{"title":"Understanding Kindergarten Readiness","authors":"K. Whyte, C. Coburn","doi":"10.1086/721773","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"In this study, we aimed to understand what readiness meant to educators in two districts that were in the midst of developing pre-K–3 initiatives. We examined how readiness was conceptualized by teachers, school leaders, and district leaders as well as what factors influenced their understandings. We found that educators in our study tended to locate readiness within individual children. Although educators did draw from common early childhood ideologies to describe how they understood readiness, district organizational structures and measurement tools also affected their understandings. As public pre-K continues to become part of K–12 systems and districts make choices about how to define readiness, we recommend districts inspect the different messages educators receive about readiness and then align their efforts to ensure their goals are met. We also suggest districts consider employing definitions of readiness that focus on ready schools rather than on unready children.","PeriodicalId":48010,"journal":{"name":"Elementary School Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2000,"publicationDate":"2022-10-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Elementary School Journal","FirstCategoryId":"95","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1086/721773","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
In this study, we aimed to understand what readiness meant to educators in two districts that were in the midst of developing pre-K–3 initiatives. We examined how readiness was conceptualized by teachers, school leaders, and district leaders as well as what factors influenced their understandings. We found that educators in our study tended to locate readiness within individual children. Although educators did draw from common early childhood ideologies to describe how they understood readiness, district organizational structures and measurement tools also affected their understandings. As public pre-K continues to become part of K–12 systems and districts make choices about how to define readiness, we recommend districts inspect the different messages educators receive about readiness and then align their efforts to ensure their goals are met. We also suggest districts consider employing definitions of readiness that focus on ready schools rather than on unready children.
期刊介绍:
The Elementary School Journal has served researchers, teacher educators, and practitioners in the elementary and middle school education for over one hundred years. ESJ publishes peer-reviewed articles dealing with both education theory and research and their implications for teaching practice. In addition, ESJ presents articles that relate the latest research in child development, cognitive psychology, and sociology to school learning and teaching. ESJ prefers to publish original studies that contain data about school and classroom processes in elementary or middle schools while occasionally publishing integrative research reviews and in-depth conceptual analyses of schooling.