Used as an integral part of the migrant student skills system operated by the Migrant Student Record Transfer System (MSRTS), the mini-math skills list contains a catalog of math skills typical of the K-3 grade range. The document presents an explanation of terminology used for the MSRTS mini-math outline: areas, topics, subtopics, skills, and…

The Pediatric Examination of Educational Readiness (PEER) was designed as an integrated health and neurodevelopmental instrument to be administered by pediatricians and nurses in the assessment of preschool children. It may be used to identify potential learning disabled children who need intervention. The neurodevelopmental part of the test…

Two studies explored the possibility of inducing conservation understanding in intellectually normal preschoolers and mildly mentally retarded children of comparable mental age. Retarded children, MA 3-10 to 5-0, received Verbal Rule instruction. Three- and 4-year-old children were given Verbal Rule training in a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial design…

Presented is an informal speech addressed to parents of exceptional children. Discussed is the fact that terminology for slow learners and learning disabilities has changed through the past 20 years and that many labels may be more harmful to the child than the actual disability. In an attempt to be reassuring, it is stated that in many cases…

This booklet describes in detail the research phase and the subsequent innovations of the investigation of school readiness in 6- and 7-year-old Polish children. The research focused on three problems: (1) to discover reliable methods of evaluating school readiness; (2) to state relations between the child's developmental level and environmental…

Efforts to establish what psychological processes make up the framework through which beginning reading skills are developed led to this study, aimed at identifying perceptual, learning, cognitive, memory, and language variables which influence beginning reading of normal and educable mentally retarded children. A total of 172 first-grade…

This paper describes a visual-motor training program that has been successfully implemented with children aged 3-11. Various studies related to the development of children's visual-motor skills are reviewed and a rationale associated with the teaching of appropriate visual-motor processes is explained. Application of this rationale to the visual…

Brief annotations of currently available general school readiness measures are presented. The annotation provides information concerning the purpose of the test; the groups for which it is intended; test subdivisions or tested skills, behaviors, or competencies; administration; scoring; interpretation; and standardization. An alphabetical listing…

The problem of how to provide at least one year of preschool education for all Slovene children led to the development of the Slovene "Little School." Positive results, using a School Beginners Test with 118 "Little School" children proved that even short preschool programs were beneficial. (JH)

In 2000, PBS contracted with Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. (MPR) to conduct a five-year evaluation of "Ready To Learn" outreach. The evaluation includes an impact study of the effects of "Ready To Learn" workshops on participating parents and early childhood educators, as well as on the preschool children in their care. Conducted in 20 "Ready…

The purpose of this tool kit is to provide guidance, tools, and resources that will assist communities in building culturally and linguistically competent services, supports, programs, and practices related to young children, their families. By offering services in culturally and linguistically meaningful ways, communities can engage all families…

This paper addresses four of the seven themes of the 2nd International Conference on the Teaching of Mathematics--research, technology, pedagogical innovation, and curricular innovation--from the point of view that learning mathematics is learning. Research from a variety of fields including education, neurobiology, and cognitive psychology…

While some educators have attributed early school failure to improper grade placement and thus advocate grade placement according to developmental age, others believe that early school failure is due to the lack of academic preparation for young children by their parents or by preschools. This paper examines related literature for empirical…

The Michigan School Readiness Program (MSRP), a state-initiated and state-funded preschool program, serves more than 20,000 four-year-olds identified as being at risk for school failure each year. A longitudinal evaluation followed 2 cohorts selected from 7 sites from kindergarten through Grade 3 for Cohort 1 and through Grade 2 for Cohort 2. Each…

This survey was designed to assess teachers' perspectives on student grade level preparedness. Specifically, it examines the kinds of problems that make it difficult to be a good student and how well prepared teachers feel they are to deal with these problems. As has been true since The MetLife Survey of the American Teacher began in 1984, more…