Strategies for Defining, Measuring, andPromoting Success FOR ALL CHILDREN

Report of the

Ready for School Goal TeamF u l l R e p o r t

Submitted to the

North Carolina School Improvement Panel

North Carolina State Board of EducationJune 2000

Public Schools of North Carolina

State Board of Education

Department of Public Instruction

School Readiness inNorth Carolina

School Readiness inNorth Carolina

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S SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS 1

READY FOR SCHOOL GOAL TEAM 2

Introduction 2North Carolina’s Interest in School Readiness 2Need for a Ready for School Goal Team 2Charge 2Membership 2Overview of Work 2

SCHOOL READINESS FRAMEWORK 3

The National Context 3The Foundation for the Goal Team’s Work 3

CHARGE 1:

DEFINING SCHOOL READINESS 4

Readiness Definitions Across the 50 States 4Definition Development Process 4Defining School Readiness in North Carolina: The School Readiness Puzzle 5North Carolina’s Brief Definition of School Readiness 6Description of the Ideal Condition of Children as They Enter School 6Recommendations 6

CHARGE 2:

ASSESSING SCHOOL READINESS IN NORTH CAROLINA 6

Section Overview 6School Readiness Assessment Proposal 7Assessing Children’s School Readiness 7Battery for Assessing the Condition of Children as They Enter School 8Data Collection Procedures 8Special Considerations When Assessing Children 9Assessing Schools’ Readiness for Children 9Recommendations 9Use of NC WISE to Manage Assessment Data 9NC WISE Description 10Data Management Issues to Consider 10Recommendations 10

CHARGE 3:

SCHOOLS’ READINESS FOR ALL CHILDREN:

BEST PRACTICE GUIDELINES FOR NORTH CAROLINA 11

Are All Schools Ready for All Children? 11Cornerstones of Ready Schools 11Features of Ready Schools 11Transitions to Ready Schools 11Assessing Schools’ Readiness for Children 12Ready Schools Summary 12Recommendations 12

FUNDING STRATEGIES FOR IMPLEMENTING

RECOMMENDATIONS 13

CONCLUSIONS 13

APPENDICES 14

Ready for School Goal Team Membership List Appendix A 14Ready for School Goal Team Preamble Appendix B 16State Scan Survey Results Appendix C 17List of North Carolina Reviewers Appendix D 19National Expert Reviewers Appendix E 22Description of Ideal Conditions of Children Appendix F 23FACES Assessment Battery Chart Appendix G 25Schools Ready for All Children Report Appendix H 26Ready Schools Self-Inventory Appendix I 34School Readiness Framework Appendix J 37T

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North Carolina School Improvement PanelReady For School Goal Team

Final Report

Goal Team Co-Chairs:Robin Britt United Child Development Services, Inc.Susan Eaves Federal Programs, Richmond County Schools

Principal Report Authors:Catherine Scott-Little SERVE, UNC-GKelly Maxwell Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center, UNC-CH

Goal Team Subcommittee Co-Chairs and Contributing Authors:Donna Bryant NCEDL Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center, UNC-CHRichard Clifford NCEDL, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center, UNC-CHKim Hughes North Carolina Teacher of the YearBobbie Rowland Department of CSPC, UNC-CLucy Roberts Early Childhood, NCDPICatherine Scott-Little SERVE, UNC-GCharles Thompson North Carolina Education Research CouncilJudy White Office of Education Reform, NCDPI

SUMMARY OFRECOMMENDATIONS

The North Carolina School Improvement Panel Ready forSchool Goal Team recommends the following actions by theState Board of Education. Please note that these recommen-dations are directed toward the State Board of Educationbecause they convened and sponsored the Goal Team. Werecognize the critical role of many other organizations inthe adoption, endorsement, support, and implementation ofthese recommendations.

1. Approve the Goal Team’s principles anddefinition of school readiness.

School readiness is defined by✐ The condition of children as they enter

school, based on the following five domainsof development:� Health and physical development� Social and emotional development� Approaches toward learning� Language development and communication� Cognition and general knowledge

✐ The capacity of schools to serve all kindergart-ners effectively (e.g., personnel, policies, prac-tices, and physical resources).

2. Collaborate in a school readiness systemto assess the conditions of childrenentering school.✐ Use a modified version of the Family and Child

Experiences Survey (FACES) battery as its as-sessment tool.

✐ Use a random sample of children that would pro-vide information at the state and county levels.

✐ Be adopted and directed by the North CarolinaPartnership for Children.

✐ Rely on the North Carolina Department of Pub-lic Instruction and State Board of Education tobe collaborative partners in conducting this as-sessment in schools.

✐ Be piloted for three years, beginning in thefall of 2000.

3. Adopt a school readiness system to assessschools’ readiness for children.✐ Schools’ readiness for all children would include

the following:� Ready teachers� Ready curriculum and instructional

strategies� Ready school environments� Ready administrators� Ready families and communities

✐ Use a random sample of schools that would pro-vide information at the state and county level.

✐ Be directed by the North Carolina Departmentof Public Instruction.

✐ Be piloted for three years, beginning in the fallof 2000.

4. Adopt the Ready Schools Best Practice Guide-lines and develop a plan for implementingthese best practices.

Recommendations to the State Board ofEducation include the following:✐ Disseminate the Best Practice Guidelines to all

schools with kindergarten programs.

✐ Examine state and local policies regarding per-sonnel and resources to promote optimal instruc-tional conditions for children (e.g., B-K licen-sure, training, planning time, class size, physicalfeatures of classrooms, curricula, and materials).

✐ Encourage schools to assess their own readinessto teach all children who enter kindergarten.

✐ Encourage schools to work with families andthe early childhood community to develop tran-sition plans for children entering kindergarten.

✐ Encourage state and local collaboration amongthe early childhood community, families, com-munity organizations, and schools to supporteach piece of the school readiness puzzle.

✐ Develop and distribute to schools a list of rec-ommended screening measures to identifychildren who might have disabilities and needfurther evaluation.

5. Modify the Kindergarten–Second Grade(K2) Assessment to align with the North Caro-lina definition of school readiness, providetraining, and establish a timeline.

More specific recommendations includethe following:✐ Expand the domains covered by the K-2 Assess-

ment (e.g., adding items about children’s socialand emotional development).

✐ Expand the range of items included in the K-2Assessment to ensure that the items represent com-petencies of children who are just entering school.

✐ Consider other modifications to improve the ef-fectiveness and efficiency of the tool.

6. Use the new public school student informa-tion system, NC WISE (North Carolina Win-dow of Information for Student Education)to collect and summarize critical data rel-evant to school readiness and collect data ontrajectories of change across cohorts orgroups of school children.

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READY FOR SCHOOLGOAL TEAM

IntroductionAre children ready for school?As thousands of children enter school for the first time atthe end of the summer, parents, early childhood teachers,and policymakers wonder: “Are they ready? Have we giventhem the experiences and skills they need to be successful?”At the same time, school teachers, principals and schoolboards ask, “What attributes do these children bring withthem to school, and how can we best meet their needs sothat they are successful throughout their school experience?”

These questions have no easy answers. Researchers, educa-tors, policymakers, and parents have long searched for amagic formula to determine when children are ready forschool: there is none. Each child is a unique individual. De-velopment occurs unevenly across groups of children andwithin individual children, experiences before children en-ter school vary greatly, and schools vary in their readiness toreceive children. All of these factors impact children’s readi-ness for school.

The North Carolina School Improvement Panel’s Readyfor School Goal Team was established to recommend what“ready” children and “ready” schools should look like inthe Tar Heel State and how we know when children andschools are ready.

North Carolina’s Interest in School ReadinessThe interest is keen in making sure that all children in NorthCarolina are ‘ready for school’ when they enter kindergar-ten. Every parent and early childhood teacher wants this foreach child, as do the education leaders in this state.

Governor James B. Hunt, Jr., State Superintendent MichaelWard, the State Board of Education, and the North CarolinaSchool Improvement Panel are focusing major attention onthis issue. “Ready for School” is a key priority in theGovernor’s First in America challenge and in the State Boardof Education’s strategic plan, ABCs Plus. Smart Start,a model early childhood program for the nation, illustratesthe state’s commitment to ensuring that children are readyfor school.

Need for a Ready for School Goal TeamNorth Carolina established the Ready for SchoolGoal Team for the following reasons:✐ There is no widely accepted definition of

school readiness.

✐ There is no national system for assessingschool readiness.

✐ There is an increased need to understand thecharacteristics of children as they enter school.

✐ There is an increased recognition of the needfor schools to be ready for children.

Because readiness is a shared responsibility of families, earlychildhood programs, schools, and other community organi-zations, the Ready for School Goal Team was created to bringtogether the broad early childhood and public school com-munities to develop a common definition of school readi-ness and a system for assessing school readiness statewide.

This report outlines the process undertaken by the Ready forSchool Goal Team to develop a readiness profile and Goal Teamrecommendations for actions to ensure the following:

✐ All children in the state of North Carolina areready to succeed in school.

✐ All schools are ready to support children andfamilies in the learning process.

✐ North Carolina is “First in America” by 2010.

ChargeThe Ready for School Goal Team was charged withthe following three important responsibilities:1. Develop a definition of school readiness that will

help families, teachers, and communities supportchildren’s optimal development and provide rich ex-periences to enhance the likelihood that each childwill begin school ready and eager to succeed.

2. Identify assessment tools and processes thatcan be used to assess how well North Carolina isdoing in preparing children for entering school. Thisinformation will be used for system-accountabilitypurposes. As part of this, the Goal Team was chargedto use the public school information managementsystem (NC WISE) as a method of collecting schoolreadiness data.

3. Develop a definition of schools’ readiness for eachchild. North Carolina should ensure that our publickindergartens are prepared to teach every child whoenters, regardless of where the child might be in his/her own readiness for school.

MembershipThe Goal Team has approximately 40 members represent-ing many organizations that assist parents with the preschoolto kindergarten years. These groups include private and publicchild care and education programs, Head Start, Smart Start,and the public school system as well as national experts in earlychildhood development (see membership list in Appendix A).

Overview of WorkConvened in August, the Goal Team has met nine times in largecommittee, including a two-day retreat. Subcommittees havemet numerous times between Goal Team meetings, with in-dividuals committing hours of preparation aside from sub-committee meetings.

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Subcommittees were formed to accomplishthe following:✐ Develop a definition of school readiness.

✐ Conduct a national scan of assessment toolsand methods currently used.

✐ Develop recommendations for assessment measuresand procedures that can be used to document thestatus of children when they enter kindergarten.

✐ Develop guidelines and recommendations to ensurethat North Carolina schools are ready to receive allchildren.

✐ Work with NC WISE to ensure data needed to trackreadiness performance will be captured in the newinformation system.

SCHOOL READINESSFRAMEWORK

The National Context“All children in America should start school ready to learn.”This is the first of the National Education Goals adopted in1990 by President George Bush and the nation’s governorsto serve as a catalyst for improvements in America’s schools.Over the years this goal has become known as the “readi-ness goal” and has received considerable attention. Gover-nor Hunt has been instrumental in the work of the NationalEducation Goals panel, and North Carolina has been a modelfor school readiness initiatives. Despite widespread agree-ment on the importance of school readiness, the nation hasstruggled to define what being “ready” for school means.

The National Education Goals Panel brought together agroup of early childhood experts to provide a conceptualframework for readiness and recommend how readinessshould be assessed. Based upon this group’s work, the GoalsPanel adopted the following five domains of children’s earlydevelopment and learning that must be considered when de-fining school readiness:

✐ Health and physical development

✐ Emotional well being and social competence

✐ Approaches to learning

✐ Communicative skills

✐ Cognition and general knowledge

While significant in their own right, thesereadiness domains left the most critical questionunanswered: How do we know when childrenare ready?This critical question of how we know when children areready is at the epicenter of a clash between two sets of ac-countability: early childhood education/intervention andschool performance.

Early childhood programs have utilized significant federal,state, and local resources to serve children before they enterschool. How do we know if these programs are working?One way to answer this question is to assess children’s skillswhen they enter school.

Schools could use a measure of children’s readiness to helpthem understand the needs of individual children andprovide individualized instruction to improve children’sperformance.

While the importance of documenting children’sreadiness is clear, the means for doing so is not.The early childhood years are unique. Development duringthis stage is rapid and uneven. Standardized tests or assess-ments to measure development during the early years of achild’s life are extremely limited, and many in the early child-hood community argue that standardized measures are in-appropriate for children of this age.

The National Goals Panel Resource and Technical PlanningGroup of national experts in early childhood education andassessment outlined general principles for early childhoodassessments in their 1998 Principles and Recommendationsfor Early Childhood Assessments report but stopped shortof recommending precisely how states or programs shouldassess young children. The report outlines four purposesfor which assessments could be used and provides a num-ber of warnings/cautions for designing and using assess-ments during the early years.

SummaryThe National Goals Panel has established five dimensionsof development that contribute to children’s success in schoolbut has not established a means for measuring readiness.

The Foundation for the Goal Team’s WorkThe intent of North Carolina’s Readiness Profile and thework of the Goal Team is to benefit children and the adultswho work with them. To fulfill this intent, the following setof beliefs was developed as the foundation for the readinessprofile and assessment:

✐ All children are ready for school and can succeedat some level.

✐ Readiness should be defined broadly to includecommunity, school, family, and children’s develop-mental levels.

✐ Readiness definitions and measurements should beholistic, including multiple domains of a child’s de-velopment and taking individual and cultural dif-ferences into account.

✐ Data on children’s readiness should be used to de-sign individualized curriculum activities but not todetermine a child’s placement in school.

✐ Schools have the responsibility to be “ready” toserve all children.

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These beliefs are further articulated in the preamblefound in Appendix B. Based on these beliefs, the Ready forSchool Goal Team has worked to fulfill its charges: definereadiness, recommend how to measure school readiness,and delineate how schools can be ready for all children. Thefollowing pages detail the committee’s work and recom-mendations for these three charges.

CHARGE 1:DEFINING SCHOOL

READINESS

The Goal Team developed a definition of school readinesson the basis of the following three major activities:

✐ Researching national and state definitionsof readiness.

✐ Gathering input from educators, service provid-ers, and parents in North Carolina.

✐ Seeking advice from nationally known experts inthe field of early childhood education.

The following is a summary of our process of developinga definition.

National DefinitionsSchool readiness is a broad concept that encompassesschools, communities, and children, and their early experi-ences. The National Association of State Boards of Educa-tion described these four aspects of school readiness in their1991 report on school readiness, Caring Communities: Sup-porting Young Children and Families.

Additionally, the National Education Goals Panel Goal OneTask Force on School Readiness described five domains ofchildren’s development and learning that should be includedin any definition of school readiness: physical health andmotor development, social and emotional development, ap-proaches toward learning (e.g., curiosity, persistence), lan-guage development, and cognition and general knowledge.

These national definitions emphasize the followingkey points about school readiness:✐ All children are ready to benefit from school.

✐ School readiness is much more than knowing ABCsand numbers.

✐ The conditions of children as they enter school—and their school success—will vary depending ontheir innate abilities, previous experiences, accessto services, and schools’ expectations. It is not ap-propriate to expect all children to have a standardset of skills when they enter school.

This national work on defining school readiness greatly in-fluenced the team’s development of North Carolina’s defi-nition. Information from other states also helped us developthe definition.

Readiness Definitions Across the 50 StatesThe National Center for Early Development and Learningand SERVE, as charged by the North Carolina Ready forSchool Goal Team, surveyed the early childhood special-ists/coordinators from each State Department of Public In-struction to determine each state’s efforts to define and assesschool readiness. Summary findings are listed below. (Amore detailed description of the study and its findings arein Appendix C.)

Results from the survey indicated the following:

✐ Age is the only criteria used to determine when chil-dren can enter school, and the particular cut-off datevaries widely across states. No state bases schoolentry decisions on children’s skills.

✐ A few states have developed profiles or benchmarksof school readiness. Arkansas, Connecticut, Mary-land, Mississippi, and West Virginia have frame-works or descriptions of “ready“ children.

The state scan highlighted for us the fact that there is nodefinition of school readiness that is used consistently acrossthe country. The Goal Team needed to develop its owndefinition.

Definition Development ProcessThe Ready for School Goal Team used a multi-step processto develop its definition of school readiness.

✐ The Goal Team discussed and agreed upon the fivedomains of children’s development delineated bythe National Education Goals Panel, with slightmodifications in terminology.

✐ Within each domain, the Goal Team listed key char-acteristics and skills.

✐ Key constituents within North Carolina reviewedthe draft domain descriptions. The Goal Team or-ganized five focus groups across the state to solicitfeedback. Some task force members also met withother groups separately to discuss the draft. Alist of North Carolina reviewers is included inAppendix D.

✐ National experts reviewed the draft domain descrip-tions. The Goal Team identified the following areasof expertise and received reviews from at least oneperson within each area: health, social and emotionaldevelopment, approaches toward learning, languageand literacy, cognition, language and cultural diver-sity, and young children with disabilities. A list ofthe national experts and their area(s) of expertise isincluded in Appendix E.

✐ The Goal Team revised the domain descriptions anddeveloped a definition based on feedback from na-tional experts and in-state constituents.

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Defining School Readiness in NorthCarolina: The School Readiness Puzzle

School readiness is a puzzle with two pieces:1. The condition of children when they enter school.

2. The capacity of schools to educate all children,whatever each child’s condition may be.

The readiness puzzle can only be “solved” if the two piecesfit together. We can improve the fit by enhancing both thecondition of children as they enter school and the capacityof schools to educate the full range of children who attendthem. Each piece of the puzzle is important in the Ready forSchool Goal Team definition of school readiness. The con-dition of children as they enter schools, schools’ capacity toeducate all children, and the supports to improve both piecesof the readiness puzzle are described in this definition.

School readiness as described here should not be confusedwith eligibility for school. All children who meet the legalage requirement are eligible—indeed, they are legally en-titled—to enter kindergarten.

Condition of ChildrenWhen we think of the condition of children as they enterschool, we must consider children’s development and learn-ing in the following five areas:

Health and physical development includes children’s physi-cal development (for example, rate of growth), health status(for example, ability to see and hear), and physical abilities(for example, ability to move around the environment, as-sisted or unassisted).

Social and emotional development includes children’s feel-ings about themselves and others, ability to form relation-ships, interest in and skills needed to maintain positive rela-tionships with adults and children, ability to understandthe perspective and feelings of others, and skills neededto get along well in a group setting (for example, conflictresolution skills).

Approaches toward learning includes curiosity, enjoymentof learning, confidence, creativity, attention to task, reflec-

tion, and interests.

Language development and communi-cation includes verbal and nonver-bal skills to convey and understand

others’ meaning (for example, speaksclearly or uses a nonverbal system of

communication) as well as early literacyskills (for example, awareness of print, understanding thatwriting has meaning). These skills and competencies applyto all languages; we should expect children who do not speakEnglish in the home to demonstrate these skills in their pri-mary language before they do so in English.

Cognition and general knowledge includes basic knowledgeabout the world (for example, knows own name, knows ba-sic science concepts) and other cognitive competencies likeearly mathematical skills (for example, knowledge of num-bers, shapes, and simple patterns), and basic problem-solv-ing skills (for example, understanding of similarities anddifferences).

These five areas are linked together. Often, development inone area affects development in another. Thus, no single areaadequately represents a child’s condition of readiness as heor she enters school.

Children’s development varies widely at age five. Thus, weshould not expect all children to reach a common “standard”of readiness. Children from various cultures and with vari-ous experiences will express their competencies differentlyand should be expected to show different patterns of devel-opment. The same is true for children with disabilities.

Capacity of SchoolsAll children will have an opportunity to enhance their skills,knowledge, and abilities by participating in classrooms that

are sensitive to community values,recognize individual differences,reinforce and extend children’sstrengths, and assist them in over-

coming their difficulties.

Schools are responsible for accepting and addressing thelearning needs of all children who are old enough to enterkindergarten. Teachers and administrators must have theknowledge, resources, and supports to ensure that they areready to teach children who come to school with a broadrange of skills.

The Goal Team identified the following fourcornerstones of Ready Schools:✐ Knowledge of growth and development of typically

and atypically developing children.

✐ Knowledge of the strengths, interests, and needs ofeach child.

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✐ Knowledge of the social and cultural contexts inwhich each child and family lives.

✐ Ability to translate developmental knowledge intodevelopmentally appropriate practices.

Additionally, teachers and administrators in ready schoolsestablish a nurturing atmosphere, use a curriculum that pro-vides meaningful contexts for learning and addresses the fiveareas of development described above, and support prac-tices that address the unique ways in which young childrenlearn. Schools also build strong, positive relationships withfamilies and partner with preschool teachers, community pro-grams, and higher education to ensure that they are able toeducate all children.

Supports for School ReadinessEach of the two pieces of the readiness puzzle—childrenand schools—is supported by families and communities. Thecondition of children at school entry depends upon their earlyexperiences. The people and environments in children’s livesshape their readiness for school. Parents are children’s firstand most important teachers. The child’s relationship withhis/her parents forms the critical foundation for life-longlearning. Parents should have access to information and sup-port in their role. With so many working parents, many chil-dren participate in some type of out-of-home early care andeducation before entering kindergarten. All children shouldhave access to high quality early care and education pro-grams that help prepare them for school. Communities areresponsible for providing the health care, early care and edu-cation, training, and other support services young childrenand their families need.

The capacity of schools to educate all children also dependson their collaboration with families and communities to ob-tain supports such as professional development, physicalfacilities, materials, and equipment.

The school readiness puzzle is depicted in the figure below.Children and schools are the two pieces of the puzzle, andthey are supported by communities and families.

North Carolina’s Brief Definitionof School Readiness

School readiness is defined by✐ The condition of children when they enter school,

based on the following five domains of development:� Health and physical development� Social and emotional development

� Approaches toward learning� Language development and communication� Cognition and general knowledge

✐ The capacity of schools to serve all children effec-tively (e.g., personnel, policies, practices, facilities,materials).

Description of the Ideal Conditionof Children as They Enter SchoolA more detailed description of the ideal condition of chil-dren as they enter school is included in Appendix F of thisreport. This document describes in more detail each ofthe five areas of development and learning that are listed inour definition.

RecommendationsThe Goal Team recommends that this school readiness defi-nition be officially approved as North Carolina’s definitionof school readiness.

CHARGE 2:ASSESSING SCHOOL

READINESS INNORTH CAROLINA

Section OverviewThis section of the report covers two areas related to assess-ing school readiness. First, we describe the Goal Team’sschool readiness assessment proposal for collecting data onthe condition of children and the readiness of schools. Sec-ond, we describe the data management system needed tosummarize and aggregate the state school readiness data.

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We should be clear about our primary purposes (i.e., inter-ests) in assessing children as they enter school because wewill need different assessment strategies for each purpose.

We need to include safeguards in our assessment system toensure that children benefit from, and are not harmed by, theassessment system.

Different Assessment PurposesThere are two major purposes for assessing children as theycome to school:

1. Accountability: Assessment of children as they en-ter kindergarten provides the best source of data forexamining the impact of early experiences providedby families, early child care and education programs(e.g., child care, Head Start and prekindergarten), andcommunities on children’s preparedness for school.

2. Instruction: Assessment of children early in kin-dergarten provides an important source of informa-tion to help teachers effectively instruct each childin their class.

Recommended principles for early childhood assessmentsstrongly discourage using one assessment for multiple pur-poses unless it is designed to do so. Because no current as-sessment of five-year-olds is designed to serve both account-ability and instructional purposes, the committee had to de-sign a separate assessment strategy for each purpose. Thisapproach was confirmed in our discussions with the groupof national experts that included developers of nationallyrecognized assessments. In this section of the report, we makerecommendations about the accountability function of as-sessing children as they enter school. Recommendations re-garding assessing children for instructional purposes are inthe Ready Schools section of this report.

When the committee began working on a strategy to assessthe condition of children, we knew we could not rely on thepaper and pencil tests that are often used for accountabilitytesting programs in grades three and above. (Five-year-oldchildren may not be able to hold a pencil correctly, let alonetake a paper and pencil test.) Parent and teacher ratings canbe a valid source of information about some abilities andbehaviors of young children (e.g., social skills) and must bean integral part of any assessment system. Thus, the com-mittee wanted to select an assessment strategy that includedparent and teacher ratings as well as information from thechildren themselves that was not gathered through paper andpencil means.

None of the states we examined are using assessments forthe same purpose that the North Carolina Task Force wasasked to investigate, specifically, statewide and communityaccountability for the well-being of children birth to age five.Many states are adopting systems for assessing kindergar-ten readiness for instructional purposes. Because no stateprovided a good model, we looked for national assessmentefforts that had accountability goals similar to ours. Twonational studies were designed to provide such accountability

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School Readiness Assessment ProposalThe Goal Team recommends implementing a statewideschool readiness assessment system to obtain informationabout each piece of the readiness puzzle: the condition ofchildren as they enter school and the capacity of schools toeducate all children. This system should provide state andcounty-level data on school readiness. The assessment foreach piece (children and schools) will be discussed sepa-rately in the following sections.

Assessing Children’s School ReadinessTasks and Teachings: The committee’s recommendations re-garding assessing children’s school readiness are based onthe knowledge gained from numerous activities. The com-

mittee examined what other states are doingin defining and assessing school readi-ness, reviewed national studies of en-

tering kindergartners, reviewed in-struments available for assessing

readiness, and met with state and na-tional experts in readiness assessment.

Specifically, the Goal Team did the following:✐ Working with the National Center for Early Devel-

opment and Learning (NCEDL) and SERVE, we sur-veyed early childhood specialists/coordinators in De-partments of Education in all 50 states to learn aboutcurrent school readiness definitions and assessments.

✐ Working with SERVE, we reviewed the major in-struments available nationally and a variety of lo-cally developed instruments used in assessing chil-dren as they enter school.

✐ We met with representatives from three states (Geor-gia, Maryland, and Ohio) actively engaged in state-wide readiness assessment activities.

✐ With support from UNC General Administration,we met with a selected group of national experts onreadiness assessment.

These activities taught us several important lessons:School readiness should not be confused with eligibility forschool. All children who meet the legal age requirement areeligible to attend public kindergarten. Assessing the condi-tions of children as they enter school can provide importantdescriptive information, but that information should not beused to make (or help make) school entry decisions.

Most states report that schools assess children as they enterschool, primarily for the purpose of guiding kindergarteninstruction and/or screening for potential disabilities. In moststates, local schools select their own assessment tools.

No state currently conducts a statewide assessment of theconditions of children as they enter school, although at least13 states are currently studying the issue or piloting assess-ment strategies.

information: the National Early Childhood LongitudinalSurvey-Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K) and the Family andChild Experiences Survey (FACES). We examined thesestudies carefully and met with key people working on bothprojects. After this review, we decided that the ECLS-K as-sessment battery was less relevant to North Carolina’s inter-ests because the measures were chosen to assess growth inchildren’s abilities from kindergarten through third grade—not to assess cohorts of kindergartners across time. TheFACES battery, however, was developed for the specific pur-pose of assessing the skills of children entering kindergarten.

Battery for Assessing the Condition ofChildren as They Enter SchoolWe recommend that the FACES battery be adopted aspart of North Carolina’s prototype school readiness as-sessment, with modifications and additions to meet thespecific needs of North Carolina.

FACES is being used by Westat, Inc. in its national assess-ment of Head Start. The FACES battery was developed forthe purpose of program accountability to determine if HeadStart is meeting its objectives. The FACES battery consistsof individual assessments and observations of children, in-terviews with parents and teachers, and observations of class-rooms. It has been used with over 4,000 randomly selectedparents and children from a randomly selected nationalsample of 40 programs. It has been used successfully withchildren who speak Spanish as their primary language andchildren with disabilities. The child assessment can be com-pleted in approximately 30 minutes.

The FACES battery was developed with extensive input froma number of early childhood experts. The Principal Investi-gator of FACES, Dr. Nick Zill, is also a lead investigator onthe ECLS-K, another study of a large nationally representa-tive sample of kindergartners. A substantial amount of workhas gone into the planning, development, and implementa-tion of the FACES battery. The battery provides a compre-hensive description of five-year-old children and their fami-lies that can be used for accountability monitoring.

A summary table of the FACES battery and proposed NorthCarolina adaptations is included in Appendix G.

Data Collection Procedures

Who?Parents, children, and kindergarten teachers will provideinformation for the North Carolina School ReadinessAssessment.

✐ Parents of all entering kindergartners will completea brief information sheet about their child’s health,early care and education experiences, interests, etc.This sheet will be developed with input from localschools to minimize overlap between this new formand existing kindergarten registration forms. Theinformation will be entered into the NC-WISEdatabase.

✐ A sample of kindergarten children will completethe FACES measures in a one-on-one setting with atrained, independent assessor. Children will besampled from the total population of entering kin-dergartners, using procedures to ensure that childrenwith disabilities and children who do not speak En-glish as their primary language are included in thesample. Collecting information from a sample ofchildren, rather than from all children, will mini-mize the likelihood that the information will be usedinappropriately to harm children, will ensure objec-tive and accurate results, and will be a more cost-efficient method of gathering data on the popula-tion of entering kindergartners. We are currently con-sulting with a sampling expert to estimate the sizeof the sample needed to make statewide and county-level statements.

✐ The kindergarten teachers of children in thesample will complete rating scales about children’ssocial skills and approaches toward learning. Thedata collection burden for teachers will be minimizedby asking them to complete measures on only somedomains of interest and only for the children in-cluded in the sample.

When?Parents will complete the information sheet at kinder-garten registration.

All child assessments and teacher ratings will be gath-ered during the first few months of school. To ensurethat the sample is non-biased and representative of thepopulation of entering kindergartners, children must beselected once they are in school rather than before theyenter school. If the sample of children is selected beforeschool begins, many children likely will be excluded(e.g., children who are not participating in an early careand education program, children from low-income fami-lies, children whose families are on vacation). This ex-clusion of children would make the sample less repre-sentative of the population. The sample must be repre-sentative of the population of kindergartners to yielduseful information to the public and policy makers.

Where?All information will be collected at the schools that housekindergarten programs.

Data Collectors?Trained, independent assessors will conduct the one-on-one FACES child assessments. Training will ensure thatmeasures are administered similarly across children andcounties and that the results will be valid. The publicneeds to be confident in the data when monitoring theirown county year-to-year or when comparing theircounty’s data to state data. Using independent assessorsinstead of kindergarten teachers will also minimize thedata collection burden among teachers. Accountabilityassessment is high-stakes assessment that could affect

8

teachers. To the extent that kindergarten teachers mightbe biased (positively or negatively) in their views ofchildren’s skills and abilities, an independent assessorwho is less invested in the outcome of the assessmentwill yield more valid information. It might be possibleto recruit college students to conduct these child assess-ments as part of their education. It will be necessary forthese trained independent assessors to spend time in thekindergarten classrooms where children are being as-sessed so the children are somewhat familiar with thetester before the assessment is administered.

Special Considerations WhenAssessing ChildrenA school readiness assessment system should represent allchildren, including those who do not speak English as theirprimary language and those with disabilities. The schoolreadiness assessment battery and data collection proceduresshould be adapted to adequately assess the competencies ofthese children who are included in the sample.

Assessing Schools’ Readiness for ChildrenTo assess school readiness in North Carolina, it is just asimportant to assess schools’ readiness for children as it is toassess children’s readiness for school. The statewide schoolreadiness assessment system will include data about the ca-pacity of schools to educate all children who enter kinder-

garten. This assessment will gather fromschool administrators information suchas average kindergarten class size andpercentage of kindergarten teachers with

a B-K license. Kindergarten teachers willprovide information such as professional development oppor-tunities and availability and variety of classroom materials. GoalTeam members, local school administrators, kindergarten teach-ers and others will work together to develop tools for the as-sessment of schools’ readiness.

RecommendationsThe Goal Team recommends that✐ State financial and personnel resources be allocated

to implement a state school readiness assessmentsystem that describes the conditions of children asthey enter school and the capacity of schools to edu-cate all children.

✐ The North Carolina Partnership for Children be re-sponsible for conducting the assessment of the con-ditions of children as they enter school, with the co-operation from local schools and the support of theState Board of Education and Department of PublicInstruction. We are recommending the North Caro-lina Partnership for Children because they have beendesignated as the lead organization for ensuring thatall children are ready for school.

✐ The North Carolina Department of Public Instruc-tion be responsible for conducting the assessmentof schools’ readiness for children.

✐ The FACES battery be approved as the basis for thechild component of the school readiness assessmentsystem, and that it be completed near the beginningof kindergarten. Adaptations to the FACES will mostlikely need to be made to address North Carolina’sfive domains of children’s development and learning.

✐ Persons with expertise in the areas of special edu-cation and assessment of children from varying cul-tural/linguistic backgrounds help adapt the FACESassessment battery to ensure that the battery accom-modates the needs of special populations (e.g., chil-dren with disabilities and children who speak En-glish as a second language).

✐ A sample of children, not all children, is included inthe assessment for conditions of children as theyenter school.

✐ The sample of children be large enough to allow usto describe adequately children across the state andto compare children across the 100 counties. We alsorecommend that the sample not be large enough tocompare individual schools or programs at thecounty level. However, the system could be designedto collect data from a larger sample to provide addi-tional county-level information. This accommoda-tion would require county-level funding.

✐ The state sample of children be large enough andselected purposefully to allow reporting on a pro-gram-by-program basis (e.g., Head Start, public pre-school, community childcare programs).

✐ A pilot study of the school readiness assessment sys-tem be conducted in the Fall of 2000.

✐ The tools for assessing schools’ readiness be devel-oped as part of the pilot study.

✐ Data be collected for a trial period of at leastthree years.

✐ The information management system of the publicschools (NC WISE) currently being developed beused to collect and summarize critical data relevantto school readiness and collect data on trajectories ofchange across cohorts or groups of school children.

✐ The Ready for Schools Goal Team be continued asan advisory group for implementation of the readi-ness assessment system.

Use of NC WISE to ManageAssessment DataData Management NeedsWhen we begin collecting information for the Ready forSchool assessment, it will need to be systematically enteredinto a central place in order to summarize it within and acrosscounties. The ideal information management system would

9

handle child-level, family-level, school-level, and even com-munity-level data and allow linkages between informationon preschool children and data collected about those chil-dren from K-12. When aggregate scores are viewed overyears, the data could help a community gauge whether theirearly childhood quality initiatives are having an effect, orperhaps whether some efforts are more effective for specificsub-groups of children. The new student information sys-tem being implemented by the public schools of North Caro-lina, NC WISE is, in theory, ideally suited to handle the typeand amount of new information that will be collected as partof the recommended Ready for School measurement.

NC WISE DescriptionThrough discussion with experts in the Office of StudentInformation and Accountability, the office responsible foroverseeing the NC WISE system, the Goal Team learnedthat the NC WISE database will be able to include almostany counted, scored, or coded information on entering kin-dergartners or preschool children and their families.For example, in compliance with federal law concerningdocumentation about preschool children with special needs,a component of NC WISE allows entry of data concerningthese children’s development and the types of services theyare receiving. A school system should thus be able to in-clude similar information on other, non-special-needs pre-school children in their community. The NC WISE databasecould also include data on teachers and schools or be linkedto other databases that include such data (i.e., DPI teacherlicensing database).

Data Management Issues to ConsiderOptimism about documenting different components of kin-dergarten readiness through NC WISE should be tempered,however, by three points of realism.

✐ NC WISE is new and school systems will just beginusing it in the years 2000-2002. Three school sys-tems (with 18 sites) and DPI are piloting NC WISEin the 1999-2000 school year and a state data ware-house is being developed where all data will ulti-mately be stored. About one-third of NorthCarolina’s school systems will convert to NC WISEin each of the next three years, with every systemon board by 2003. An advantage of the system’sbeing new is that modifications to accommodate pre-school and kindergarten entry data might be morereadily made during this time while the system isbeing developed and as system modifications aremade each year in response to problems that arediscovered during the roll-out phase. Communica-tion should be frequent between the Readyfor School Goal Team and the NC WISE develop-ment team.

✐ Second, we must be realistic about the data we expectthe NC WISE system to handle and cognizant of thedata entry ability of the variety of people who enterdata into NC WISE. Data entry must be a simple,straightforward process that requires minimal training.

✐ Third, the following concerns related to security andconfidentiality will need to be resolved: Who hasaccess to the data? Do we need parental permissionto enter preschoolers’ data? How long will the dataremain in the system? Will preschool data becomepart of the child’s permanent record? Existing rulesand procedures address, in theory, these types ofsecurity concerns, but maintaining the integrity ofthe day-to-day operations of such an ambitious newendeavor will clearly be challenging. Because theNC WISE system is new and open to changes, how-ever, now is the perfect time for those interested inhaving relevant preschool data included in NC WISEto be a part of the decision-making group(s).

RecommendationsThe Goal Team recommends that the NC WISE system beused to collect and store data related to school readiness in-dicators and that this effort be coordinated with the schoolreadiness assessment system described in this report.

We recommend that the readiness assessment system pilotstudy be coordinated with the NC WISE system pilot study.This will allow us to determine any adaptations needed toinclude the school readiness assessment information in theNC WISE system.

We also recommend a trial period of at least three years be-fore any school readiness data are officially reported fromthe NC WISE system. Expectations of data reports on child,family, and school readiness assessments will be high. Ana-lysts producing such reports will be dealing with complexissues, both substantive and logistical. North Carolina lead-ers should not expect reportable data within a year or two.We think it worth noting that Ohio, the state with one of themost sophisticated, computerized readiness assessment sys-tems, allowed three years before the first report on readinesswas expected. Data on 10,000 children were collected in thefirst year, 20,000 in the second year, and 40,000 in 1999—after three years of implementation, they are 40% of the wayto their goal of 100,000 children per year. (Ohio’s popula-tion is similar to North Carolina’s.)

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CHARGE 3:SCHOOLS’ READINESS FOR

ALL CHILDREN: BESTPRACTICE GUIDELINES FOR

NORTH CAROLINA

Are All Schools Ready for All Children?This is a question of equal importance for the Goal Team.Children come to schools with a wide variety of experiences,skills and attitudes. The overarching question is whetherschools are prepared to provide a learning environment thatmeets the needs of each child so that children can be suc-cessful in school.

The Goal Team formed a subcommittee with the charge ofdeveloping a profile of schools that are ready to receive allchildren. The “Schools’ Readiness For All Children” sub-committee gleaned from many sources what is deemed philo-sophically sound and reflective of the national early childhoodresearch knowledge-base to develop strategies and standardsfor parents, schools and community leaders to consider tobetter prepare our schools to receive our children. A full re-port from this committee is included in Appendix H. Thisattached report describes best practices that all North Caro-lina schools can strive to achieve as they prepare to teach allchildren entering kindergarten.

Cornerstones of Ready Schools“It is the responsibility of schools to meet the needs of chil-dren as they enter and to provide whatever services areneeded in the least restrictive environment to help each childreach his or her potential” (NAEYC, Position Statement onSchool Readiness, revised, 1995).

The Ready Schools subcommittee identified fourcornerstones that ready schools should take intoaccount as they prepare to receive children:

1. Knowledge of growth and development of typicallyand atypically developing children.

2. Knowledge of the strengths, interests, and needs ofeach individual child.

3. Knowledge of the social and cultural contexts inwhich each child and family lives.

4. The ability to translate developmental knowledgeinto developmentally appropriate practices.

Features of Ready SchoolsBuilding upon these four cornerstones, the subcommit-tee identified the following additional key features ofready schools:

✐ Ready Teachers who are knowledgeable of basicchild development principles, “tuned in” to individualchildren’s interests and abilities, able to provide a

classroom environment where children are activelyinvolved in learning activities, and working inpartnership with families and other adults in thechild’s world.

✐ Ready School Environments where children arenurtured through on going relationships withcaring adults, have opportunities to learn throughplay and “hands-on” experiences with a variety ofmaterials, and experience predictable routines andschedules.

✐ Ready Curriculum and Instruction Strategies thatprovide meaningful learning experiences to buildupon children’s individual abilities and interests andthat are grounded in developmentally appropriatepractices.

✐ Ready Administrators who are knowledgeable ofchild development and developmentally appropri-ate practices, support teachers in their role,nurture family involvement, and put the needs ofchildren first.

Transitions to Ready SchoolsSpecial attention must be paid to the period of transitionwhen children first enter school. As children and familiesmove from home, preschool, or other types of early child-hood programs, the child’s first experiences in kindergartenset the stage for his or her success in school. A smooth tran-sition that provides as much continuity for children as pos-sible is the goal.

The Ready Schools subcommittee developed a descrip-tion of the following elements of successful transitions:*

✐ Community-wide planning that involves families,child care and other early childhood providers, schoolteachers and administrators, and a variety of com-munity service agencies.

✐ Transition activities, such as visits to the school,planned cooperatively for children by their families,care providers, teachers, and community serviceproviders.

✐ Transition policies, programs, and practices that re-flect the diversity and uniqueness of children, theirfamilies, and the community.

✐ Developmentally appropriate practices in all pro-grams of care and education from birth to age eightto ensure continuity in assessment, curriculum, andinstruction.

✐ Coordinated staff development to bring early child-hood providers and kindergarten teachers together.

✐ Shared decision making that involves families asactive partners in their children’s care and education.

✐ Written community transition agreements that arecreated jointly between schools and service provid-ers and are reviewed and revised as ongoing transi-tion efforts are expanded.

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✐ Ongoing leadership and advocacy for effective tran-sition practices by designating Transition Coordi-nators and representatives of each participating pro-gram/group with specific responsibilities for thecommunity’s transition plan.

Adapted from It’s a Big Step (1995), Bridging Early Services TrasitionTaskforce, Coordinating Council on Early Childhood Developmental Services,Kansas State Board of Education

Screening and Assessment forInstructional PurposesScreenings for potential disabilities and assessments for in-structional purposes are another feature of schools that areready to meet the needs of all children.

Screenings It is essential that schools have reliable and valid screeninginstruments to identify children with disabilities early in theirschool careers. These screenings identify children who needfurther evaluation. This early detection is essential to increas-ing the likelihood that children with disabilities will receivespecial services quickly.

Currently the state Department of Public Instruction requiresthat all schools screen children for potential disabilities. How-ever, school districts use a myriad of screening tools, rang-ing from locally designed instruments with no documentedreliability or validity to commercially available tools thatvary widely in quality.

Assessment for Instructional PurposesUnderstanding children’s skills and abilities is important forteachers as they plan curriculum activities to meet the needsof children. This assessment for instructional purposes shouldnot be limited to reading and math, but should provide abroad picture of the child’s development and learning (i.e.,should include information about each of the five domains).The teacher can then use this information to plan activitiesthat will help children develop skills they may not have whenthey enter school.

North Carolina Department of Public Instruction has devel-oped two instructional assessment tools for kindergartenthrough second grade, known as the K-2 Assessment. Thefirst tool assesses children’s literacy skills and the secondtool assesses mathematics skills. The instrument providesinformation for teachers as they plan curriculum activitiesand documents children’s progress in these areas over time.However, the K-2 Assessment addresses only two of the fivedomains and includes few items to assess children’s readi-ness at the time they enter kindergarten. Kindergarten teach-ers need an instructional assessment tool that documentschildren’s levels of readiness across all five domains at thetime they enter school. The K-2 Assessment could be modi-fied to fit these purposes.

Assessing Schools’ Readiness for ChildrenSchools can conduct self-assessments of their readiness forchildren. The Ready Schools subcommittee developed theReady School Inventory as a self-assessment tool for schoolsto use. This inventory is included in Appendix I.

Ready Schools SummaryIt takes families, teachers, schools, and communities work-ing together to help children experience success in school.Teachers need accurate information about their children toplan curricular activities to meet children’s individual needs.No one piece of the puzzle is sufficient to ensure success.

RecommendationsIn order for schools to be ready to receive all children, theReady for School Goal Team recommends the following:

1. Data on schools’ readiness to educate all kindergart-ners be collected as part of the state school readi-ness assessment system.

2. The Department of Public Instruction be responsiblefor conducting the assessment of schools’ readinessfor children.

3. The Department of Public Instruction encourageschools to self-assess their readiness to educate allchildren. The Ready School Inventory should be dis-seminated to all elementary schools to ensure thatevery school in North Carolina is aware of the bestpractices for schools to successfully serve all chil-dren entering kindergarten. Staff development ac-tivities will also be needed.

4. The Department of Public Instruction encourageschools to work with the early childhood commu-nity, families, and community agencies to developtransition plans to ensure a coordinated effort tosupport children moving into kindergarten.

5. The State Board of Education and local boards ofeducation examine policies regarding personnel andother resources to promote optimum instructionalconditions of children entering kindergarten, includ-ing the following:� Qualifications of teachers working in kindergar-

ten classrooms, including requirements for Birthto Kindergarten (B-K) licensure for kindergar-ten teachers.

� Ongoing staff development opportunitiesfor teachers.

� Improved class sizes and student-to-teacher ratios.� Time allocated for teachers to plan, conduct

home visits, etc.� Improved physical features of classrooms such

as size, availability of in-class sinks and toiletsfor children, and developmentally appropriateoutdoor playground/ learning areas.

� Developmentally appropriate and individualizedcurricula and classroom activities.

6. State Board of Education, North Carolina Depart-ment of Public Instruction, and local boards of edu-cation work with other strategic partners, such asprivate school systems, Head Start, and preschoolprograms, to implement policies and procedures thatsupport best practices for all kindergarten children.

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7. The Department of Public Instruction encourageschools to use screening measures that are appro-priate for the intended purpose and have demon-strated reliability and validity. They can do this byproviding a list of recommended screening measuresto all school districts.

8. The Department of Public Instruction modify theK-2 Assessment tool, a tool to help teachers improvetheir instruction, to cover additional domains ofchildren’s early development and learning. Thesemodifications can best be described as� Vertical Extension of the measure downward

to include items that will assess the competen-cies of children who enter kindergarten belowage-level on various domains.

� Horizontal Extension of the measure to pro-vide a more holistic assessment of childrenacross the domains identified by the Ready ForSchool Goal Team. The K-2 Assessment shouldbe modified to include, at minimum, assessmentof the social/emotional domain.

Consideration for the feasibility of administering themodified K-2 Assessment should be paramount inplanning for these future modifications. The modi-fications should be completed during the three-yearpilot phase of the school readiness assessment system.

9. The Department of Public Instruction provide pro-fessional development opportunities to ensure appro-priate administration of the modified K-2 Assessment.

10. The State Board of Education continue the ReadyFor School Goal Team as an advisory group for imple-mentation of these Ready Schools recommendations.

FUNDING STRATEGIES FORIMPLEMENTING

RECOMMENDATIONS

Short-term and long-term funding will be required to imple-ment the Goal Team recommendations. For the Ready forSchool Assessment, funding for the pilot phase could be se-cured from early childhood funding sources. Full implemen-tation of the recommendations will require allocations fromthe General Assembly or significant support from privatesources such as foundations.

Funding for the pilot, or short-term start-up phase, of theReady Schools recommendations could be secured fromGoals 2000, other education funds, or private sources. Sig-nificant funding from the Public School Fund will be re-quired to ensure that all schools implement best practicesfor kindergarten over the long-term. Funds for modifyingthe K-2 Assessment could be provided by the Departmentof Public Instruction. Incorporating school readiness datainto the NC WISE system can be accomplished for minimalcost if completed in the design phase.

CONCLUSIONS

School readiness includes two key pieces: the condition ofchildren as they enter school and the capacity of schools toeducate all kindergartners. Each of these pieces requiresstrong support from families, the early childhood commu-nity, public schools, and other community agencies. In thisreport, the Goal Team has articulated the ideal characteris-tics of children and schools, as pieces of the readiness puzzle,and proposed a comprehensive school readiness assessmentsystem to provide information about school readiness at thestate as well as county level. We have delineated several short-term and long-term recommendations for assessing schoolreadiness, supporting the optimal development of children,and enhancing the capacity of schools to receive and edu-cate kindergartners. Appendix J pulls each of these ideasand recommendations together into a framework, depictingthe major components of the Goal Team’s work and the rec-ommendations for future activities.

Implementing these recommendations will require substan-tial resources. However, we must make these investments toensure that we provide the best education possible duringboth the early childhood and public school years. Families,early childhood providers, and schools working together canhelp ensure children in North Carolina are ready for schooland schools are ready for children.

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Kelly CarltonHead Start Parent

Greensboro, NC 27406

Debra Clark-JonesAssociate Superintendent of Information &

Technology Services, NCDPIRaleigh, NC 27601

Richard CliffordNational Center for Early Development andLearning, FPG Child Development Center

Chapel Hill, NC 27599

Carolyn CobbChief

Accountability Services Evaluation SectionRaleigh, NC 27601

Annette CombsProfessional Assoc. of Childhood Education

Private Day Care OperatorGreensboro, NC 27403

Nancy DavisExecutive Director

Smart Start, Mecklenburg CountyCharlotte, NC 28204

Barbara DellingerHead Start, Mecklenburg County

Charlotte, NC 28203

John Dornan*Executive Director

Public School Forum of North CarolinaRaleigh, NC 27612

Bob DouglasMember, State Board of Education

Chair of K-12 AssessmentAsheville, NC 28802

Stefanie FanjulDepartment of Health and Human Services

Division of Child DevelopmentRaleigh, NC 27626-0553

Robin Britt* Co-Chair

Executive DirectorUnited Child Development Services, Inc.

Greensboro, NC 27406

Susan Eaves* Co-Chair

Director, Federal ProgramsRichmond County Schools

Hamlet, NC 28345

Judy White*Director

Office of Education Reform, NCDPIRaleigh, NC 27601

Margaret ArbuckleNorth Carolina Child Advocacy Institute

Greensboro, NC 27408

Kathy BaarsConsultant

Pre-School Disabilities, NCDPIRaleigh, NC 27601

Barbi Bailey-Smith*Art Educator

Durham, NC 27701

Cecil Banks*Office of the Governor

Raleigh, NC 27603

Sharon BibbsDirector

Bennett College Children’s HomeGuilford County Smart Start

Greensboro, NC 27401

Mary BoatAssistant Professor

College of EducationWestern Carolina University

Cullowhee, NC 28723

Donna BryantNational Center for

Early Develpment & LearningFPG Child Development Center

Chapel Hill, NC 27599

APPENDIX AReady for School Goal Team

Membership List

Tom FieldsNC WISE, NCDPI

Raleigh, NC 27601-2825

Michelle FinchPresident

North Carolina Head Start AssociationDurham, NC 27709

Willie Gilchrist* Superintendent

Halifax County SchoolsHalifax, NC 27839

DeLinda GladstonePresident

North Carolina Association for theEducation of Young Children

Wilmington, NC 28409

John GriffinDirector

Seamless EducationFayetteville, NC 28311

Lisa GurganusProject Manager

Information & Technology Services, NCDPIRaleigh, NC 27626

Jim HallChair

North Carolina Childcare CommissionWilmington, NC 28411

Randall HenionSuperintendent

Stokes County SchoolsDanbury, NC 27016

Betty High RoundsSandhills Community College

Pinehurst, NC 28374

Kim Hughes*Kindergarten Teacher

North Carolina Teacher of the YearWake Forest, NC 27587

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Barbara KuligowskiConsultant

Even Start, NCDPIRaleigh, NC 27601

Kelly MaxwellFrank Porter Graham

Child Development CenterChapel Hill, NC 27599

Ann McNeelyRichmond County Even Start

Rohanen PrimaryRockingham, NC 28379

Delores Parker*Vice President, Academic & Student Services

North Carolina Community CollegesRaleigh, NC 27603

Susan PeeleRockingham County Schools

Eden, NC 27288-7547

Barbara PellinsAssistant Superintendent

Family & Community ServicesMecklenburg CountyCharlotte, NC 28202

Regina PennHead Start Parent

Greensboro, NC 27406

Karen PonderExecutive Director

The North Carolina Partnershipfor Children, Inc.

Raleigh, NC 27604

Beth RectorPresident

North Carolina Day Care AssociationOpening Doors Preschool

Whiteville, NC 28472

Lucy RobertsChief

Early Childhood, NCDPIRaleigh, NC 27601

Susan RobinsonNorth Carolina Division of Mental Health

Raleigh, NC 27699

Bobbie RowlandUNC-C, Department of Counseling,

Special Education & Child DevelopmentCharlotte, NC 28223

Susan RussellChild Care Services Association

Chapel Hill, NC 27514

Gitanjali SalujaNational Center for EarlyDevelopment & Learning

FPG Child Development CenterChapel Hill, NC 27599

Catherine Scott-LittleEarly Childhood Project Director

SERVEGreensboro, NC 27435

Anthony SolariPolicy Analyst

North Carolina Partnership for ChildrenRaleigh, NC 27604

Charles Thompson*Director

North Carolina EducationResearch Council

Chapel Hill, NC 27515

Hope Williams*President

North Carolina Association ofIndependent Colleges & Universities

Raleigh, NC 27605

Catherine WoodallEarly Childhood Education Specialist

North Carolina Partnership for ChildrenRaleigh, NC 27604

*North Carolina SchoolImprovement Panel Members

Staff Assistants

Dianne KirkmanUnited Child Development Services, Inc.

Greensboro, NC 27406

Nadine EjireOffice of Education Reform

NCDPIRaleigh, NC 27601

North Carolina

State Board of

Education

Phillip J. Kirk, Jr.Chairman

Raleigh

Jane P. NorwoodVice ChairCharlotte

Kathy A. TaftGreenville

Margaret B. HarveyKinston

Edgar D. MurphyDurham

Evelyn B. MonroePinehurst

Maria T. PalmerChapel Hill

Ronald E. DealHickory

Robert R. DouglasAsheville

Zoe W. LocklearPembroke

Eddie Davis, IIIDurham

Dennis A. WickerLieutenant Governor

Sanford

Harlan E. BoylesState Treasurer

Raleigh

State Superintendent

Michael E. WardState Superintendent

North Carolina Department ofPublic Instruction

15

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APPENDIX BReady for School

Goal Team Preamble

North Carolina has accepted the challenge of increasing the readiness of all children for school and to improve the readinessof schools for all children. The fundamental foundation for all of our efforts toward these goals is set forth below.

WE BELIEVE1. Each child can succeed in school and reach his/her potential.2. The needs of the children come first.3. Parent(s)/guardian(s) are the child’s first and most important teachers and are valued partners with

teachers and caregivers throughout the child’s education.4. Schools should be prepared to respond to each child’s strengths and needs.5. The readiness of a child should be viewed from a holistic perspective.6. Individual and cultural differences are to be valued and supported.7. A variety of developmentally appropriate assessment tools/approaches that encompass a range of

readiness domains/elements is needed.8. Communication, training, resources, and support are critical areas for successful achievement of “ready

kids” and “ready schools.”9. The community should be a partner in helping parents and schools meet these needs.10. There should be a systemic approach to ensuring that all children are ready to benefit from school.

READINESS PROFILE AND TOOLS WILL1. Better inform teachers and caregivers, including parents, of the strengths/needs of children.2. Assist all children in reaching high expectations.3. Assist teachers and caregivers in identifying and building on children’s strengths.4. Allow caregivers in the early childhood years to provide children with the appropriate foundation for

emerging language/literacy, numeracy, and other important skills.5. Help kindergarten teachers move children toward educational accomplishment in the K-12 system.6. Better equip private and public early childhood delivery systems to serve children and families.7. Enhance instruction as well as establish system accountability for children’s readiness.8. Inform early childhood and school systems about adjustments that are needed to improve services.9. Prepare early childhood and school systems to address the needs of children at all levels of development

and readiness.10. Create a positive transition to kindergarten for all children.

READINESS PROFILE AND TOOLS WILL NOT BE USED TO1. Exclude children in any way.2. Establish a pass/fail standard.3. Label children.4. Blame any part of the early childhood or education system.5. Leave any child behind.6. Create a deficit model that implies failure or shortcomings.7. Push the curriculum down to a developmentally inappropriate level.

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APPENDIX CState Scan Survey Results

Gitanjali Saluja, Ph.D.National Center for Early Development and Learning

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Catherine Scott-Little, Ph.D.SERVE

Richard M. Clifford, Ph.D.National Center for Early Development and Learning

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

PurposeAlthough there has been some effort to study school readi-ness at the national level, little is known about what is hap-pening in individual states with regard to children’s readi-ness for kindergarten. To help fill this gap, SERVE and theNational Center for Early Development & Learning(NCEDL), with assistance from several other Regional Edu-cational Laboratories, conducted a national survey to docu-ment how states are defining and assessing school readiness.They conducted interviews with at least one early childhoodspecialist or other representative in all 50 states. The infor-mation below represents the information gathered throughthis effort. For more detailed information on the resultsof this survey, including information on specific states’responses, please visit the following NCEDL website:<http://www.fpg.unc.edu/~ncedl/school_readiness/>.

Note: The information below is meant to paint a general pic-ture of states’ policies on school readiness. Because of thenature of this survey and the fact that some respondentsshared more information about their state than others, it islikely that some information is not included in our results.

When states were asked if they had a statewidedefinition of school readiness (for kindergarten),they reported the following:

✐ Forty-nine states responded that they had no for-mal, statewide definition.Georgia responded as follows: Since the establishment ofthe lottery funded pre-k program in 1993, the state of Georgia has de-fined school readiness in two ways: (1) through the implementation ofthe school readiness goals of the lottery funded pre-k program, whichare to provide appropriate preschool experiences emphasizing growthin language and literacy, math concepts, science, arts, physical devel-opment and personal and social competence, and (2) through the sup-port of Goal One of National Education Goals, which states that “allchildren will enter school ready to learn” and then define school readi-ness to include family support, health care and nutrition.

✐ Twenty-eight states responded that they use age todetermine eligibility for kindergarten. They allstated that children were eligible for kindergartenbased on the date of their fifth birthday. These datesranged from June 1st to January 1st of their kinder-garten year. See Table 1.

✐ Five states (Illinois, Colorado, Oklahoma, Pennsyl-vania, South Dakota) indicated that local districtsmay have formal definitions for school readiness.

✐ Five states (California, Indiana, Kansas, Ohio, Wis-consin) indicated they believe that states should placeemphasis on schools being ready for all children.

When states were asked how they assess readinessfor school, they answered with the following:

✐ Thirteen have a statewide screening or assessmentthat is conducted on children entering kindergarten(See Table 2). However, the majority of these statesdid not refer to this as “readiness testing.”

✐ Thirty do not mandate any readiness assessments,but their local districts may choose to assess chil-dren previous to, or as they enter, kindergarten.

✐ Seven states (Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Kan-sas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Virginia) indicatedthat they do not assess school readiness. Nebraskaprohibits districts from assessing readiness.

✐ Several states expressed concerns about readinessassessments being misused to keep children out ofschool.

✐ No states indicated that they used school readinessdata to delay children from school entry.

ConclusionSchool readiness assessment has received considerable at-tention across the nation. By far, the most common approachto defining and measuring school readiness is to define achild as “ready” when he or she reaches a certain age crite-rion and to leave measurement of readiness to local districts.Several states are, however, in the process of studying theissue, piloting measures, and/or have developed a frameworkfor addressing readiness issues.

151317131217

Table 1:Cut-off Dates for Eligibility for

Kindergarten, by State

Date StatesJune 1st ........................... Indiana

August 1st ........................... MissouriAugust 15th ........................... AlaskaAugust 31st ........................... Delaware

........................... Kansas

........................... North Dakota

........................... Washington

........................... Washington, D.C.

September 1st ........................... Alabama........................... Arizona........................... Florida........................... Georgia........................... Idaho........................... Illinois........................... Minnesota........................... Mississippi........................... New Mexico........................... Oklahoma........................... Oregon........................... South Carolina........................... South Dakota........................... Texas........................... West Virginia........................... Wisconsin

September 2nd ........................... UtahSeptember 10th ........................... MontanaSeptember 15th ........................... Arkansas

........................... Iowa

........................... WyomingSeptember 30th ........................... Nevada

........................... Ohio

........................... Tennessee

........................... Virginia

........................... Louisiana

October 1st ........................... KentuckyOctober 15th ........................... Nebraska

........................... MaineOctober 16th ........................... North Carolina

December 1st ........................... Michigan........................... New York

December 2nd ........................... CaliforniaDecember 31st ........................... Rhode Island

........................... Hawaii

........................... Maryland

January 1st ........................... Connecticut........................... Vermont

Dates are determined at the local or district levelColoradoMassachusettsNew HampshireNew JerseyPennsylvania

Source: Education Commission of the States. Kindergarten: State Characteris-tics. <http://www.ecs.org/ecs/ecsweb.nsf/>, March, 2000.

Table 2:State Efforts to Assess

Prekindergarten and

Kindergarten Children

State Type of ScreeningAlabama Alabama Learning Inventory

� Administered by teachers to every publicschool kindergarten student within the firstfour weeks of school.

� Measures pre-reading and quantitativeconcepts.

� Information used for instructional purposes.� Data compiled at the local and state level.

Alaska Alaska Developmental Profile� Global measure used to provide summary

information on each school to the stateDepartment of Education.

� Districts decide how to gather the information.� Information is used to determine patterns

and identify areas with high need.

Arkansas � Health and developmental screening isconducted on all children entering kindergarten.

Florida � All children entering kindergarten are assessedby their teachers within the first three weeksof school.

� Local districts can decide upon instruments,as long as they measure the 16 indicatorsoutlined by the state Department of Education.

� Information is used to guide instruction.

Louisiana Kindergarten Developmental ReadinessScreening Program� Every kindergarten child is screened

within 30 days of the first day of school(before or after).

� One of four state identified instrumentsmay be used.

� Information is used to guide instruction,but is also collected at the state level.

Maryland Work Sampling System� Data used as a school improvement device.

Minnesota � Early childhood health and developmentalscreening.

New Mexico � All children undergo an initial screening uponschool entry.

New York � All children are screened for health; Englishproficiency; and motor, cognitive, andlanguage development.

North Carolina � Early childhood health and developmentalscreening.

Ohio � Through naturalistic observations, teacherscollect data on children in preschool programs.

� The Galileo computer system is used toaggregate data.

� Information is used for program accountability.

Tennessee � General screening is done (usually the Briganceis used) of all students entering kindergarten.

� Information is used to guide instruction.

Utah � All kindergarten children are assessed duringthe first two weeks of school.

� Information is used to guide instruction.

18

Ann WattsEarly Childhood Instructor

Forsyth Technical Community College

Ann CunninghamAssociate Professor

Guilford Technical Community College

Becky McCarsonKindergarten Teacher

Yadkin County Schools

Camille LaudstromLead Teacher

Gov. Morehead PreschoolGreensboro

Deborah MitchumEarly Intervention Coordinator

OPC Area ProgramRoxboro

Ellen MerrillPreschool Disabilities Coordinator

Alamance-Burlington Schools

Katherine ShepherdSection ChiefDHHS/DCD

Kathy BaarsCoordinator

Preschool Disabilities ProgramsNC DPI

Kay VannKindergarten Teacher

Yadkin County Schools

Sarah McGuireWorkforce Coordinator

DHHS/DCD

Shari Frinkhonfor HurleePrekindergarten TeacherGuilford County Schools

T. OutterbridgePrekindergarten TeacherGuilford County Schools

Beth MannPreschool Coordinator

Franklin County Schools

Jean GoodmanExecutive Director

Guilford County Partnership for Children

Bonnie CraigExecutive Director

Developmental Day Care Program, Inc.High Point

Carole GallowayStaff Director

Hester’s Creative SchoolsGreensboro

Belvin SmithPresident

Creative Day SchoolGreensboro

Bob GroomsPresident

Appletree ACASGreensboro

Katare JacksonNCDCA, Pres. ElectExecutive Director

Work Family Resource CenterWinston Salem

Susan StewartB-K Program Director

Assistant ProfessorSalem College

Cindy BagwellConsultant

Early Childhood SectionNCDPI

Bernadette BakerChild Care Consultant

Division of Child DevelopmentWilmington

Lori BatesExecutive Director

BCPFCShallotte

Judy Beckert-JonesTitle I Specialist

Third Street Prekindergarten CenterGreenville

Andrea BiggsKindergarten Teacher

Wintergreen Primary SchoolGreenville

Debbie BlackPrekindergarten TeacherCabarrus County Schools

Irene BlountCenter Supervisor

Martin County Head Start

Mary BondPrekindergarten Teacher

Windsor Elementary SchoolWindsor

Tristan BrunerProgram Coordinator

Partnership for ChildrenKinston

Carol BurneyDirector

Head Start Bolivia

Janet W. BurnsPrekindergarten TeacherLenoir County Even Start

Kinston

APPENDIX DList of North Carolina Reviewers

19

Karen P. CampbellChina Grove

Mary Beth CosbyLicensing Consultant

DCDWilmington

Jennifer DempseyDirector

CCR&R of BrunswickShallotee

Jane W. FreemanTeacher

J.C. Roe SchoolWrightsville Beach

Pam GarrisTeacher

Third Street PrekindergartenCenterGreenville

Pat GurganusPrekindergarten Teacher

Washington County Even StartPlymouth

Sandy GuyPrekindergarten TeacherGaston County Schools

Sharon HaleyProfessor of Reading

East Carolina University

Jim HallPresident

Winter Park PreschoolsWilmington

Debby HamiltonKindergarten Teacher

Alderman Elementary SchoolWilmington

Vivian HamiltonIredell County Partnership for Children

Statesville

Renee’ HarrellEven Start CoordinatorCraven County Schools

Kitty HedgepethEven Start Coordinator

Washington County Schools

Laurie JacksonPrekindergarten EducatorCraven County Even Start

Donna JacobsCoordinator

Parent Involvement Coalition

Nancy KanePreschool Coordinator

New Hanover County Schools

Herzameh KeominInstructor

UNC-Wilmington

Gina P. LangstonPrekindergarten Teacher

H.B. Sugg Elementary SchoolFarmville

Anne LaukaitisCabarrus Partnership for Children

Concord

Diane LevineExecutive Director

Partnership for ChildrenGreenville

Judy LewisLiteracy Specialist

Charlotte/Mecklenburg Schools

Linda MaxeyTeacher

Howe PrekindergartenWilmington

Linda McConnellPreschool CoordinatorGaston County Schools

Sandra MillerExecutive Director

Smart StartBurgaw

Angela MizelleEven Start Director

Bertie County Schools

Kim M. MoorePrekindergarten Teacher

Washington County Even Start

Pamela MottolaTeacher

Howe PrekindergartenWilmington

Rosalee NolesKindergarten Teacher

Gaston County Schools

Debra PacePrekindergarten Specialist

Edgecombe County Schools

Mary PeelerPreschool CoordinatorCraven County Schools

Carol PeltMatthews

Charlotte PfeiferCentral Piedmont Community College

Charlotte

Irene PollardDirector, Title I

Edgecombe County Schools

Beth PottleEducation Coordinator

UCP Developmental CenterWilmington

Diane RobinsonEven Start CoordinatorCarteret County Schools

Bobbie RowlandEarly Childhood Professor

UNC-Charlotte

Polly RussAdministrator/Owner

Kid’s Connection Child CareShallotee

Anne ScharffPolicy Consultant

Division of Child Development

20

Lou Anne ShackelfordProgram Administrator

Greene County Family LiteracySnow Hill

Sandy SteeleInclusion Specialist

Partnership for InclusionKinston

Tammy StephensonPresident

Pitt County PTA CouncilGreenville

Sheri StricklandPreschool Coordinator

Third Street SchoolGreenville

Gail SummerB-K Higher Education Consortium

Lenoir-Rhyne CollegeHickory

Carolyn WilliamsNCPTA

Wilmington

Tabitha WrightSection Chief

Division of Child Development

Paul C. WrightKindergarten Teacher

Wintergreen Primary SchoolGreenville

Robin BrittExecutive Director

United Child Development ServicesGreensboro

Dwight WhittedConsultant

Early Childhood SectionNCDPI

Barbara KuligowskiConsultant

Early Childhood SectionNCDPI

Sharon Smith-WiseEven Start CoordinatorAvery County Schools

Susan TaylorPreschool CoordinatorAvery County Schools

Joyce PoplinKindergarten Teacher

Nebo Elementary School

N. Ronald BranfordExecutive Director

Buncombe County Partnership for Children

Cathy PollockDirector

Early Childhood ProgramsA-B Technical Community College

Asheville

Thomas OrenAssistant Professor

Dept. of Human ServicesWestern Carolina University

Joyce GreenDirector

Developmental Evaluation CenterInteragency Coordinating Council

Asheville

Lucy PickensMacon Program for Progress

Franklin

Mary Lee SeaseKindergarten Teacher

Haywood County Schools

Sharon BentleyPreschool Coordinator

Transylvania County Schools

Sheila HoyleExecutive Director

Southwestern Child DevelopmentCommission

Webster

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APPENDIX ENational Expert Reviewers

HealthDavid Bruton: pediatrician, Secretary of North CarolinaDepartment of Health and Human Services

Social and Emotional DevelopmentMarion Hyson: Director of Professional Development forthe National Association for the Education of Young Chil-dren (NAEYC); former university, preschool and kindergar-ten teacher; studies early emotional development

Stanley Greenspan: Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Be-havioral Science, and Pediatrics at the George WashingtonUniversity Medical School; expert in young children’s so-cial and emotional development

Approaches toward LearningSam Meisels*: Michigan University; expert in early child-hood assessment and school readiness; author of the WorkSampling System

Language and LiteracyMarilyn Adams: Harvard University; member of the Com-mittee on the Prevention of Reading Difficulties in YoungChildren; expert in literacy acquisition

Catherine Snow*: Harvard University; chair of the Com-mittee on the Prevention of Reading Difficulties in YoungChildren; expert in language and literacy acquisition

Cognitive Development and GeneralKnowledgeRobert Siegler: Carnegie Mellon University; expert in thedevelopment of children’s problem solving and reasoning skills

Prentice Starkey: Associate Professor of Cognition andDevelopment at the University of California at Berkeley,expert in the development of young children’s mathemati-cal skills

Overall ReviewersSue Bredekamp*: Council for Early Childhood ProfessionalRecognition; co-editor of NAEYC’s DevelopmentallyAppropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs

Sharon Lynn Kagan*: Yale University Bush Center; cur-rent president of the National Association for the Educationof Young Children; chair of multiple national school readi-ness committees

Sam Meisels*: Michigan University; expert in early child-hood assessment and school readiness; author of the WorkSampling System

Special Needs IssuesDon Bailey: Frank Porter Graham Child Development Cen-ter; expert in young children with disabilities; co-author ofAssessing Infants and Preschoolers with Handicaps

Scott McConnell: Professor in the Educational PsychologyDepartment at the University of Minneapolis; investigatorson the Early Childhood Research Institute on MeasuringGrowth and Development; expert in the development ofyoung children with disabilities

Mary McEvoy: Professor in the Educational PsychologyDepartment at the University of Minneapolis; investigatorson the Early Childhood Research Institute on MeasuringGrowth and Development; expert in the development ofyoung children with disabilities

Pat Wesley: Frank Porter Graham Child Development Cen-ter; expert in young children with disabilities; Principal In-vestigator of Partnerships for Inclusion

Cultural Diversity IssuesKenji Hakuta*: Stanford University; expert in language ac-quisition and bilingual education

Evelyn Moore*: President of the National Black Child De-velopment Institute; expert in how schools can best serveyoung African-American children

Catherine Snow*: Harvard University; chair of the Com-mittee on the Prevention of Reading Difficulties in YoungChildren; expert in language and literacy acquisition

*Member of or advisor to the Goal One (Ready to Learn) Subgroup of theNational Education Goals Panel

2322

APPENDIX FDescription of the IdealCondition of Children

A description of the condition of children as they enterschool should include children’s development and learningin five domains:

� Health and Physical Development� Social and Emotional Development� Approaches toward Learning� Language Development and Communication� Cognition and General Knowledge

These five domains are linked together. Often, developmentin one area affects development in another. Thus, no singlearea adequately represents children’s condition as they en-ter school. Additionally, some skills, such as asking com-plex questions, fall under more than one domain (e.g., lan-guage and cognition). For purposes of clarity, however, eachskill or condition described in this report is placed underonly one domain.

Children’s development varies widely at age five. Thus, weshould not expect all children to reach a common “standard”of readiness. Children from various cultures and with vari-ous experiences will express their competencies differentlyand should be expected to show different patterns of devel-opment. The same is true for children with disabilities.

This document describes the ideal condition of children asthey enter school. We should not expect any one child todemonstrate all of the skills delineated in this document.However, we should work hard to ensure that each child—including those with disabilities—has the opportunitiesneeded to develop competencies across all five domains.

Finally, this description of the ideal condition of childrenshould not be used to determine whether a child should en-ter kindergarten. All children who meet the legal age require-ment are entitled to attend kindergarten, regardless of theircompetencies.

The domains and their descriptions are based on (a) the workof the National Education Goals Panel, (b) the North Caro-lina Goal Team members’ expertise, (c) feedback from keyconstituents in North Carolina, and (d) feedback from na-tional experts in each of the five areas. In the following sec-tions, each of the five domains is described in detail.

Health and Physical DevelopmentIdeally, children entering school will be able to see and hearwell or have their vision and hearing problems addressed tothe extent possible. They will also have healthy teeth (orhave their dental problems treated). Children entering schoolwill have been immunized on schedule to prevent diseases.Diseases and other health problems will be detected andtreated as early as possible. Early identification and

intervention are also critical for children with disabilities.Ideally, children entering school will be adequately rested,physically fit, and will have a balanced, nutritious diet toensure that they have the energy needed to focus on learn-ing. Children will also be as mobile as possible (assisted orunassisted) to maximize their ability to explore the environ-ment. Ideally, children will demonstrate many age-appro-priate motor skills such as balance, coordination, strength,and ability to grasp writing tools. Finally, children enteringschool will demonstrate some self-help skills, such as dress-ing themselves.

Social and Emotional DevelopmentWhen children enter school, they ideally will demonstratethe emotional well being and social skills needed to interactwell with adults and other children. They will be able toform and keep close relationships with familiar adults andother children. Ideally, children entering school will beginto identify and express their own feelings age-appropriately.This includes beginning to develop the ability to managetheir anger. Children will also begin to understand others’feelings and intentions (e.g., tell the difference between ac-cidental and intentional actions). They will respect (i.e., nothurt/damage) other people and property. When conflict arises,they ideally will work to resolve it positively and seek adulthelp when needed.

Ideally, children will demonstrate some degree of indepen-dence by separating relatively easily from their parents andworking or playing alone at times. They will follow basicrules and routines and be able to adapt to small changes inroutines. They also will participate in group activities andwork or play cooperatively with other children.

In this section, we have described some ideal indicators ofsocial and emotional development for children enteringschool. However, children will demonstrate a wide range ofskills. Additionally, it is important to recognize that socialand emotional development is influenced by cultural expec-tations. Thus, it is important to understand children’s socialand emotional development in the context of both their homeand school cultures.

Approaches toward LearningThis domain includes children’s attitudes toward and inter-ests in learning. Unlike the other four domains, the indica-tors that fall under this domain are less well-defined andless observable. However, this domain is equally important.

Ideally, children entering school will be curious and confi-dent in their own ability to learn (e.g., show pride in theiraccomplishments) and enjoy exploration and discoverythrough play. They will enjoy learning and demonstrate somepersonal areas of interest as well as strategies for finding outmore about those interests (e.g., asking questions). They willexpress creativity and imagination through a variety ofavenues that may include movement, music, dramatic play,and art. They will take initiative when appropriate. Ideally,

23

children will be able to attend to a task for a short period oftime. Finally, children entering school will persist with taskseven after encountering obstacles.

Language Development andCommunicationBy the time children enter school, they have developed manylanguage and communication competencies. Children en-tering school will use language as a tool to communicatetheir needs, to interact socially with others, and to describeevents, thoughts, and feelings. Ideally, they will have a largevocabulary in their home language, be able to produce sen-tences of several words, and be able to ask and answer open-ended and cognitively challenging questions (e.g., where,when, why, and how). Ideally, children’s speech will be un-derstandable to unfamiliar adults. Children will be able todemonstrate age-appropriate listening skills, such as recog-nizing rhymes and identifying two words that start with thesame sound.

Children entering school will also be aware of print (e.g.,recognize the association between spoken and written words,recognize familiar alphabet letters). They ideally will be in-terested in books and stories and will understand basic storycomponents (e.g., know that a story follows a sequence).When they enter school, children will know that writing in-volves making marks that convey meaning on paper. Ide-ally, children entering school will also use language creatively(e.g., play with rhymes, develop and relate a story).

In North Carolina, an increasing number of children enter-ing school come from families who speak a language otherthan English. The competencies listed above can be devel-oped in any language and, for most children, will be devel-oped first in their primary language (i.e., whatever languagethe parents feel the most comfortable and competent to sup-port). Strengthening the language and communication com-petencies in children’s native language will help prepare themfor the additional task of learning English.

Cognition and General KnowledgeChildren entering school will have a basic knowledge aboutthe world. They will, for instance, know their own name andknow the names of some colors. They will have a basic aware-ness of self, family, and community. They will understandthat their actions have an effect on their environment and beable to think about things that are not present. When chil-dren enter school, they ideally will understand simple sci-ence concepts such as living vs. non-living things. Addition-ally, children will demonstrate good problem-solving skills.

As children enter school, they will also demonstrate someage-appropriate mathematical skills. Ideally, children willunderstand basic dimensions such as time (e.g., before andafter), distance (e.g., longer, shorter), speed (e.g., faster,slower), and size (e.g., bigger, smaller). They will under-stand one-to-one correspondence and will know some basiccardinal number names (e.g., one, two) as well as ordinal

number names (e.g., first, second). Ideally, children will un-derstand spatial concepts (e.g., left, right) and basic geo-metric concepts (e.g., square). They will also have a begin-ning understanding of patterns and be able to informallymeasure properties of concrete objects (e.g., identify whichof two sticks is longer).

Children with Special NeedsThe five domains of development and learning are impor-tant for all children, including those with disabilities. It isalso important to note that every child, including those withdisabilities, will demonstrate strengths in particular areas.We can support each child’s optimal development by recog-nizing, building on, and expanding those strengths. How-ever, adaptations and modifications may be necessary whenconsidering the development and learning of children withdisabilities. The following examples illustrate this point.Children with some disabilities may have significant chal-lenges to their health. Maximum health and physical devel-opment for them may be substantially different from that oftheir peers. By considering the characteristics described inthe Health and Physical Development domain, families ofsuch children and the professionals serving them can ensurethat necessary monitoring and interventions are provided tominimize the potentially negative impact of such challengeson the children’s capacity to grow, learn, and develop.

For the Approaches toward Learning domain, it is necessaryto consider first the unique ways in which each child inter-acts with his or her environment and the factors affectingthat interaction. For example, children who have experiencedsafety, stability, predictability, and stimulation in their envi-ronments prior to coming to school may manipulate andexplore materials and space in different ways from thosewho have not. Children with cognitive challenges or sen-sory impairments may express curiosity and demonstrate per-sistence differently from other kindergarten children.

SummaryThis description of the ideal condition of children as theyenter school is intended to help schools, early childcare andeducation programs, families, and communities in NorthCarolina develop a common understanding of the ideal char-acteristics of entering kindergartners. The description is notintended to be exhaustive but rather illustrative of the kindsof skills to support in young children as they enter school.Children’s development in each of these areas will varywidely, and we should not expect children to have a particu-lar set of skills before they enter school. However, we shouldwork to ensure that every child has opportunities to developcompetencies in each of the five areas of developmentand learning.

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APPENDIX GFACES Assessment Battery Chart

School Readiness Domain FACES Battery Possible NCAdaptations/ Additions

Health and Physical Parent questionnaire includes Add data from KindergartenDevelopment several questions about health, Health Assessment on immuniza-

including the Rand health status tions and screeningsquestion

Social and Emotional Parent and teacher: adaptation of Use the SSRS in its original formDevelopment Social Skills Rating Scale (SSRS)

Approaches toward Learning Not covered Use SSRS

Language and Communication Peabody Picture Vocabulary Consider Oral and Written Lan-Test-III (PPVT-III) receptive guage Scale instead of PPVT-IIIvocabulary measure and WJ-R

Woodcock-Johnson-Revised(WJ-R) Letter-Word Identification

WJ-R Early Writing

Print Awareness

Cognition and General WJ-R Knowledge of Numbers and Consider adding Bracken BasicKnowledge Counting Concept Scale—Shape and

Direction/Position subtestsWJ-R Arithmetic calculations

McCarthy Number Memory

Child questionnaire about basicself and family facts

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APPENDIX HSchools’ Ready forAll Children Report

Best Practice Guidelines forNorth Carolina:

Making Schools “Ready” for Kindergart-ners: Executive SummaryAll children are ready for school when they reach the age ofeligibility! Ready schools believe that children entering kin-dergarten come with a variety of skills and abilities. Becauseof children’s individual differences, Ready Schools respondto this uniqueness by initially assessing each child’s experien-tial base and individualizing curriculum and teaching practices.

After extensive review of the documented, research-sup-ported early childhood knowledge base, the “Schools’ Readi-ness for All Children” committee has developed recommen-dations for strategies and standards that parents, schools, andcommunity leaders should consider to better prepare schoolsto receive our children. These strategies and standards aredeemed philosophically sound and reflect the national earlychildhood knowledge base. This Executive Summary pro-vides a summary of the committee’s work. Full recommen-dations and background information are provided in the re-port that follows.

Readiness hinges on many factors including (1) children’shealth and physical development; (2) social and emotionaldevelopment; (3) approaches to learning; (4) language andcommunication skills; and (5) cognitive factors. Schools areresponsible for enhancing the quality of the teaching andlearning that will go on in the classroom as children entereager to learn and “ready to succeed.”

The committee identified the following four corner-stones that should guide Ready Schools:

1. Knowledge of growth and development of typicallyand atypically developing children.

2. Knowledge of the strengths, interests, and needs ofeach individual child.

3. Knowledge of social and cultural contexts inwhich each child and family lives.

4. The ability to translate developmental knowledgeinto developmentally appropriate practices.

The committee deemed the following as most impor-tant to Schools’ Readiness:

✐ Knowledge and understanding of developmentallyappropriate early education practices needed to helpchildren reach their full potential.

✐ The importance of teachers’ readiness if children areto experience success in the early school years.

✐ The importance of establishing a nurturing atmo-sphere in the classroom and making the facilitiesserve the curriculum and instructional needs of chil-dren and families.

✐ A curriculum that provides meaningful contexts forlearning and addresses learning in all developmen-tal areas—physical, social, emotional, linguistic,aesthetic, and intellectual.

✐ Administration’s readiness, which translates theunique ways young children learn into classroomand school-wide best practices.

✐ Administrators who develop and nurture authenticpartnerships with children, site-based teachers, pre-school teachers, parents, community, and institutesof higher education.

Parents, teachers, administrators and communities formingpartnerships and working together to provide “what is bestfor children” will be North Carolina’s cause for celebrationwhen children have access to high quality, developmentallyappropriate “Ready Schools.”

Best Practice Guidelines for North Carolina:Making Schools “Ready” for KindergartnersAll children are ready for school when they reach the age ofeligibility!

Ready schools believe that children entering kindergartencome with a variety of skills and abilities. Because ofchildren’s individual differences, Ready Schools respond tothis uniqueness by initially assessing each child’sexperiential base and individualizing curriculum and teach-ing practices.

I. Philosophy, Research, and Early ChildhoodKnowledge BaseCurrent understandings and philosophical approachesto developmentally appropriate early education indicatethat “it is the responsibility of schools to meet the needsof children as they enter and to provide whatever ser-vices are needed in the least restrictive environment tohelp each child reach his or her potential” (NAEYC,Position Statement on School Readiness, revised, 1995).

“The nature of children’s development and learning dic-tates two important school responsibilities. Schools mustbe able to respond to a diverse range of abilities withinany group of children, and the curriculum in the earlygrades must provide meaningful contexts for children’slearning rather than focusing primarily on isolated skillsacquisition” (NAEYC, Position Statement on SchoolReadiness, revised, 1995).

26

Children entering kindergarten come with a variety ofskills and abilities. Because of children’s individual dif-ferences and variations in their development and expe-riences, schools and teachers must be able to respond totheir uniqueness by individualizing their curriculum andteaching practices.

Broad agreement has been reached by the early child-hood development community that programs that willcontribute to children’s development and enhance theirlearning must be based on the following:

✐ Knowledge of growth and development of typi-cally and atypically developing children.

✐ Knowledge of the strengths, interests, and needsof each individual child.

✐ Knowledge of the social and cultural contextsin which each child and family lives.

✐ The ability to translate developmental knowl-edge into developmentally appropriate practices.

Schools and teachers must know how to plan a develop-mentally appropriate curriculum that places a majoremphasis on child-initiated, teacher-supported learningexperiences; both small and large group activities; inte-grated lessons; hands-on learning with a variety of ma-terials and activities; and continual progress evaluationand assessment throughout the primary grades.

Schools, teachers, parents, and community need to worktogether to ensure that every child enters kindergarten(school) with the opportunity to experience success andto attain educational achievement. Exclusion is not ac-ceptable. In a Ready School all children are providedwith a firm foundation for learning. As the children ar-rive at school, they will learn best in the context of thecommunity where they are valued and safe and wheredevelopmentally appropriate practices address theirphysical, social, and emotional needs as well as theirintellectual development.

II. The Teacher’s Readiness for the ChildThe primary goal for kindergarten teachers is to supportthe development of all children. To achieve this goal,teachers need to know the uniqueness of each child withregard to individual learning styles, interests and pref-erences, personality and temperament, skills and talents,challenges and difficulties. The teacher must support thedevelopment of a positive sense of self-identity in allchildren if they are to experience success in the earlyschool years. Essential dimensions of the early educa-tor include the following:

✐ Knowledge of child development.

✐ Knowledge of the implications of childdevelopment.

✐ Knowledge of curriculum that promoteschildren’s learning in cognitive, language,social, physical, and affective domains.

✐ Planning, creating, and organizing learning en-vironments for active exploration and a highlevel of interaction.

✐ Communicating and forming partnerships withimportant influences in the child’s world (parents,colleagues, administrators, the public, and others).

✐ Seeking continual professional growth, advocat-ing for developmentally appropriate early edu-cation, and engaging in self-evaluation of theirteaching behavior.

To perform these functions effectively for all children,the teacher must have knowledge of growth and devel-opment of both typically and atypically developing chil-dren and be able to translate that knowledge into devel-opmentally appropriate practices by

✐ Employing developmentally appropriate prac-tices (Management of Instructional Time).

✐ Fostering self-regulation in children (Manage-ment of Student Behavior).

✐ Facilitating active learning (InstructionalPresentation).

✐ Observing children’s activity in naturalisticsettings (Instructional Monitoring of StudentPerformance).

✐ Facilitating children’s inquiry and discovery (In-structional Feedback).

✐ Planning for children’s learning (FacilitatingInstruction).

✐ Interacting positively with children, parents, co-workers, and community (Interaction with theEducational Environment).

✐ Interacting with and relating to the professional/family/community environment (Performanceof Non-Instructional Duties) (TPAI, revised4/25/97).

“Early educators must be schooled in and encouragedto use a wide variety of developmentally appropriatecurricula, materials, and procedures to maximize eachchild’s growth and development” (Position Statementon Goal One of America 2000, December 1996).

III.The Readiness of the Environment andCurriculum“The most important strategy for addressing the schoolreadiness is to prepare the school to be responsive to thewide range of experiences, backgrounds, and needs ofthe children who are starting school.”

Readiness: Children and Schools, Lillian G. Katz, 1991

The EnvironmentEstablishing a nurturing atmosphere in the classroomand making the facilities serve the curriculum and in-struction needs of the children is challenging. Learningcenters allow choices of materials and activities by

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providing stability and order to the classroom while en-couraging children to explore and experiment. Theyprovide interrelated, hands-on experiences that meetchildren’s developmental needs and interests. Multiculturalmaterials reflect heritages and communities. Well-plannedcenters foster development of physical and social skills aswell as language and cognitive processes.

Additionally, learning centers provide many ways forchildren to develop skills and concepts in learning. Atthe kindergarten level, centers provide for rigorous ex-ploration and experimentation with many materials andideas, along with opportunities for children of varyingabilities and needs to expand their understanding andknowledge. Play is the essence of young children’s un-derstanding. Informal work and play activities are ma-jor environmental components that enhance children’slearning. Center activities and experiences develop lan-guage (literacy, reading, writing, listening, and spelling)skills and mathematics (numeracy) concepts as well asknowledge in other disciplines.

“It is the responsibility of schools to meet the needs ofchildren when they enter school and to provide what-ever services are needed in the least restrictive environ-ment to help each child reach his or her fullest potential”

NAEYC Position Statement on School Readiness, 1995

Dimensions of the Environment✐ The younger the child, the more informal is the

environment.

✐ Informal learning environments encouragespontaneous play.

✐ Group projects that include investigations ofworthwhile topics strengthen dispositions toobserve, experiment, inquire, and examine theworthwhile aspects of the environment. Thisshould include constructions and dramatic playand early literacy and numeracy activities.

✐ The environment is designed for active learn-ing, with well equipped centers addressing allareas of development.

✐ Classrooms are multi-cultural, with respectfor diversity.

✐ Learning and discovery occur naturally during play.

✐ The environment promotes appropriate behav-ior, positive self-concept, social interaction, self-regulation, independence, and effective super-vision in the classroom.

The Physical EnvironmentThe layout of physical space welcomes anyone enteringthe schools and fosters encounters, communication, andrelationships. The arrangement of centers, materials, andactivities encourages choices, problem solving, and dis-coveries in the process of learning and is designed forsafety and appropriate safety supervision. The physicalspace should include classroom learning centers based

on the needs and the size of the group, using the centersand the space needed for the materials. Teachers facethe challenge of space useable for children, and in do-ing so, must value and respect children’s perspectives.The North Carolina Department of Instruction suggestsguidelines for both indoor and outdoor facilities.

The ScheduleEffective scheduling is key to the success of an earlychildhood curriculum. Four principles for developingschedules are

✐ Include daily rituals and routines.

✐ Balance open-ended and structured time.

✐ Allow sufficient time for activities and routines.

✐ Encourage children to develop awareness of time.The Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale (ECERS) byHarms, Clifford & Cryer (1988) provides evaluative descriptionsof schedules.

Curriculum and Instructional StrategiesThe early childhood (kindergarten) curriculum is theplanned management of time, materials, and activitiesto guide children’s learning and development. It is anorganized framework that delineates the content chil-dren are to learn, the processes through which theyachieve the identified curricular goals, what teachers doto help children achieve these goals, and the context inwhich teaching and learning occur. Ideally, the curricu-lum is shaped by communities and families as well asby children and teachers. Classroom practice is drivenby the information teachers gain from developmentallyappropriate assessment (including K-2 assessment).While gaining content knowledge is a goal, curriculumincludes everything that happens from the time childrenwalk into the classroom until the time they leave, in-cluding human interactions, teaching strategies, languageand tone, and the physical arrangement of the room andthe materials in it.

Curriculum Should✐ Provide meaningful contexts for the child’s

learning rather than focusing on isolated skillacquisition.

✐ Emphasize informal work and play, activitiesrelated to the child’s direct, first-hand experi-ence, opportunity to apply skills to meaningfulcontexts, and a wide variety of teaching methods.

✐ Respond to the range of children’s backgroundsand needs.

✐ Reflect that young children learn most effec-tively when they are engaged in interactionrather than in receptive and passive activities.

✐ Reflect that young children are most likely tostrengthen their natural dispositions to learnwhen they are interacting with adults, peers,materials, and surroundings in ways that helpthem make better and deeper sense of their own

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experiences and environment. (This is best donethrough investigating and purposefully observ-ing, recording, and representing their findingsand observations though activities such astalking, painting, drawing, construction, writ-ing, and graphing.)

✐ Employ developmentally appropriate practicesusing a wide variety of materials, allow for childinitiation, provide for child engagement (timeon task), exploration, etc.

✐ Respond to information gained from develop-mentally appropriate assessment (including K-2 assessment).

✐ Construct integrated goals that address learn-ing in all developmental areas: physical, social,emotional, linguistic, aesthetic and intellectual.

✐ Facilitate language and communicationdevelopment.

✐ Respect and support individual, cultural, and lin-guistic diversity.

✐ Provide for children with special needs.

IV. The Readiness of the Administration“Instead of asking ‘Are our children ready for kindergar-ten?’ it is more appropriate to ask ‘Are our kindergartensready for children?’ Neither raising the entry age nor usingother readiness criteria will ensure children’s success in kin-dergarten. Only an appropriate curriculum can make thatsuccess possible.”Peck, McCraig, & Sapp, 1988, p. 27.

A. Administrator’s Role in Preparing SchoolEnvironment� Possesses knowledge of Developmentally Ap-

propriate Practices and HOW schools MUSTtranslate this knowledge into classroom andschool-wide best practices.

� Establishes an authentic site-based managementteam that includes parents.

� Utilizes authentic and appropriate teacherevaluation tools.

� Insists that staff development is research basedwith site-based delivery or professional leavetime granted; staff should be involved in develop-ment of training needs and delivery of instruction.

� Puts the needs of children FIRST.

B. Administrators Develop and NurtureAuthentic Partnerships with Children� Needs are assessed authentically via teacher ob-

servations, work samples, interviews, etc.� Individual needs are acknowledged and met via

personalized education plans.� Whole child development is valued and rein-

forced in ALL settings.

Site-Based Teachers� Teacher leadership/empowerment is

encouraged.� Teachers are involved with Site-Based Manage-

ment Team.� Release time is offered to attend developmen-

tally appropriate trainings and for team plan-ning/sharing to include all educators who workwith this age group.

Preschool Teachers� Continuum of learning exists.� Relationships are cultivated and valued.� Ongoing communication is supported.� Expectations are clearly defined.� Readiness and transition workshops are offered

jointly by preschool and kindergarten teachers.

Parents� Innovative vehicles exist for real involvement

within schools.� Partnerships value parents.� Relationships are cultivated and valued.� Open, ongoing and varied types of school-to-

home/ home-to-school communication arepresent.

� Communication of expectations is clearlydefined.

� Parents are Involved with site-based manage-ment team.

� Community resources are recommended andmade available.

� Education opportunities regarding childdevelopment are available.

Community� Innovative vehicles exist for real involvement

within schools.� Relationships are cultivated and valued.� Community is involved with Site-Based

Management Team.� Mentoring/Tutoring opportunities are pro-

vided for community members.� Reciprocal work-to-school training opportuni-

ties are encouraged.� Focus groups held to educate public about

schools.

Institutes of Higher Education� Undergraduate observations focus on both

classroom experiences and school governancegroups as well as parent/community involve-ment activities.

� Students secure outstanding, site-basedinternships early in undergraduate experience.

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� Offer personnel to conduct on-site training inreturn for schools’ release of staff to shareschool-based experiences and insights.

� Institutes emphasize leadership as an appropri-ate and necessary role for teachers.

V. Transition to Ready SchoolsTransition to Ready Schools is about children and theirfamilies moving from home, preschools, or other typesof childcare programs into the educational system. Tran-sition is a major milestone for all involved and a changethat offers both challenges and new opportunitiesfor growth.

Ready Schools employ transition practices that operatethroughout the year and involve an exchange of infor-mation and experiences that create as much continuityas possible for children moving from one setting to an-other. Transition planning assures that the special needsof children and families are addressed and helps mini-mize later problems.

Community-wide planning for transition to kindergar-ten works best and involves children, parents, guardians,grandparents, other family members, care providers,preschool and kindergarten teachers, and a variety ofcommunity service agencies and programs. The ReadySchool takes into account the complex ways in whichthese parties interact to influence the developing childand provides continuity and reinforcement in a devel-opmentally appropriate manner.

Successful transition to school is currently undergoingcareful scrutiny and discussion. Lack of research on ef-fective transition procedures, the limitations of presentpolicies, and concern over the type of school environ-ment that awaits the child reflect the gaps and overlapsin the knowledge base about transition to kindergarten.At the same time, an available, somewhat broad per-spective reveals the following trends that need to be care-fully considered in transition planning:

✐ The changing nature of transition and the com-plex interaction of contextual factors.

✐ The emerging conceptual base that integratesknowledge of how children learn and developwith best practices in early education.

✐ The increasing diversity of families in Americaand the younger age school population group.

✐ The increase in public school programs for veryyoung children (ages 3 and 4).

✐ The movement for accountability across thenation as both readiness and outcomes areassessed.

These emerging trends are particularly important in un-derstanding how children are affected by transitions.

To summarize the findings, transition periods are thosein which the child’s development is reorganized and new

competencies emerge. Transitions occur in an ecologi-cal context and are important for later competencies. Itis believed that adjustment in the early school years ishighly related to adjustment and experience from infancythrough the preschool years. Ready Schools direct serious attention to the many factors influencing the tran-sition process. There is greater coordination and infor-mation sharing with all “players” as they work to makeschools ready for all children who attend.

Elements of Effective Transitions Includethe Following:*✐ All parties responsible for children’s care and edu-

cation work collaboratively in developing a writtentransition plan for the community.

✐ Transition activities are planned cooperatively forchildren by their families, care providers, teachers,and community representatives.

✐ Transition policies, programs, and practices reflectthe diversity and uniqueness of children, their fami-lies, and the community.

✐ Developmentally appropriate practices (age appro-priateness and individual appropriateness) are em-ployed in all programs of care and education frombirth to age eight to ensure continuity in assessment,curriculum, and instruction.

✐ A coordinated staff development approach is em-ployed to bring care providers and preschool and kin-dergarten teachers together to discuss, learn, and plan.

✐ Parents and families are involved in decision mak-ing and are active partners in their children’s careand education.

✐ A written community transition agreement is cre-ated, evaluated, reviewed, and revised as ongoingtransition efforts are expanded.

✐ Ongoing leadership and advocacy for effective tran-sition are assured by naming Transition Coordina-tors, representatives of each participating program/group, to work together over time to guide and re-fine the community’s transition plan.

*adapted from It’s a Big Step (1995), Bridging Early Services TransitionTaskforce, Coordinating Council on Early Childhood DevelopmentalServices, Kansas State Board of Education

VI. Summary

What Is Best for Kids?This report has focused on the major themes and direc-tions Ready Schools must take to facilitate the successof all children entering kindergarten. There is a sharedbelief that it takes parents, families, teachers, schools,and communities to help children experience success inschool. There is a focus on the continuity between earlycare and education programs and elementary schools.Ready Schools assume a strong leadership role tocreate developmentally appropriate learning climates foryoung children from preschool to grade three.

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Finally, Ready Schools celebrate each initiative and un-dertaking with a flourish that invites participation fromall contexts and levels of context that influence children’sdevelopment. Celebrating the influence of each contextis as follows:

Celebrating Parents as the Child’s First and MostImportant Teacher� Honoring families’ linguistic and cultural charac-

teristics� Developing opportunities with parents to share

two-way information about the child� Valuing and encouraging beneficial home-school

partnerships

Celebrating Teachers Who Employ Best Practices� Recognizing a teacher, class, or school for doing a

good job� Offering grants for “Ready to Succeed” schools

(to supplement regular funding)� Creating child/teacher celebrations� Creating community celebrations

Celebrating Administrators and Site-Based Man-agement Teams� Recognizing elementary school professionals who

support Ready Schools� Recognizing Superintendents who support Ready

Schools

VII. Recommendations for “Ready Schools”The community members of Ready Schools believe thatchildren come to school with a variety of skills and abilities.In order to meet children’s diverse needs, Ready Schoolsrespond to this uniqueness by initially assessing children’sexperiential base and then providing an individualized, de-velopmentally appropriate curriculum with age- and stage-appropriate teaching practices. Quality kindergarten experi-ences profoundly influence later achievement and attainmentas basic skills are acquired and children’s strengths are nur-tured. Early learning experiences serve as the foundation forlater learning (Zill, 1988).

In order for schools to be ready to receive all children, theSchools’ Readiness Committee recommends thefollowing:

✐ The Ready School Self-Inventory be disseminatedto all elementary schools with accompanying staffdevelopment activities to ensure every school inNorth Carolina is aware of the policies and prac-tices necessary for schools to successfully serve allchildren entering kindergarten.

✐ Schools and communities develop transition plansto ensure a coordinated effort to support children mov-ing from the early childhood setting to kindergarten.

✐ North Carolina Department of Public Instruction,public and private school systems, Head Start andpreschool programs work together to ensure that thefollowing personnel and environmental resources arein place to support ready schools.� Personnel resources include reasonable class

size and student-teacher ratios; sufficient timefor teachers to plan, conference with families,conduct home visits and reflect on best prac-tices; ongoing teacher professional and personaldevelopment; and Birth-Kindergarten (B-K)License required for kindergarten teachers.

� Environmental resources include individualizeddevelopmentally appropriate curriculum andclassroom activities; financial appropriations formanipulatives, books and other learning mate-rials; and reasonable classroom space with anin-class sink and child’s toilet. In addition anoutdoor playground/learning area designed fortypically and atypically developing childrenshould be included.

✐ NCDPI continues to refine the K-2 assessment pro-cess, both vertically (by adding earlier developmen-tal pieces) and horizontally (by adding parametersembracing our social and emotional domains). Thisassessment must be used to inform practice and drivecurriculum instruction in North Carolina’s kinder-gartens.

Rationale for RecommendationsReasonable Class Size and Teacher-to-Student Ratios:American kindergarten students vary in both the skillsand knowledge they bring to school. Variations in de-velopmental levels of kindergarten children run thegamut. Schools must maintain teacher-student ratios thatensure all teachers provide quality experiences for thediverse needs of children. Guidelines put forth by theNational Association for the Education of Young Chil-dren (NAEYC) recommend a class size of a maximumof 20 students (this class size mandates two classroomteachers: one B-K Licensed Teacher and one TeacherAssistant). This recommended ratio assures the possi-bility of conducting a diverse set of learning activitieswith an emphasis on informal work and play; activitiesrelated to the child’s direct, first hand experience; op-portunity to apply skills in meaningful contexts; and awide variety of teaching methods.

Sufficient Time for Teachers to Plan, Conference, HomeVisit, and Reflect on Best Practices: Teachers must un-derstand the uniqueness of each student with regard toindividual learning styles, interests and preferences, per-sonality and temperament, skills and talents, challengesand difficulties. To gain and apply this knowledge re-quires enough time for the teacher to plan so allchildren participate to the fullest extent possible. Op-portunity to conference with parents (both at school and

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in the student’s home) offers teachers a clearer under-standing of each child’s experiential base, skills,strengths, and vulnerabilities. This understanding willenable teachers to develop a curriculum focusing on the“whole” child. Educators who reflect on this knowledgeas they plan offer a flexible curriculum, suitable for awide variety of young children from various back-grounds. They address varying maturity levels and arebetter able to meet diverse needs.

Ongoing Teacher Professional and Personal Develop-ment: Teachers must understand the process of learn-ing, for themselves as well as for children. Kindergar-ten teachers must possess knowledge of growth and de-velopment of both typically and atypically developingchildren. Moreover, they must be able to translate thatknowledge into developmentally appropriate practices.Teachers must also use assessment information (includ-ing K-2 assessment) to inform practice and drive cur-riculum and instruction. Members of the school com-munity—administrators, physical education specialists,teachers of music, art, technology, media, and othersshould be offered opportunities to gain current informa-tion about young children’s growth and development.Professional development must include, but not be lim-ited to, ongoing, planned staff development involvingcurrent early childhood related research, child growthand development information; interactive, multidisci-plinary instructional strategies and more; attendance atstatewide and national early childhood conferences; andmembership in professional organizations like the Na-tional Association for the Education of Young Children.

Birth–Kindergarten (B-K) License Required for Kinder-garten Teachers: Properly certified kindergarten teach-ers possess an in-depth understanding of the varied pat-terns of child growth and development. Early educatorsmust be schooled in and encouraged to use a wide vari-ety of developmentally appropriate curricula, materialsand procedures to maximize each child’s growth anddevelopment (Position Statement on Goal One ofAmerica 2000, 1996).

Individualized, Developmentally Appropriate Curricu-lum and Classroom Activities: Learning centers providea varied approach for children to develop skills and con-cepts in learning. Students’ ability to choose materialsand activities provides stability and order to the class-room. At the kindergarten level, learning centersprovide for rigorous exploration and experimentationwith many materials and ideas. Centers also give chil-dren of varying abilities and needs opportunities to ex-pand their understanding and knowledge. Play is thework of young children and the essence of youngchildren’s understanding. Supported by the facilitationof a qualified early childhood teacher, work and playactivities form major environmental components thatenhance children’s learning.

Financial Appropriations for Manipulatives, Books andother Learning Materials; Consumable Materials; andCapital Equipment: The essence of an excellent kinder-garten environment embraces a developmentally appro-priate, integrated curriculum with a variety of activitiesoffered in a meaningful manner. Materials are “hands-on,” interactive, and open-ended. For example,manipulatives are critical to children as they can be usedindividually or in small groups; prior experience withthe manipulatives increases the potential for innovation,problem solving, strengthening fine motor/hand-eyecoordination skills, and creative thinking! Consumablematerials, such as paint and large paper, offer opportu-nities for self-expression, creative problem solving, andmidline development. Tables and chairs, water and sandtables, easels, storage cabinets and shelves, blocks, andother equipment are child sized, in excellent repair andphysically support a developmental environment. Allthese materials are critical to Ready Schools, yet requirea significant initial investment with ongoing budget ap-propriations for consumable and replacement materials.

Reasonable Class Space with an In-Class Sink andChild’s Toilet: Kindergarten classes must be large, physi-cally safe, well ventilated with plenty of natural light,and pleasant in appearance. In-class sinks allow easycleaning up and encourage good hygiene; in-class toi-lets promote self-help skills and encourage independencein meeting children’s toileting needs.

Outdoor Playground/Learning Area: The education ofyoung children extends beyond the classroom. Outdoorplayground/learning areas are important to support andexpand children’s understanding of their world. The play-ground/learning area should be designed for the wholechild and to enhance children’s physical, language, cog-nitive, and social-emotional development. Outdoor learn-ing centers should include opportunities for cooperativeplay, art and science activities, nature studies, fine andgross motor development, water and sand play, and spacefor children to move freely. It is important to choosequality outdoor equipment and material and to designand organize the area to accompany the classroom.

Ready School InventoryThe Ready Schools’ subcommittee developed a question-naire to help schools determine their level of readiness toreceive all children. This self-inventory was designed to high-light crucial components of high quality and developmen-tally appropriate kindergarten programs. The Inventory,included in Appendix I of this report, is designed for schools touse as part of a self-assessment process. A team including theprincipal, kindergarten teachers, parents and other personnelinvolved with children’s transition to kindergarten should worktogether to complete the inventory and develop strategies toensure that the school is prepared to receive all children.

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REFERENCES

Bredekamp, S. ed. Developmentally Appropriate Practice inEarly Childhood Programs, revised ed. Washington:National Association for the Education of Young Chil-dren, 1997.

Bredekamp. S. and T. Rosegrant, eds. Reaching Poten-tials: Transforming Early Childhood Curriculum andAssessment.Washington: National Association for theEducation of Young Children, 1995.

Bruner, J. S. Towards a Theory of Instruction. Cambridge:Harvard U. P.,1966.

Charlesworth, R. “‘Behind’ Before They Start.” YoungChildren 44 (1989): 5-13.

Crosser, S. “Managing the Early Childhood Classroom.”Young Children 47 (1992): 23-29.

Early Development. UNC at Chapel Hill: Frank PorterGraham Child Development Center. Vol. 3, No. 1.Winter 1999.

Edson, A. “Crossing the Great Divide: The NurserySchool Child Goes to Kindergarten.” Young Children49 (1994): 69-75.

Edwards, C., L. Gandini, and G. Forman. The HundredLanguages of Children: The Reggio Emilia Approachto Early Childhood Education. Norwood: AblexPublishing Corporation, 1993.

Goffin, S. C., and D. A. Stegelin. Changing Kindergar-tens. Washington: NAEYC, 1995.

Granucci, P. L. “Kindergarten Teachers: Working throughOur Identity Crisis.” Young Children 45 (1990): 6-11.

Gronlund, G. “Bringing the DAP Message to Kindergartenand Primary Teachers.” Young Children 50 (1995): 4-13.

Harms, T., R. Clifford, and D. Cryer. The Early ChildhoodEnvironmental Rating Scale, revised edition. NewYork: Teacher’s College Press, 1998.

Hendrick, J. First Steps toward Teaching the Reggio Way.Saddle River: Merrill, 1997.

Hill, P. S. “The Function of Kindergarten.” Young Children42 (1987): 12-19.

Humphey, S. “Becoming a Better Kindergarten Teacher.”Young Children 45 (1989): 16-21.

Kansas State Board of Education. “It’s a Big Step.” (1995).

Kamii, C. “Achievement Testing in the Early Grades: TheGames Grown-ups Play.” (1989).

—-. “Leading Primary Education toward Excellence.”Young Children 40 (1985): 3-9.

Katz, L. G. “Another Look at What Young Children

Should Be Learning.” ERIC Digest.

—-. “Readiness: Children and Schools.” ERIC Digest.

National Association for the Education of Young ChildrenPosition Statement on School Readiness. Washington:NAEYC, 1995.

Nebraska Department of Educaton, Iowa Department ofEducation, Iowa Area Education Agencies, and HeadStart—State Collaborative Project. The PrimaryProgram: Growing and Learning in the Heartland.Lincoln: Nebraska Department of Education, 1993.

Peck, J. T., G. McCaig, and M. E. Sapp. KindergartenPolicies: What is Best for Children. Washington:National Association for the Education of YoungChildren, 1988.

Pianta, R. C. and M. J. Cox. The Transition to Kindergar-ten. Baltimore: Paul H. Brooks, 1999.

Rosenkoetter, S. It’s a Big Step. Kansas State Board ofEducation, 1995.

Shore, R. Ready Schools. Washington: Goal 1 Ready SchoolsResource Group, National Education Goals Panel,1998.

North Carolina State Department of Public Instruction.Teacher Performance Appraisal Instrument for EarlyEducators. North Carolina B-K Higher EducationConsortium, 1997.

Zill, N. and C. C. Rogers. Recent Trends in the Well-beingof Children in the United States and their Implicationsfor Public Policy. Washington: Urban Institute Press,1988.

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APPENDIX IReady School Self Inventory

Schools must be ready to receive all children in order for children to succeed. “Ready schools” will assess their degree ofreadiness in a variety of ways. This self-inventory was designed to highlight crucial components of high quality and devel-opmentally appropriate kindergarten programs. Items reflect concrete policies and strategies that schools can employ to helpeach child grow in competence and meet high expectations.

A team including the principal, kindergarten teachers, parents and other personnel involved with children’s transi-tion to kindergarten should work together to complete the following inventory and develop strategies to ensure thatthe school is prepared to receive all children. Use the comments column to make notes about each individual item and thespace at the end of the Inventory to document a Ready Schools Improvement Plan.

Administrators have read, processed and understoodNAEYC’s Developmentally Appropriate Practices.

Teachers have read, processed and understood NAEYC’sDevelopmentally Appropriate Practices.

Parents have been offered information (via workshops,NAEYC brochures and other reading materials, etc.) aboutchild development and best practices for kindergartenchildren.

Parents are valued as genuine (authentic) partners with on-going communications (weekly newsletters or audio-tapedinformation, home visits, volunteering opportunities,parent-teacher and/or student-led conferences).

School offers a parent resource library and a place for fami-lies to gather, network, reflect, and share discussions withothers.

School uses developmentally appropriate assessment in-struments that:

� assess early life experience.

� recognize and support individual differences.

� determine reasonable/appropriate expecta-tions of children’s capabilities.

� attend to the WHOLE child and seek infor-mation about all five readiness domains.

Teachers assess each child’s growth and development au-thentically via collected work samples, student and parentinterviews, teacher observations, photographs, etc.

Physical Environment is welcoming and child-centered.

Physical Environment is arranged in learning centers en-couraging choices, problem solving and discovery in thelearning process.

Curriculum provides meaningful contexts for the children’slearning (rather than focusing on isolated skill acquisition).

Curriculum offers learning centers; values “play” as thework of young children; and provides interrelated, hands-on, active learning experiences.

INDICATOR FOR A READY SCHOOL READY NOT COMMENTSREADY

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Curriculum contains goals addressing all five domains oflearning and is based on the interest and needs of indi-vidual children.

Curriculum integrates new learning with past experiencesthrough project work and mixed-ability/mixed-age group-ing in an unhurried setting.

Teacher uses a wide variety of teaching materialsand methods.

Schedule balances open-ended and structured time.

Schedule includes daily rituals and routines.

Cultural and linguistic diversity of students is nurtured andcelebrated.

Multicultural materials reflect global heritage and culture.

Language and communication development is a rich andvalued curriculum component.

Children’s social skills are developed with conflict reso-lution strategies taught in meaningful contexts.

Inclusion is practiced and each child is placed in the leastrestrictive environment.

Students are well fed, rested, and immunized; on-site healthassessments for physical, vision, and dental health con-ducted annually.

Teachers participate in research-based, state of the art,developmentally appropriate, on-going professionaldevelopment.

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Our school’s top three areas needing improvement to enable us to be ready for all children are

TOP THREE PRIORITIES PLANS FOR IMPROVEMENT

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APPENDIX JReady for School (R4S)

Framework

Preamble of Beliefs and Guidelines

Definition of Ready For School

Condition of Children

✐ Health and Physical Development

✐ Social and Emotional Development

✐ Approaches Toward Learning

✐ Language Development andCommunication

✐ Cognition and General Knowledge

Capacity of Schools

✐ Teachers

✐ Curriculum & Instruction

✐ School Environments

✐ Administrators

✐ Families & Communities

Schools Ready for Children

Ready Schools

R4S System Accountability

Ready Kids

FACESPlus:

Sampling

RecommendedScreening:

Recommedations onbest instruments

Standards forand Assessment

of Ready Schools

K-2Assessment

Plus

N C W I S E D A T A S Y S T E M

Goals

✐ Assess the readiness of all children for school

✐ Increase the readiness of all children for school

✐ Improve the readiness of schools for all children

Alignment to Definition ~ Uniformity ~ Consistency ~ Data for Improvement

Published by

Associated with theSchool of Education

University of North Carolinaat Greensboro

Edited byCharles Ahearn, Ed.D.,

Director of Communications andPublications

Donna Nalley, Ph.D.,Senior Editor

Corinda Marsh, Ph.D.,Senior Program Specialist

Designed byMilan GavrilovicGraphic Designer

SERVE is an education organization with the mission to promote and support the continuous improvementof educational opportunities for all learners in the Southeast. To further this mission, SERVE engages inresearch and development addressing education issues of critical importance to educators in the region andprovides technical assistance to SEAs and LEAs that are striving for comprehensive school improvement.This critical research-to-practice linkage is supported by an experienced staff strategically located through-out the region. This staff is highly skilled in providing needs assessment services, conducting applied re-search in schools, and developing processes, products, and programs that inform educators and increasestudent achievement.

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20,000 copies of this document were printed at government expense at a cost of $.15 each.

For further information, contact:Judy White

Executive DirectorNorth Carolina Office of Education Reform

(919) 715-1268