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In 1997, Head Start launched the Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES), a study of a national random sample of Head Start programs, designed to describe characteristics, experiences, and outcomes for children and families served by Head Start. In 2000, FACES began data collection on a new national cohort of 2,800 children and their families in 43 Head Start programs. This report focuses on the 2000 sample, as well as on Kindergarten followup data from the 1997 sample. For the 2000 sample, there were 4 phases of data collection following 3- and 4-year-olds from program entry, through 1 or 2 years of program experience to the Spring of their kindergarten year. Data collection included child assessment, parent interviews, teacher and staff interviews, and classroom observations. The report presents findings with regard to Head Start children's cognitive and social-emotional development, Head Start programs' use of curricula, quality in Head Start classrooms, relationship of program and classroom characteristics to children's outcomes, relationship of family and parental characteristics to children's outcomes, and predictive validity of the FACES cognitive and behavioral measures. Findings indicated that children entered Head Start at a great disadvantage to other children. Although the gap between Head Start children and the general population of preschool children narrows during the Head Start year on key components of school readiness, Head Start children enter kindergarten still substantially below national averages. Head Start classrooms continued to be of good quality across a wide variety of indicators. Several program factors were related to child outcomes, including higher teacher salaries and the use of an integrated curriculum. Head Start involvement moderated negative effects of violence, depression, and other risk factors on children's cognitive and social-emotional status. (Contains 21 references.) (KB)

The purpose of this study was to use data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999 database for public use (version 2.9.2.1; Westat, 2000) to examine a sample of Head Start children and families to predict kindergarten and first grade success, The study controlled family variables of income level, family structure, and parent education level while predicting kindergarten and first grade success. Both repeated measures analysis of variance and latent curve analysis (LCA) were used to predict the academic success of kindergarten and first grade children. Results show that both income level and parent education level had statistically significant (p<0.05) effects on reading, mathematics, and general knowledge item response theory (IRT) scale scores, while family structure had a much weaker effect (nonsignificant) on reading, mathematics, and general knowledge IRT scale scores. Further, the means of Head Start children from families at or above the poverty level were consistently higher than those of children from families below the poverty level. The study compared LCA model fit statistics for the models tested. The growth model used for reading appears to provide the best-fit statistics. The growth model for knowledge provides the second best-fit statistics. The growth model for mathematics fit well overall, although the fit statistics are not as ideal as the reading and knowledge growth models. More studies need to be done in that area. (Author/SLD)

This study drew on data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 to examine whether children made gains in general knowledge over the summer following their first year of kindergarten, whether general knowledge gains were similar for all children, and whether participation in certain types of summer activities related to general summer knowledge gains. The analyses in this study used a subset of 3,718 children from the larger study who were first-time kindergartners in Fall 1998, who were administered a general knowledge assessment in English in both Spring and Fall 1999, and whose parents completed an interview in Fall 1999. Findings revealed that children gained an average of 3.2 points on general knowledge assessments over the summer. Children who repeated kindergarten in 1999-2000 showed smaller summer gains than children who moved to first grade. Higher family SES and lower general knowledge status at end of kindergarten were associated with greater summer gains. White children and those from high-SES groups had more involvement in all types of summer activities than some minority children and those from the lowest SES. Associations between summer experiences and general knowledge gains were detected only for children from the lowest general knowledge group after controlling for other factors in the model. For this group, greater exposure to literacy activities was related to additional summer knowledge gains. Low- knowledge children participating in summer school, camps, or day care gained more than low-knowledge children not attending summer education programs. For children from middle and high general knowledge groups, summer activities were not associated with summer general knowledge gains. (Contains 12 references.) (KB)

Data from the base-year (kindergarten) collection of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K) were used to describe the use of entrance or placement tests prior to kindergarten by schools in the United States that offer kindergarten classes. Also examined were the different ways that schools use the information from these tests, as well as use of entrance and placement tests by public and private schools, and by schools with different concentrations of low-income children, different grade levels taught, and different numbers of children enrolled. Findings showed that 61 percent of schools administered entrance or placement tests prior to kindergarten. Schools were more likely to use information from these tests to evaluate childrens needs and to guide instruction than to make decisions about whether children should be allowed to enter school or not. More public than private schools administered entrance or placement tests prior to kindergarten. Schools with larger student enrollments (greater than 300 students) were more likely than schools with fewer than 150 students to administer entrance or placement tests. In public schools, no differences were detected in the use of entrance or placement testing by school poverty. Thirteen percent of schools with kindergarten programs used entrance/placement tests to inform entry decisions when a child is below the cut-off age, with no differences by school type, level of instruction, or school size. About 25 percent of schools used entrance/placement tests to support a recommendation to delay a childs entry to kindergarten. (KB)

A study used data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K) to answer the following questions: Which of the various reading instructional activities do kindergartners do most often? Who has opportunities to participate in the various types of instructional activities? and Are the various instructional activities found in public school kindergarten classrooms associated with children's reading gains during the kindergarten year? A nationally representative sample of 22,782 children enrolled in 1,277 schools during the 1998-99 school year participated in the study. Children were administered a 2-stage individual assessment in the areas of reading, math, and general knowledge in the fall of 1998 and the spring of 1999. Also, kindergarten teachers were asked to complete a set of self-administered questionnaires about themselves, their students, and their classrooms. This paper analyzes data from the subset of 14,975 children who attended kindergarten for the first time in fall 1998 and were administered a reading assessment in English in both fall and spring of the kindergarten year and who has complete teacher questionnaire data. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the reading instruction children received in various kindergarten programs, and how instruction differed by the characteristics of the children and their schools. Next, linear regression analyses were used to examine the relationships of the child, family, and kindergarten program characteristics to the gains children made in reading during kindergarten. All results discussed in the paper are statistically significant at the .05 level. Findings suggest that kindergarteners were exposed to a variety of reading activities during the week, and that the frequency of exposure to the different sets of activities and the gain students made in reading were associated with child, family, and school characteristics. (Contains 15 references, 1 figure, and 7 tables.) (NKA)

This study examines whether Spanish-English bilingual children's phonological awareness (PA) performance reflects specific contrasts between English and Spanish by focusing on children's segmentation of vowels treated as single units in English but as two units in Spanish (/eI/ and /aI/). The role of oral language proficiency, specifically vocabulary, in the phonological awareness of bilingual children is also explored. Bilingual kindergartners and first graders in English or Spanish literacy instruction and a comparison group of monolingual English-speaking peers were administered tests of expressive vocabulary in English and Spanish and a phonemic segmentation task in English. Bilingual children, particularly those with higher Spanish language proficiencies, tended to hypersegment long diphthongized vowels. English language proficiency predicted correct performance on English phonemic segmentation more powerfully for children with low Spanish language proficiency and for children in English literacy instruction. For Spanish-instructed children, Spanish language proficiency predicted English phonemic segmentation, suggesting cross-language transfer. (Contains 32 references.) (Author/SM)

This article explores the relationship between notions of development and practice in early education. Through an interpretive study of the experience of the "gift of time," the article follows small groups of children who delayed kindergarten entry, those who were relatively young but entered on time, and children retained in kindergarten to gain an understanding of how time promotes development. The article examines how ideas about typical development override attention to individual development. Further, such ideas promote a teacher-distant approach in which opportunities to scaffold learning are frequently missed. The article suggests heightened attention to developmentally responsive practicepractice that utilizes both knowledge of typical development and particular knowledge of specific children. (Author)

Blending means smoothing together subword segments to try to identify a spoken word. Research suggests that beginning readers need to blend to combine the phonemes they "sound out" into a recognizable approximation of a known word. Popular wisdom presumes blending is easiest when the segments of words are whispered and when syllables are broken into onset and rime rather than fully segmented. A study determined which of three segmentation options is most helpful for prealphabetic and partial-alphabetic kindergartners trying to blend oral segments to identify words. Segments pronounced with added "schwa" versus segments minimally vocalized; onset and rime segments versus body and coda segments; and fully segmented phoneme segments versus subword chunks larger than a phoneme (either onsets and rimes or bodies and codas) were compared. Participants were 187 kindergartners, diverse both in ethnicity and income. Only prealphabetic and partial alphabetic readers were included. A within-subjects design was used where each participant served as his/her own control. Findings suggest these kindergartners were more successful when consonants were pronounced with added schwa. Children blended more 3-phoneme words successfully when consonants were pronounced with added schwa than when whispered to avoid adding schwa. Findings suggest the following hypothetical sequence of activities in teaching children to blend: (1) teach children 2-part blending in which simple monosyllabic words are joined body to coda; (2) when children have achieved body-coda blending, teach them to blend onset to rime; and (3) when children can blend onset to rime, work with fully segmented words, enunciating them clearly by adding schwa vowels when necessary. Includes data. Contains 10 references. (NKA)

"The Condition of Education, 2002" is an indicator report, summarizing the health of education, monitoring important developments, and showing trends in major aspects of education. Indicators examine relationships; show changes over time; compare or contrast subpopulations, regions, or countries; or assess characteristics of students from different backgrounds and types of schools. An indicator is policy relevant and problem oriented; it typically incorporates a standard against which to judge progress or regression. This year, 44 indicators were selected that represent a consensus of professional judgment about significant national measures of the condition and progress of education at this time. The report leads with special analyses of private schools and nontraditional undergraduates. The indicators that follow are in six sections: (1) Participation in Education; (2) Learner Outcomes; (3) Student Effort and Educational Progress; (4) Contexts of Elementary and Secondary Education; (5) Contexts of Postsecondary Education; and (6) Societal Support for Learning. The report includes text, tables, and charts for each indicator plus the technical supporting data, supplemental information, and data sources. Appendices compose over half of the publication and contain supplemental tables and notes, estimates of standard errors for the statistics, data sources, a glossary, and a bibliography that includes publications and surveys of the National Center for Education Statistics. (RT)

This study attempted to estimate special education expenditures at kindergarten from material and infant medical and sociodemographic factors known at birth. The study consisted of all students born in Florida between September 1, 1990 and August 31, 1991 who subsequently attended kindergarten in Florida. A total of 125,430 birth records were successfully matched with education databases. Predictors included Medicaid eligibility at birth, poverty at school age, mother's level of education, previous pregnancy experience, maternal age, and infant birth weight. Ordered probit regression analysis was performed on the data. The outcome variable was state educational expenditure on the student through completion of kindergarten. Variables that best predicted educational costs by the end of kindergarten included: low birth weight, congenital anomaly, male gender, no prenatal care, Medicaid eligibility at birth, and school age poverty. Results suggest that, since the factors with the greatest estimated effects on kindergarten costs are perinatal conditions and family background factors, high risk infants can be identified at birth, and therefore physicians, educators, social workers, and policymakers should coordinate efforts in allocating resources for children with special needs. (Contains 19 references and 4 tables.) (DB)

Noting that the kindergarten year is important in establishing competencies critical to children's success and achievement in school, and the lack of information on how children make the transition to kindergarten, this study examined differences in parental reports of children's adjustment behaviors for a large, nationally representative sample of beginning public school kindergartners. The focus of the research was on the prevalence of parent-reported adjustment problems of first-time public school kindergartners and whether some groups of children experience these adjustment problems more than others. The adjustment behaviors examined were: complaining about going to school, being upset or reluctant to go to school, and pretending to be sick to stay home from school. Data were from a subset of 13,602 children from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999 (ECLS-K). Parents reported that 72 percent of first-time public school kindergartners did not show signs of adjustment difficulty during the first 2 months of the school year. Thirteen percent showed one adjustment difficulty, and 15 percent exhibited two or more. Certain child, family, and kindergarten program characteristics were related to the percent of children who showed adjustment difficulties. Being male, having a disability, or living in a lower socioeconomic status family were associated with adjustment difficulties. Children attending full-day kindergarten programs and those in class sizes of 25 or more children were more likely to demonstrate adjustment difficulties even after controlling for other child and family characteristic differences. (Contains 6 data tables.) (KB)

A qualitative pilot study, guided by an ecological framework, illustrates the complexities involved in studying the unique linguistic situation in Paraguay between Spanish and the indigenous language of Guarani, and its relationship with education. The pilot study interviewing eight kindergarten children. Seventy five children have been interviewed since the pilot study was completed. Teacher questionnaires were completed by 25 teachers, 4 of which are discussed in detail. This report focuses on eight Paraguayan elementary school kindergarteners (n=4 each males and females) and their teachers from each school participating in the study. Interviews and questionnaire results are presented through vignettes which indicate that social factors play a role in language choice in this diglossic environment between Spanish and Guarani. Focusing on the individual child, the study also takes into account the parental views of education and the teachers' pedagogical practices surrounding language instruction in this bilingual context. Appended are interview questions, a bilingual picture task, and the teacher questionnaire. (Contains 7 notes and 19 references.) (Author/BT)

This document presents a profile of the development of Alaska kindergarten and first grade students in fall 2001. Alaska teachers completed reports for 13,688 kindergarten and first grade students at that time. Most were found to exhibit important behaviors associated with school successes on the Alaska Developmental Profile Recording Form. Assessments came from 365 schools in 54 districts. There is no single district-to-district standard for the behaviors that meet developmental questions on the form, so criteria for, fine motor development, for example, may differ among districts. A guide to good practice is distributed by the state. Differences among districts are substantial. In Anchorage, 25% of students were not considered to demonstrate physical well-Being, but in Kenai, only 2% did not receive a yes in this category. These differences may be the result of not having a single standard. Overall, whatever the community or standard, most students were found by their teachers to be in the yes category when assessed on characteristics that are related to school activities in important ways. An improved Profile form could better identify differences that exist in the areas of academic skills. (SLD)

Noting that previous study of child rearing patterns among Chinese parents has ignored the importance of the instrument measuring parenting style, this study used an instrument incorporating Chinese concepts of parenting and based on well-established parenting concepts to examine differences in the child rearing attitudes of mothers and grandmothers of 3- to 6-year-olds in Taiwan. Participating in the study were 53 grandmothers and 448 mothers randomly selected from 12 Taiwan kindergartens. The instrument used was the Maternal Parenting Style Questionnaire developed for this study and based on the constructs identified in Baumrind Parent Behavior Ratings. The findings revealed that although there were significant differences between the attitudes of grandmothers and mothers on parenting style, the attitudes of most grandmothers and mothers favored an authoritative parenting style over the authoritarian, permissive, and uninvolved styles. Grandmothers parenting style was identified as more responsive than mothers style. There were no generational differences in demandingness. A small sample size for the grandmothers may have contributed to the results of this study. (Contains 47 references.) (KB)

Two series of case studies were carried out following a multiple baseline design across individuals. The first series of eight studies included 4- to 5-year-old Dutch kindergarten children, and the second series examined 5- to 6-year-old kindergarten children. Each child wrote approximately 16 stories in the natural classroom environment over a 2-month period. During the last month of the experiment the teacher or a researcher promoted invented spelling by modeling this strategy for the children prior to their second series of writing sessions. The two series of case studies tested how children harmonized knowledge and understandings, represented by early-developing forms of writing such as random letter strings or pseudo-cursive scribbles, with an emerging understanding that letters represent sounds. Even when children understood the alphabetic principle and adults promoted the use of letter-sound rules to represent their story, children were not inclined simply to drop early-developing forms such as pseudo-cursive scribble or random letter strings. They often produced combinations of early forms and invented spelling. Invented spelling gradually increased over earlier forms, but only among a group of older kindergartners. Contains 4 tables, 3 figures, and 24 references. (Author/NKA)

This paper explores the differences in how young children respond to three different types of sample survey response icons. The purpose of the project was to determine if using different types of response icons would result in greater levels of discrimination by children in kindergarten through third grade. The setting was a summer enrichment program in which approximately 400 children enrolled in week-long classes. Surveys were administered at the end of each class. Children were asked to respond to eight items using three different styles of response anchors or icons. In all, 376 children completed surveys. Analysis of the data indicated a significant difference between response icons using "smiley faces" as compared to those using "thumbs-up/down" icons and those using simple"Y" or "N." Children who responded using "smiley faces" did not discriminate between response icons to the degree those did using the response icons in the other two alternative response modes. Program evaluators seeking to gather data from young children should be alerted to the likelihood that the conventional use of "smiley faces" may not reflect the real feelings of these subjects. (Author/SLD)

This final report, covering the period September 1, 1997 to August 31, 2001, discusses the development, activities, and outcomes of Upgrading Preparatory Work To Augment Reading Development: UPWARD for Students with Disabilities, a multi-faceted program for providing children with disabilities intensive, phonological awareness and other early literacy instruction within general kindergarten classrooms. To develop and evaluate the program, experimental studies were run investigating the effects of a highly structured, class-wide peer-tutoring program. The effects of the programs that emphasized phonological awareness versus beginning word analysis were examined, along with the effects on the development of phonological awareness and other emergent literacy skills of kindergarten children with disabilities, and the incidental benefits for other students in these classrooms. The children were followed though first grade to examine effects on reading development. Results of the project indicate that: (1) peer-mediation was a productive format for delivering reading readiness programs to children as young as 5 years old; (2) the nature of peer-mediated programs should focus on decoding activities rather than on phonological awareness activities; (3) effects for students with and without disabilities were similar in nature; (4) effects were similar in high-poverty and middle-class schools; and (5) the kindergarten teachers were enthusiastic about their participation in Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies. (CR)

In New Canaan, Connecticut, several meetings were convened to communicate kindergarten expectations as they relate to the 14 preschools that feed into 3 public elementary schools in New Canaan, and to develop and systemize more effective and efficient transitional practices from the preschool arena to the public school setting. Attending the meetings were 14 preschool directors and their teachers, 17 public school kindergarten staff, and 3 elementary school principals. The outcomes of the meetings were twofold: (1) communication to the preschool population that public school kindergarten curricula were not strictly academically oriented; and (2) an examination of what preschoolers are expected to experience prior to entering kindergarten. A questionnaire was developed to educe the expectations from kindergarten teachers that would be shared with preschools. Four categories of experiences were judged most important by kindergarten teachers: social competencies, communication/language, independent skills, and fine and gross motor experiences. After lengthy discussion, the directors and preschool teachers were in agreement with the expectations. Directors indicated that they would plan specific strategy sessions to better inform their parents about their program and goals based on the agreed upon kindergarten expectations. The final decision of the group was to collaboratively write a position paper to serve as a directive for preschools and the anchor for the kindergarten philosophy that permeates the New Canaan Public Schools. (The position statement regarding the goals for kindergarten children is appended.) (KB)

This paper discusses the development of the Anchorage Kindergarten Developmental Profile in the context of the Alaska Kindergarten Developmental Profile and presents some evaluation results from studies of the Anchorage measure. Alaska mandated the completion of an Alaska Developmental Profile (ADP) on each kindergarten student and each student new to first grade or new to school by November 2000, although the ADP does not require that any specific measurement of student performance take place. The Anchorage School District Developmental Profile was developed to fit the requirements of the ADP while giving the school district more consistent and useful information. A developmental committee developed, field-tested, and refined assessment activities and a Web-based data entry system for teachers to use in tracking their students. The Anchorage profile evaluates students in the areas of physical well-being and motor development, language and literacy development, personal-social development, thinking and cognitive development, and background. In focus groups, 56 teachers generally supported the profile system and found it useful. Questionnaires completed by 909 parents showed that parents generally felt that the assessment process was valuable. Ninety-two percent thought that meeting with the teacher in advance of the school year was valuable in itself. Some parents objected to the fact that the assessment process meant that the start of school was delayed for kindergarten students; these were usually parents with older students at the same school. Overall, teachers and parents support the developed assessment process and think that it helps show student needs early. Appended are state of Alaska Kindergarten Profile Report Form, Anchorage Kindergarten Profile Direction, including Alaska Developmental Profile Recording Form. (SLD)