Balancing the readiness equation in early childhood education reform

Journal of Early Childhood Research

Volumn 8, Issue 2, 2010, Pages 133-160

  Brown, Christopher P ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN   (United States)

Author keywords

Assessment; Prekindergarten; Readiness; Standards based education reform; Student achievement

Indexed keywords

EID: 77952664333     PISSN: 1476718X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/1476718X09345504     Document Type: Article

References (68)

1. Barnett, W.S., Hustedt, J.T., Friedman, A.H., Boyd, J.S. and Ainsworth, P. (2007) The State of Preschool: 2007. New Brunswick, NJ: The National Association for Early Education Research.
2. Bloch, M.N. (1992) Critical perspectives on the historical relationship between child development and early childhood education research, in S. Kessler and B.B. Swadener (eds) Reconceptualizing the Early Childhood Curriculum: Beginning the Dialogue, pp. 3-20. New York: Teachers College Press.
3. Bowman, B.T. (2006) Standards at the heart of educational equity. Young Children 61: 42-8.
4. Bredekamp, S. and Rosegrant, T. (1995) Reaching potentials through national standards: panacea or pipe dream, in S. Bredekamp and T. Rosegrant (eds) Reaching Potentials: Transforming Early Childhood Curriculum and Assessment, Vol. 2, pp. 5-14. Washington, DC: NAEYC.
5. Brooker, L. (2004) Learning to be a child: cultural diversity and early years ideology, in N. Yelland (ed.) Critical Issues in Early Childhood Education, pp. 115-30. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
6. Brown, C.P. (2007a) Unpacking standards in early childhood education. Teachers College Record 109: 635-68.
7. Brown, C.P. (2007b) 'It's more than content: expanding the conception of early learning standards'. Early Childhood Research and Practice 9. Available online at: [http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v9n1/brown.html], accessed 3 June 2007.
8. Cannella, G.S. (1997) Deconstructing Early Childhood Education: Social Justice and Revolution. New York: Peter Lang.
9. Carlton, M.P. and Winsler, A. (1999) Fostering intrinsic motivation in early childhood classrooms, in K.M. Paciorek and J.H. Munro (eds) Annual Editions: Early Childhood Education 1999/2000, 20th edn, pp. 137-45. Guilford, CT: Dushkin/McGraw-Hill.
10. Committee for Economic Development (2002) Preschool for All: Investing in a Productive and Just Society. New York: Author.
11. Consortium for Policy Research in Education (1996) Public Policy and School Reform: A Research Summary. Philadelphia, PA: Author.
12. Copple, C. and Bredekamp, S. (2009) Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth through Age 8, 3rd edn. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.
13. Denzin, N.K. and Lincoln, Y.S. (2003) The discipline and practice of qualitative research, in N.K. Denzin and Y.S. Lincoln (eds) Collecting and Interpreting Qualitative Materials, 2nd edn, pp. 1-45. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
14. Erickson, F. (1986) Qualitative methods in research on teaching, in M. Whittrock (ed.) Handbook on Research on Teaching, pp. 119-61. Chicago, IL: Macmillan.
15. Falk, B. (2000) The Heart of the Matter: Using Standards and Assessment to Learn. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
16. Farrar, E., Goldfield, S. and Moore, T. (2007) School Readiness. West Perth, Australia: Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth.
17. Glesne, C. (1999) Becoming Qualitative Researchers: An Introduction, 2nd edn. New York: Longman.
18. Graue, M.E. (1993) Ready for What? Constructing Meanings of Readiness for Kindergarten. Albany: State University of New York Press.
19. Graue, M.E. (2006) The answer is readiness - now what is the question?. Early Education and Development 17: 43-56.
20. Graue, M.E. and Walsh, D.J. (1998) Studying Children in Context: Theories, Methods, and Ethics. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
21. Grieshaber, S. (2008) Interrupting stereotypes: teaching and the education of young children. Early Education and Development 19: 505-18.
22. Heubert, J.P. and Hauser, R.M. (eds) (1999) High Stakes: Testing for Tracking, Promotion, and Graduation. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
23. Jalongo, M.R. (2007) Beyond benchmarks and scores: reasserting the role of motivation and interest in children's academic achievement. Childhood Education 83: 395-407.
24. Kagan, S.L. (1990) Readiness 2000: rethinking rhetoric and responsibility. Phi Delta Kappan 72: 272-9.
25. Kagan, S.L. and Kauerz, K. (2007) 'Reaching for the whole: integrations and alignment in early education policy', in R.C. Pianta, M.J. Cox and K.L. Snow (eds) School Readiness and the Transition to Kindergarten in the Era of Accountability, pp. 11-30. Baltimore, MD: Paul Brookes.
26. Kagan, S.L., Moore, E. and Bredekamp, S. (eds) (1995) Reconsidering Children's Early Development and Learning: Toward Common Views and Vocabulary, Goal 1 Technical Planning Group Report 95-03. Washington, DC: National Education Goals Panel.
27. Kiernan, G., Axford, N., Little, M., Murphy, C., Greene, S. and Gormley, M. (2008) The school readiness of children living in a disadvantaged area in Ireland. Journal of Early Childhood Research 6: 119-44.
28. Kim, J., Lee, Y., Suen, H. and Lee, G.S. (2003) A Delphi study of young children's readiness in Korea: challenges and implications for early childhood schooling. Educational Research and Evaluation 9: 345-55.
29. Klein, L.G. (2006) Using indicators of school readiness to improve public policy for young children, in A. Ben-Arieh and R.M. Goerge (eds) Indicators of Children's Well Being, pp. 105-29. Dordrecht: Springer.
30. Lincoln, Y.S. and Guba, E.G. (1985) Naturalistic Inquiry. Beverly Hills, CA: SAGE.
31. Lubeck, S. (1998) 'Is developmentally appropriate practice for everyone?'. Childhood, Education 74: 283-92.
32. Lynch, R.G. (2004) Exceptional Returns: Economic, Fiscal, and Social Benefits of Investment in Early Childhood Development. Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute.
33. MacNaughton, G. (2004) The politics of logic in early childhood research: a case of the brain, hard facts, trees, and rhizomes. The Australian Educational Researcher 31: 87-104.
34. McAllister, C.L., Wilson, P.C., Green, B.L. and Baldwin, J.L. (2005) Come and take a walk: listening to early head start parents on school-readiness as a matter of child, family, and community health American Journal of Public Health 95: 617-25.
35. Mehaffie, K.E. and Fraser, J. (2007) 'School readiness: definitions, best practices, assessments, and cost. In C.J. Groark, K.E. Mehaffie, R.B. McCall and M.T. Greenberg (eds) Evidence-based Practices and Programs for Early Childhood, pp. 3-24. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
36. Meisels, S.J. (1987) Uses and abuses of developmental screening and school readiness testing. Young Children 42(4-6): 68-73.
37. Meisels, S.J. (1995) Out of the readiness maze. Momentum 26: 8-22.
38. Meisels, S.J. (1999) Assessing readiness, in R.C. Pianta and M.J. Cox (eds) The Transition to Kindergarten, pp. 39-63. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes.
39. Meisels, S.J. (2007) 'Accountability in early childhood', in R.C. Pianta, M.J. Cox and K.L. Snow (eds) School Readiness and the Transition to Kindergarten in the Era of Accountability, pp. 31-47. Baltimore, MD: Paul Brookes.
40. Miles, M.B. and Huberman, A.M. (1994) Qualitative Data Analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
41. National Association for the Education of Young Children (2004) Where we stand on school readiness. Available online at: [http://www.naeyc.org/about/positions/pdf/readiness.pdf], accessed 22 September 2005.
42. National Education Goals Panel (1992) Handbook for Local Goals Reports: Building a Community of Learners. Washington, DC: Author.
43. National Institute for Early Education Research (2006) The State of Preschool 2006: State Preschool Yearbook. New Brunswick, NJ: Author.
44. National Research Council (2000) How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School, expanded edn. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
45. National Research Council (2008) Early Childhood Assessment: Why, What, and How? Committee on Developmental Outcomes and Assessments for Young Children, eds C.E. Snow and S.B. Van Hemel, Board on Children, Youth and Families, Board on Testing and Assessment, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
46. Neuman, S.B. (2006) N is for nonsensical: low-income preschool children need content-rich instruction, not drill in procedural skills. Educational Leadership 64: 28-31.
47. Neuman, S.B. and Roskos, K. (2005) 'The state of pre-kindergarten standards'. Early Childhood Research Quarterly 20: 124-45.
48. Office of the White House (2002) Good start, grow smart: the Bush Administration's early childhood initiative. Available online at: [http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/earlychildhood/sect1.html], accessed 23 June 2003.
49. Patton, M.Q. (2002) Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods, 3rd edn. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
50. Pianta, R.C. (2002) 'School readiness: a focus on children, families, communities, and schools'. The Informed Educator Series, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, Washington, DC (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 463882).
51. Pianta, R.C. (2007) Early education in transition, in R.C. Pianta, M.J. Cox, and K.L. Snow (eds) School Readiness and the Transition to Kindergarten in the Era of Accountability, pp. 3-10. Baltimore, MD: Paul Brookes.
52. Polakow, V. (1992) Deconstructing the discourse of care: young children in the shadows of democracy, in S. Kessler and B.B. Swadener (eds) Reconceptualizing the Early Childhood Curriculum: Beginning the Dialogue, pp. 123-48. New York: Teachers College Press.
53. PreK Now (2006) Leadership Matters: Governor's PreK Proposals Fiscal Year 2007. Washington, DC: Author.
54. Rhode Island Kids Count (2005) Getting ready: findings from the National School Readiness Indicators Initiative, a 17 state partnership. Available online at: [http://www.gettingready.org/matriarch/d.asp?PageID=303&PageName2=pdfhold&p=&PageName=Getting+Ready+%2D+Full+Report%2Epdf], accessed 12 January 2006.
55. Ryan, S. (2008) Action or reaction! Reflecting on Sally Lubeck's Wisdom to Reinvent the Field of Early Education. Journal of Early Childhood Research 6: 69-74.
56. Sadowski, M. (2006) The school readiness gap. Harvard Education Letter, p. 22.
57. Schweinhart, L.J., Montie, J., Xiang, Z., Barnett, W.S., Belfield, C.R. and Nores, M. (2005) Lifetime effects: The High/Scope Perry Preschool Study through Age 4, (Monographs of the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation, 14.) Ypsilanti, MI: High/Scope Press.
58. Scott-Little, C., Kagan, S.L. and Frelow, V.S. (2006) Conceptualization of readiness and the content of early learning standards: the intersection of policy and research?. Early Childhood Research Quarterly 21:153-73.
59. Shepard, L. and Smith, M.L. (1986) Synthesis of research on school readiness and kindergarten retention. Educational Leadership 44: 78-86.
60. Shepard, L.A., Kagan, S.L. and Wurtz, E. (eds) (1998) Principles and Recommendations for Early Childhood Assessments. Washington, DC: National Education Goals Panel.
61. Shore, R. (1998) Ready Schools. Washington, DC: National Education Goals Panel.
62. Stake, R.E. (1995) The Art of Case Study Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
63. Stake, R.E. (2005) Qualitative case studies, in N. Denzin and Y. Lincoln (eds) The Handbook of Qualitative Research, 3rd edn, pp. 443-66. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
64. Stipek, D. (2006) No Child Left Behind comes to preschool. Elementary School Journal 106: 455-65.
65. Texas Education Agency (1999) Prekindergarten curriculum guidelines. Available online at: [http://www.tea.state.tx.us/curriculum/early/prekguide.pdf#xml=http://www.tea.state.tx.us/cgi/texis/webinator/search/xml.txt?query=Prekindergarten&db=db&id=a041babb18155c59], accessed 30 September 2004.
66. Texas Education Agency (2004) Snapshot 2004: school district profiles. Available online at: [http://www.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/snapshot/2004/index.html], accessed 30 January 2007.
67. Texas Education Agency (2008) Revised Texas prekindergarten guidelines. Available online at: [http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/ed_init/pkguidelines/PKG_Final_100808.pdf], accessed 20 November 2008.
68. Yin, R.K. (2003) Case Study Research: Design and Methods, 3rd edn. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.