The Early Development Instrument: A Bioecological View of School Readiness

Abstract

The issue of children’s school readiness concerns parents, teachers, and policy makers. Experts warn that many children are entering school lacking the necessary skills to achieve academic and lifelong success. While public preschool programs have been established throughout the nation as a policy goal to establish kindergarten readiness (National Educational Goals Panel, 1997), schools are not prepared to recognize the contextual factors to help children become ready to learn, nor to address the multitude of social needs that children bring to kindergarten. In response to President Obama’s promise of “Preschool for All” in his 2013 and 2014 State of the Union messages, the US Department of Education created a plan that recently stated that their goal was to enable every American four-year-old to attend a quality preschool (http://www.ed.gov/early-learning). Thus far states have provided the funds for prekindergarten expansion which, delivered through school districts, has unfolded without the expertise of other community-based early childhood programs, such as child care, Head Start, and nursery schools. Funds have been appropriated to states to develop, enhance, or expand high-quality preschool programs for low- and moderate-income families. Classroom quality, defined as children’s direct experiences, has been associated with preschool children’s development in academics and social competence (Mashburn, 2008; Mashburn et al., 2008), but standards vary across the various forms of early childhood education.