School Readiness

School readiness can best be defined as a psychological state in which the child is prepared for or ready to engage in and benefit from the formal and informal learning experiences, both academic and social, that organized education provides. Determining exactly what this preparedness entails, the extent to which it is active or passive, and where specifically it originates, however, introduces considerable complexity into the definition of readiness. For some, readiness is a function of the school environment and expectations, academic and otherwise, that schools have for children as they begin formal elementary education. For others, school readiness is determined by children's social skills and ability to interact in appropriate and meaningful ways with peers and teachers in the school environment. For yet others, school readiness is dependent on children's knowledge, including verbal ability, letter and number knowledge, and other aspects of acquired information important for learning in school. And for yet others again, school readiness is defined primarily in terms of children's cognitive and emotional self-regulation abilities; the ability to focus attention, to take turns, and to regulate behavior in various ways.

Each of these perspectives on readiness has merit and has been validated to some extent in studies of children's progress in school. Studies examining school expectations indicate that when enrolled in schools that implement strategies to introduce children and families to schooling prior to school entry, children achieve at higher levels and are better adjusted to school than are comparable children in schools without transition practices. Similarly, studies of social skills as aspects of readiness have indicated relations between children's social competence, friendship quality, relationships with peers and teachers, and children's academic progress and social-emotional adjustment to school. As well, studies of cognitive abilities such as general intelligence, knowledge of letters and numbers, and language comprehension and production indicate associations between these aspects of cognition, particularly language development, and academic achievement in the early elementary grades. And studies of cognitive and emotional self-regulation skills, including aspects of temperament, attention, and emotion regulation, have shown that children who are better regulated both prior to and following school entry achieve academically at higher levels and are perceived by parents and teachers to be well adjusted to school.

Given evidence in favor of multiple perspectives on school readiness, the construct is best understood as a complex developmental phenomenon, the product of multiple interacting systems or levels of influence. Within the systems approach to complex phenomena, characteristics of the child that predispose to high or low levels of attributes important for school readiness, such as basic knowledge or cognitive and social-emotional competence and self-regulation abilities, are the product of interacting genetic, physiological, and family variables that in turn influence and are influenced by characteristics of the early school environment and children's experiences in that environment. Accordingly, readiness is an emergent process [Page 877]that must be uniquely considered for each individual child, rather than as an abstract standard or level of attainment that is universally applicable to all children.

Although the systems view provides an accurate conceptual depiction of the nature of school readiness, the complexity of the approach limits its applicability to specific efforts to promote school readiness among children at risk for early school failure. The promotion of readiness is essential if children are to benefit from a free and universal public education. At the turn of the 21st century, however, more than one half of a representative sample of U.S. kindergarten teachers reported substantial concerns about the readiness of their students. Furthermore, in a similar survey, teachers reported that they believed the primary obstacle to children's progress in kindergarten and the early elementary grades to be difficulty with paying attention, following directions, taking turns, and becoming meaningfully engaged in learning activities.

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