The purpose of this study was to determine if the Gearing Up for Kindergarten program created a significant impact on parent understanding of children's development and aspects of school readiness. Parent perceptions of their child's readiness to make the transition to school were also assessed. The study also measured the Gearing Up for Kindergarten impact on children's scores on selected academic measures. A selected sample of 75 parents were surveyed with pre, post, and post post program assessments using the Practical Parent Assessment of School Readiness survey. The survey used Likert scale measures to assess parent perceptions of readiness in the 5 domains of child development: Approaches to learning, Social and emotional development, Physical well-being and motor development, Language development, and Cognition and general knowledge. The survey found significant differences between the treatment and control group on selected measures of the social and emotional scales. The survey also measured parent perceptions of their child's readiness for the transition to school and found no significant difference between treatment and control groups. The AIMS Web children's assessment measured children's academic knowledge with three one minute tests: letter identification, number identification, and oral counting. This assessment compared children's scores using an ANOVA and found no significant differences in children's scores between treatment and control groups. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]