Proceedings from a Working Meeting on School Readiness Research: Guiding the Synthesis of Early Childhood Research

In recent years, the Federal government has made increasingly significant investments in early childhood care and education research. Much of this work has been aimed at exploring the effectiveness of different programs, targeted interventions, curricula, and specific teaching practices in narrowing the school readiness gap that exists between disadvantaged children and their more advantaged peers as they enter kindergarten. This report includes a synthesis of newly-emerging findings from this body of research (in a series of commissioned working papers) and summarizes key themes that emerged from a meeting of research and policy experts aimed at examining and evaluating the state of the science and directions for future work. The papers and panel presentations focused on three key themes: (1) the effects of early childhood program enhancements on children’s outcomes; (2) strategies for the professional development of the early childhood workforce; and (3) approaches to measuring and narrowing the school readiness gap. [21 PDF pages]