Concept Of Kindergarten Readiness - 3838 Words

Concept of Kindergarten Readiness Kindergarten readiness is a term that one hears in preschools all over the country. It is of very high concern to parents and teachers alike. What is kindergarten readiness? Graue (2010) reminds us that â€Å"it has been generally accepted and reliably supported that kindergarten readiness is determined by more than age†. It is a broader concept of the skills necessary to make a smooth transition to the kindergarten classroom so that they can be successful (Wesley Buysse, 2003). That could mean many different things to many different people, especially when the context of the school and family is considered. How are we to come to a shared meaning? In their study of the predictive validity of one specific†¦show more content†¦There are also varying thoughts on what it means to â€Å"properly place† a child. â€Å"Tests are used to determine who may enter kindergarten, as well as to identify those children in need of remediation and those who qualify for advanced placement, â€Å" (Ellewein, Walsh, Eads, Miller, 1991). The list of skills that one may find on a kindergarten readiness checklist has been described by Graue (2010) as a â€Å"crazy quilt of skills and dispositions.† There is constant tension about how many of those skills and dispositions should be academic, and how many should be social, but there is a pervasive thought that they as a whole they tell us something meaningful about the child. Graue (1993) and Snow, Burns, Griffin (1998) explain that â€Å"Although a child s readiness for school can be viewed as a complex interplay between the child s entry skills, the teacher s beliefs and activities, the connection between the family and the school, and the school system s philosophy and structure , entry skills alone are among the best predictors of later academic performance,† (as cited in Kurdek Sinclair 2010). This is the belief that underlies the societal norm of testing young children the way that we do One of the most common ways that assessment is achieved is through a mix of teacher observation and parent