Abstract:

Being more ‘ready’ on transitioning to the primary education system, has been well established in the research literature as an important carrier of positive outcomes during schooling and adult life. In order to support children to develop the skills associated with being school-ready, it is essential that adults have a thorough understanding of the overall term ‘school readiness’ and are able to accurately gauge children’s levels of school readiness. The primary aim of the current study is to explore parental and teacher perceptions of the important aspects of school readiness. Secondly, parent and teacher ratings of school readiness behaviours of children will be examined.

This study involved secondary analysis of data from the Preparing For Life evaluation (a randomised control trials of an early intervention and prevention programme) in Ireland. The sample consisted of 150 five-year-old children from several designated disadvantaged communities in Ireland. Within the Children’s Profile at School Entry evaluation of the Preparing For Life project, teacher and parent reports on the Short Early Development Instrument (S-EDI) were used to assess the children’s levels of school readiness. Teacher and parents were also asked a series of additional questions, developed by the PFL team, to measure school readiness. These included rating the aspects of school readiness viewed as being the most and least important for children and rating the child’s overall level of school readiness at the start of school in September and during the first months of schooling.

Statistical analysis revealed that parents rated their child as being consistently more competent on each of the five aspects of school readiness compared to teachers, with the exception of the language and cognition domain. In addition, a greater proportion of parents considered their children as being ‘definitely ready’ for school at the start of the school year. In relation to the most important aspects of school readiness, almost half of parents reported physical health and well-being as being the most important aspect, which is in contrast to teachers, approximately a third of whom rated physical health and wellbeing as the least important aspect. Gender differences were found based on parents’ and teachers’ ratings, with girls regarded as more ready on the SEDI. However, when asked to rate children’s overall readiness on the additional questions, boys were rated as more school ready by both parents and teachers. As a result, in exploring the relationship between ratings on different aspects of school readiness as measured by the SEDI and answers to the additional questions, there was evidence of a statistically significantly negative relationship, which were found to be more robust for teachers. Finally, teachers considered children who received a high intensity early intervention programme as being ‘definitely ready’ on school entry to a greater extent compared to children who received a lower intensity intervention.

The findings highlight the need for a consensual understanding among parents and teachers of the domains which comprise the overall area of ‘school readiness’. The study also highlights potential gender biases that may influence school readiness perceptions. Finally, ratings of children in the high intensity group as being more school ready suggest a positive effect of early intervention and prevention programmes.

Keywords:

Socio-economic disadvantage, school readiness, parent ratings, teacher ratings, gender.