Study of Kindergarten Transitions

This project comprises three major areas: a national survey and a national synthesis conference which are concluded, and the continuing work of the basic project itself.

Investigators: Robert Pianta (rcp4p@virginia.edu)

Kindergarten Transition National Survey:

In 1996, NCEDL conducted a national survey of 3,600 kindergarten teachers on the transition practices into kindergarten.

In this survey, teachers reported that while 52% of children have a successful entry into kindergarten, 48% experience moderate to serious problems in making a successful transition into kindergarten.

In addition, the survey revealed important information about school practices related to facilitating the transition into kindergarten and from kindergarten into first grade. Major conclusions and implications are:

1. There is often a poor fit between the skills of kindergartners and expectations of their teachers.
2. Schools should consider development and implementation of transition practices designed to facilitate successful transition into kindergarten and first grade.
3. Communication between teachers and parents is an important aspect of successful transition.
4. Teachers in urban, high minority, and high poverty report the most challenges with successful transitions.

• National Center for Early Development & Learning. (1998, July). Spotlight #1: Kindergarten Transitions. Chapel Hill, NC: author
• National Center for Early Development & Learning. (1999, January). Spotlight #1A: Transition Practices. Chapel Hill, NC: author
• National Center for Early Development & Learning. (1998, September). Spotlight #3: Assessing Readiness. Chapel Hill, NC: author
• National Center for Early Development & Learning. (1998, December). Spotlight #6: Disabilities & Transitions. Chapel Hill, NC: author
• National Center for Early Development & Learning. Article in Early Developments, Vol. 2, No. 1: Initial results from national transitions survey. Chapel Hill, NC: author
• Press release - New survey cites barriers to easier transitions into kindergarten
• Press release - New book published by NCEDL on transitions

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Transition to Kindergarten Synthesis Conference (Charlottesville, VA, 1998):

Co-chairs were Robert Pianta and Martha Cox. NCEDL researchers, OERI leadership and staff, academics, policy makers, early childhood educators, and parents attended the synthesis conference. The conference served brought influential individuals together to discuss, interpret, and disseminate findings from the transitions practices research projects, including the results of the Kindergarten Transitions National Survey. Administrators, policymakers, teachers, parents and caregivers joined a dozen national transition experts in analyzing 9 papers written for the conference.

During large group discussions and then during small synthesis groups, participants examined each paper's implications for research, practice, personnel preparation and policy. This expanded the conceptual and empirical base of the early childhood and elementary education community by drawing attention to the complexity of early school transition processes and formulating policies to addresses these issues.

Products:

• National Center for Early Development & Learning. Entire issue of Early Developments (Vol. 3, No. 1) based on transitions synthesis conference. Chapel Hill, NC: author
• The Transition to Kindergarten. Pianta, R. C., & Cox, M. (Eds.) (1999). Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes.
• National Center for Early Development & Learning. (2000, March). Spotlight #20: New book examines transitions issues. Chapel Hill, NC: author

Journal articles, book chapters:

• Clifford, R. M. (1999). Personnel preparation and the transition to kindergarten (pp. 317-324). In R. C. Pianta, & M. J. Cox (Eds.), The transition to kindergarten. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes.
• Gallagher, J. J. (1999). Policy and the transition to kindergarten (pp. 351-362). In R. C. Pianta, & M. J. Cox (Eds.), The transition to kindergarten. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes.
• Pianta, R.C. & Cox, M.J. (1999). The changing nature of the transition to school: Trends for the next decade (pp. 363-380). In R. C. Pianta, & M. J. Cox (Eds.), The transition to kindergarten. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes.
• Pianta, R. C., Rimm-Kaufman, S. E, & Cox, M. J. (1999). An ecological approach to conceptualizing the transition to kindergarten (pp. 3-10). In R. C. Pianta, & M. J. Cox (Eds.), The transition to kindergarten. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes.

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Kindergarten Transition Project

Principal investigator: Robert Pianta

Project staff: Marcia Kraft-Sayre, Karen La Paro, Sara Rimm-Kaufman

Research questions/structure: How can we facilitate relationships between the family, preschool, and elementary school, so that the child is supported through this transition, while remaining sensitive to contextual variables? Researchers have

• completed implementation of an intervention to ease the transition into kindergarten with a cohort of 110 children in Virginia schools
• conducted quantitative and qualitative research through the process
• partnered with the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving's Brighter Futures Initiative in the implementation of their transition intervention in seven very diverse settings in Hartford
• developed on online manual, Enhancing the Transition to Kindergarten: Linking Children, Families, and School to offer guidance to communities interested in developing and implementing transition plans
• offered workshops in several states to describe this approach to the transition to kindergarten

Initial findings:

• A variety of transition strategies need to be offered to families and tailored to meet their individual needs rather than implementing a one-size-fits-all program.
• Collaboration with schools in developing and implementing an intervention requires flexibility and sensitivity to the unique perspectives and constraints of the programs involved.
• School divisions can, with little addition financial resources, implement a transition planning process that results in each school developing their own transition plan.
• States can initiate and support the development of transition planning in local school divisions.
• The key feature of a successful transition planning process is a conceptual model of the transition process that is shared by all stakeholders.

• Participants in the transition process differ in their use of transition activities.
• Parents and teachers in preschool share mutually positive views of their relationship.
• Preschool staff is increasingly seen as an important and helpful source of support for parents.
• Families who participated in the transition intervention showed more involvement in their child's kindergarten classroom than those in the previous year who did not participate.
• Gains in families' positive experiences with school, established in preschool, can be sustained into kindergarten through good transition planning and practices.

Policy, practice or professional development implications: Clearly transition to school is a very complex process; one reason why it has not been done well in many localities and states is that the complexity of the process undermines efforts to change it.

It is critical to successful transition planning that all key constituents or stakeholders in the community (preschool providers, elementary school administrators and teachers, etc.) share a common conceptual model of transition. The ecological model that informed the NCEDL work has been widely disseminated and found to be useful and easily understood by stakeholders at the local and state levels.

Once a conceptual model is in place, transition planning can take place and will proceed according to local constraints and resources. Effective transition policies and practices can be implemented, consistent with this model, with little additional resources, and these practices will have a self-perpetuating effect once implemented.

Publications, products:

Early, D. M., Pianta, R. C., Taylor, L. C., & Cox, M. J. (2001). Transition practices: Findings from a national survey of kindergarten teachers. Early Childhood Education Journal, 28, 199-206.

Kraft-Sayre, M. E., & Pianta, R. C. (2001). Enhancing the transition to kindergarten: Connecting families and elementary schools. Dimensions of Early Childhood, 29 (1), 25-29.

Kraft-Sayre, M. E., & Pianta, R. C. (2000). Enhancing the transition to kindergarten, Linking children, families, and schools. Charlottesville: University of Virginia, National Center for Early Development & Learning.

La Paro, K. M., & Pianta, R. C. (2000). Teachers' reported transition practices for children transitioning into kindergarten and first grade. Exceptional Children, 67(1), 7-20.

La Paro, K. M., Pianta, R. C., & Cox, M. J. (2000). Kindergarten teachers' reported use of kindergarten to first grade transition practices. Elementary School Journal, 101(1), 63-78.

Rimm-Kaufman, S. E., & Pianta, R. C. (2000). An ecological perspective on the transition to kindergarten: A theoretical framework to guide empirical research, Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 21(5), 491-511.

Rimm-Kaufman, S. E., Pianta, R. C., & Cox, M. J. (2000). Teacher's judgments of problems in the transition to kindergarten. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 15(2), 147-166.

(The "Transition Practices" survey used in this study is available. Go to the Survey page.)