In 1990, the National Education Goals were established by the President and the 50 state governors. Great attention has been given to Goal 1, dubbed the "readiness" goal: By the year 2000, all children in America will start school ready to learn. The Goal 1 Resource Technical Planning Groups were asked to suggest ways in which Goal 1 could be measured. The purpose of this document is to further amplify the dimensions of early learning and development used by the National Educational Goals Panel to measure progress toward Goal 1. The following five dimensions are discussed: (1) "Physical Well-Being and Motor Development"; (2) "Social and Emotional Development," serving as the foundation for relationships which give meaning to school experience; (3) "Approaches toward Learning," referring to the inclinations, dispositions, or styles that reflect ways children become involved with learning; (4) "Language Development"; and (5) "Cognition and General Knowledge." For each of the dimensions, a rationale; general definition; the relationship to individual, cultural, and contextual variation; and a summary are given. The report concludes with a discussion of underlying issues, implications, and action steps. (Contains 83 references.) (BGC)

In 1990, the National Education Goals were established by the President and the 50 state governors. Great attention has been given to Goal 1, dubbed the "readiness" goal: By the year 2000, all children in America will start school ready to learn. The Goal 1 Resource Technical Planning Groups were asked to suggest ways in which Goal 1 could be measured. The purpose of this document is to further amplify the dimensions of early learning and development used by the National Educational Goals Panel to measure progress toward Goal 1. The following five dimensions are discussed: (1) "Physical Well-Being and Motor Development"; (2) "Social and Emotional Development," serving as the foundation for relationships which give meaning to school experience; (3) "Approaches toward Learning," referring to the inclinations, dispositions, or styles that reflect ways children become involved with learning; (4) "Language Development"; and (5) "Cognition and General Knowledge." For each of the dimensions, a rationale; general definition; the relationship to individual, cultural, and contextual variation; and a summary are given. The report concludes with a discussion of underlying issues, implications, and action steps. (Contains 83 references.) (BGC)

First Published in 2007. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Self-regulation has been identified as an important predictor of school readiness and academic achievement in young children. Children who struggle with self-regulation are at risk of experiencing peer rejection and academic difficulties. Teachers report that there is high variability in children’s self-regulatory abilities at school entry and that children with an accumulation of risk factors are especially likely to enter school without adequate self-regulation skills. Moreover, early academic skills are often cumulative, so children who fail to acquire early skills are at risk of falling behind their peers academically and facing achievement gaps that widen over time. Although the relation between self-regulation and school-related outcomes has been clearly documented, our understanding of the pathways through which self-regulation influences early achievement and school success remains unclear. This special issue considers previously neglected areas in the current understanding of self-regulation. The seven articles focus on issues including (a) the complex relations between self-regulation and school readiness, (b) predictors of self-regulation and academic achievement, and (c) advances in measurement of self-regulation and related skills. Research that continues to investigate the complex relations and mechanisms that influence early self-regulation and related outcomes will inform policy and practice in ways that help all children develop the self-regulation skills they need. The volume will be of interest to researchers in the field of child development or education, and educators and policy makers who are interested in promoting school readiness and academic success. This book was originally published as a special issue of Early Education and Development.

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