic status (children from higher-income families score higher) (Stipek & Ryan, 1997). In sum, although the majority of children seem reasonably ready for school and there have been important improvements, there is still much room for improvement.