Topic

School transition Subject One major concern in many industrialized countries is that a large number of children enter primary school, and even kindergarten or its equivalent, with widely differing levels of preparation for formal schooling or school readiness.a When school readiness is narrowly understood, the emphasis is to prepare or ready children so that they develop a specific set of academic skills and abilities--follow directions, demonstrate reading and reasoning skills, and carry out independent work1--by the time they enter school. In contrast, the U.S. National Education Goals Panelb took a broader approach, arguing that school readiness encompasses five dimensions: physical well-being and motor development, social and emotional development, language usage, cognition, and general knowledge.2 It is this broader definition, which has international applicability, that frames this discussion, with special attention to academic and related skills. Research has found that on starting kindergarten, children who participated in high quality, model preschool programs were significantly more advanced in key areas o