Excerpted from Chapter 1 of School Readiness and the Transition to Kindergarten in the Era of Accountability

This volume is an extension of a previously published book, The Transition to Kindergarten, which I co-edited with Martha Cox (Pianta & Cox, 1999) and which was intended at the time to identify and frame issues related to the transition to school. In that volume, we assembled chapters pertaining to conceptual models of transition, evidence of the importance of focusing on transition, and discussions of an assortment of policies and practices that pertained to the transition period. In the final chapter, we speculated about four trends that would focus work in the decade that followed. These trends are a good starting point for this brief introduction to the present volume, and are presented next.

1. Emerging Conceptual Base: There is an emerging conceptual base that integrates developmental psychology and education. This conceptual base, solidly grounded in empirical work, has fueled increasing recognition by educators that 1) the development of young children relies greatly on contexts and 2) the early grades of school are a different, and somewhat critical, period for later school success.

2. Increasing Diversity: The diversity of America’s families and school population is increasing rapidly and is likely to be the most pronounced among the younger age groups of children. Challenges of culture, language, family background, and processes and differences in the ways families view schools are formidable and will be exacerbated by these demographic shifts.

3. Expansion of Public Programs: Public school programs for young children (ages 3 and 4) will continue to increase. Universal prekindergarten programs for 4-year-olds will be the norm, and programs for 3-year-olds will be common.

4. Accountability Movement: A movement for accountability has emerged in American education. This movement holds potential for enhancing the quality of education offered to American children. However, it may also produce serious tensions for educators interested in this period of transition.

CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES AND EARLY EDUCATION

This volume will be published at a time of unprecedented interest in identifying, deepening, and exploiting the connections between early childhood and elementary education. The educational and developmental opportunities to which young children are exposed are leverage points for addressing concerns about K achievement.

The central challenges of the field are how to provide safe, organized preschool programs to selected groups of children and how to better connect families and schools, as well as how to offer all preschool children appropriate and effective early educational experiences.

These trends and concerns reflect a complete reconceptualization and redefinition of the loosely regulated collection of opportunities for learning that are offered to children from ages 3 to 8.

A High-Quality Program of Early Education

Everyone wants their educational program to be high quality. Yet, very little evidence indicates that these parameters translate into improved outcomes for children in contemporary early education settings. Effective teaching requires skillful combinations of explicit instruction, sensitive interactions, and responsive feedback.

The Early School Work Force

Enrollment of 3- and 4-year-olds in early education programs now approaches 70% of the population. Universal prekindergarten programs for 4-year-olds will require at least 200,000 teachers.

CONCLUSION

Too few of the students who most need high-quality early education experiences receive them. In an era of high-stakes testing, it is disconcerting to note that the system on which the nation relies provides exceptional variability in the nature and quality of actual opportunities to learn. The realities about the level and distribution of high-quality early education classrooms reflect the convergence of several factors including the challenges of teaching young children and the funding levels associated with early educational programs.