Pre-K 4 SA students eat a provided breakfast, Oct. 9, 2025, in San Antonio. Experts say everyday classroom moments—like meals—can offer important opportunities for conversation that support young children’s language and early literacy development.
A kindergarten sign is displayed at a school in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Feb. 12, 2026, as classrooms nationwide shift toward more academic instruction and less play.
A kindergartener leaps off the bus excited for his first day of school on Aug. 21, 2023, in Davison, Mich. Since 2017, the practice of redshirting has remained fairly steady at about 5% of all would-be incoming kindergartners, save for a bump during the pandemic among all children—most notably from families in high-poverty school districts.
A classroom library at Austin Achieve, a charter school in Austin, Texas, which uses Every Child Ready, one of three curriculum series recently reviewed by an external rating organizations.
