Education

School Readiness

School Readiness

A child's school readiness involves all aspects of development, including the ability to follow directions, hold a crayon, speak understandably, identify shapes/letters/numbers, share with others, and separate from parents without being upset.

Why is This Important?

In order to fully benefit from the instruction provided in kindergarten, children must come to school with many fundamental skills already established. Years of research on child development and early learning show that several interrelated areas of development define school readiness:

• Physical well-being and motor development
• Personal and social development
• How the child approaches learning
• Language development
• Cognition and general knowledge

These areas of development are important because they build on one another and form the foundation of learning and social interaction.

How is Hampton Roads Doing?

While no uniform single "readiness" assessment is widely used for all aspects of development, Virginia does use a screening tool to identify students who are at risk for reading difficulties. The Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening for Kindergarten (PALS-K) assessment is a screening tool used to identify students who are below kindergarten-level expectations in important literacy fundamentals. The PALS-K is an assessment of literacy readiness and is not intended to be a comprehensive measure of school readiness. Students identified below grade-level benchmarks are provided with additional instruction through Virginia's Early Intervention Reading Initiative (EIRI).

Because the initial screening with PALS-K is conducted in the fall of the school year, these screening results reflect how well prepared children are when they come to school in terms of literacy fundamentals. In Fall 2008, the Hampton Roads region led the state with 89.2 percent of the entering children at or above the benchmark, exceeding the state average of 85.7 percent who met or exceeded the benchmark.

What Influences School Readiness?

Many factors affect student readiness for school. Teen births, maternal education level, level of prenatal care, low birth weight, children living in poverty and child abuse/neglect are major factors that can impact school readiness. High-quality early childhood programs support school readiness; longitudinal studies of high-quality early childhood programs find increased test scores, decreased rates of grade retention in school, and decreased placement in special education among low-income children. In the longer term, studies also find increased high school graduation and decreased crime and delinquency rates. Evidence shows that it is not only low-income students who may benefit from preschool. Nationwide, nearly half (49 percent) of children who enter kindergarten without the ability to recognize the letters of the alphabet are middle-income children. Twelve percent of middle-income children repeat a grade in school.