A Holistic Approach to School Readiness

Recently, a first-time mother confessed to me that she had changed pediatricians because she felt pressured about the way they spoke about developmental milestones. “The doctor was extremely rigid with us. She seemed to be saying if my child wasn’t doing a certain thing by a certain month, then we needed to take him to a fleet of therapists,” the mother told me. The doctor had mentioned actions like the child zipping up their own coat, “But every time we leave the house, it’s like we’re on fire,” the mother laughed. “I zip up the coat myself because I’m late for work!”  

Assessments are only as good as the data collected. Just because a child doesn’t zip up their coat doesn’t mean they can’t zip up their coat.  

Early childhood interventions run the gamut from encouraging a child to name every part of the process of washing their hands to working on basic concepts like the difference between cold and hot water. Much of the scientific and health-focused literature represents child development as a linear process, but for many families, milestones are reached in a diversity of ways. 

School readiness as a concept was introduced in 1991 as a pre-cursor to the No Child Left Behind Act – legislation that divided educators and parents on educational outcomes in this country. In 2019, the American Academy of Pediatrics reported on the modern state of school-readiness in a report of the same name. In it, they reiterated the three main elements: 

1. Readiness in the child
2. Readiness in the school
3. Family and community support for readiness (Williams et al., 2019) 

Although all three concepts of readiness work together, it can be illuminating to look at each one more closely. 

Readiness in the child

School readiness, in part, refers to a child’s grasp of basic concepts along with social–emotional learning and physical well-being. Many researchers point to data that school-readiness is predictive of later academic achievement and success. For example, when a teacher instructs the class to “start at the top” of a worksheet and “work your way down,” they are using spatial terms that, if a child knows those concepts, makes school success more reachable. The act of completing a task engages a child’s self-control and resilience, so if a child can persist at a task in pre-K or kindergarten, it predicts success later on.  Assessing a child’s school readiness may give early childhood teachers a sense of the supports a child needs to thrive in the classroom. 

Readiness in the school

What does readiness look like in a child’s school, classroom, and teacher? First, inclusion of every student, at every ability and language level, is essential.  

Imagine a kindergarten teacher meeting their students at the beginning of the school year. They invite each student to stand up, say their name, then sit down. The teacher starts at the back of the room and points at each child until everyone has taken a turn. Some students wait patiently. Some shout or laugh. Some watch to see how others respond. Some students forget their name or ask a question instead. Some students don’t want to stand, or they have a physical difference the teacher is unfamiliar with.  

Park et al. found ‘child-directed assistance’ to be especially “humanizing” in a Head Start classroom with a diversity of abilities, home languages, and IEP statuses. “’Child-directed assistance’ included interactions where the young children of color with disabilities were supported to pursue their own interests, make decisions, express themselves, or take their own time” (Park et al, 2021) instead of 'adult-directed assistance’ from teachers who physically or verbally maneuvered the children to follow directions.  

Read more about Head Start’s framework for preschool. 

Strong structures of leadership and responsibility should show a commitment to the success of every teacher. This might look like professional development, paying teachers for planning time outside of the workday, hiring extra help, and reducing class sizes. These kinds of policy choices lead to a school’s readiness capacity to offer more opportunities for parent engagement, better understanding of early child development and play, and smooth transitions between home and school – including cultural sensitivity and continuity of interventions. 

Strengthen Your Early Intervention Process with Evidence-Based Best Practices  

Something often overlooked but essential to success is that the school is a safe, secure, and inclusive environment.  

Research has found an explosion in pre-K and kindergarten expulsions, a rise in police officers in schools, and dominance of a single interpretation of how to act in a classroom. For children who are 3, 4, or 5 years old, or even older, being subjected to an inflexible idea of what is “good” behavior can be traumatizing in racist, ableist, and exclusionary ways (Love & Beneke, 2021). 

Family and community support for readiness 

Parents, caregivers, and family play important roles in readiness as well. Community and family support can look like creating initiatives for: 

• Dedicated time at home to spend with kids, teaching, learning, and growing
• Healthcare access for prenatal and primary care, as well as access to nutritious food
• Access to high-quality childcare 

Poverty is one of the most influential factors in predicting school success and achievement. When families experience poverty, their children need more support, not less. But when a school district or community has less tax revenue, less government support, and fewer safe, healthy spaces, children’s success can be negatively impacted.  

When that first-time mother told me about all of her anxieties with her child’s adaptive behavior, milestones, and literacy, I couldn’t help but think of my own childhood. I never attended preschool. My parents didn’t know how to navigate that system, fill out paperwork, or arrange for transportation. I entered kindergarten with my mother’s advice to be quiet and obedient, and to listen to the teacher. I cowered in a corner until my teacher told me that in order to be obedient to her, I had to play and laugh and sing and drink chocolate milk and hold hands with other students. She started my love affair with learning, and that’s the very least we owe to children now. 

Key Messages

School readiness is one of the most reliable predictors of educational achievement. Assessments can give professionals valuable information about a young child’s comprehension of letters, numbers, comparisons, and emotional development. Accurate results help pinpoint areas of support and intervention, which can improve the outcomes for children of all backgrounds. But assessment results should never be used to exclude or delay a child’s entry into school. Differences in school readiness can result from a plethora of causes, and when students aren’t as ready, they need and deserve extra help that challenges them without being overwhelming.  

Read more: Assessing Early Development