New Report Concludes School-Readiness Data Need More Attention

Indicators of children’s readiness for school are useful only when there are advocates and educators who care enough to improve those measures over time, concludes a report released last week from a 17-state group.

The participating states banded together in 2001 to track measures that contribute to children’s success in school.

After three years of work, the states also found that in order to be meaningful, indicators—such as the percentage of children under 6 without health insurance, or the percentage of children recognizing basic shapes when they enter kindergarten—need to be communicated to...