School Readiness, Full-Day Kindergarten, and Student Achievement

from The RAND Corporation

Here's a link to a study from The RAND Corporation. It's a big PDF file so it may take some time to download. Recent research shows that large gaps exist, even before children enter kindergarten, in their school readiness. Because the skills and knowledge that children have upon entering school predict later achievement, this is an issue of serious concern to educators and policymakers. Using longitudinal survey data to examine how children's skills and knowledge at kindergarten entry predict achievement in later grades, this study from RAND addresses two research questions: the relationship between school readiness skills at kindergarten entry and reading and mathematics achievement through the fifth grade, and kindergarten program factors that predict nonacademic school readiness skills.

School Readiness, Full-Day Kindergarten, and Student Achievement