Measures of School Readiness

03/01/2005

"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." - Confucius

Measures of School Readiness

A national coalition announced a common set of 23 measures that it hopes policy-makers ˜ including state legislators ˜ will use in deciding what programs and resources are necessary to shore up support for children from birth to 8 years old. "Getting Ready: Findings From the National School Readiness Indicators Initiative" pulls together a wide range of measures on family, school and community matters that can affect a child's potential for success in school.

The key measures of school readiness, which were pulled from measures identified by the 17 states, not only focus on the children but on the families of the children, their communities, health services, child care, early education programs and the schools that serve them. The measures include the education level of mothers, the number of births to teen mothers, and the rate of child abuse, as well as the percentages of children with appropriate motor skills and the ability to recognize shapes upon entering kindergarten. Other measures include the percentage of children: living in poverty, suffering from lead poisoning, coping without health insurance, enrolling in early education programs, and performing at grade level on the fourth-grade standardized tests in reading and mathematics.

States participating in the project are Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin.

To read the full report,"Getting Ready" and to learn more about the coalition, to to: http://www.gettingready.org/matriarch/

JOB OPENING

Assistant Head Start/Early Head Start Director
NORTH CAROLINA - Guilford Child Development.
To learn about this opening, go to: http://mail.ccie.com/go/eed/0546

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