Internet Sites:
• Kindergarten
This is a new resource on kindergarten from Education Commission of the States. It includes statistics, research articles, and an expanded and updated kindergarten entry age chart.
http://www.ecs.org/ecsmain.asp?page=/html/issue.asp?issueID=77
• Schools’ Use of Assessments for Kindergarten Entrance and Placement: 1998-99
This study describes schools use of kindergarten entrance and placement tests by public and private schools, and by schools with different concentrations of low-income children, different grade levels taught, and different numbers of children enrolled.
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2003004
• ParentSoup Education Central: Kindergarten
Includes information for parents on developmental milestones, curriculum, and issues that emerge as children move toward the first grade.
http://www.parentsoup.com/edcentral/grades/kindergarten.html
• Entering Kindergarten: A Portrait of American Children When They Enter School
From the Condition of Education 2000. Offers answers to questions such as: What knowledge and skills do children possess when they start school? How prepared are they for the social and academic demands of the classroom? How do knowledge, skills, and behavior vary across individuals and among groups of children, such as older versus younger pupils, girls versus boys, and children from high-risk as opposed to more ordinary family circumstances?
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2001/2001035.pdf
• The Kindergarten Year (December 2000)
This report attempts to answer questions about children’s knowledge and skill acquisition during the kindergarten year and determine characterisics that effect academic differences.
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2001023
• Children Who Enter Kindergarten Late or Repeat Kindergarten: Their Characteristics and Later School Performance
“This Stats in Brief uses information from the 1993 and 1995 National Household Education Survey (NHES) to describe the numbers and characteristics of children who experienced delayed kindergarten entry or kindergarten retention, as well as their subsequent performance and adjustment in school.” There is a link to the full report at the bottom of the page (NCES 98-097).
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2001/quarterly/fall/elem_kindergarten.html
• State Statutes Regarding Kindergarten
From the Education Commission of the States Information Clearinghouse. Includes starting age information.
http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/29/21/2921.pdf
• ERIC Digest – Recent Research on All-Day Kindergarten (2001)
http://www.ericfacility.net/ericdigests/ed453982.html
• ERIC Digest – He Has a Summer Birthday: The Kindergarten Entrance Age Dilemma (1998)
http://www.ericfacility.net/ericdigests/ed423079.html
• ERIC Digest – Full-Day Kindergarten Programs (1995)
http://www.ericfacility.net/ericdigests/ed382410.html
• Building Blocks Chatboard at Teachers.net
“Your direct connection to your teacher colleagues utilizing the 4 Blocks model in their K classrooms”
http://teachers.net/mentors/buildingblocks/