Is your child ready to register for kindergarten? Here's what experts look for

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New federal data shows about two-thirds of the nation’s 3- to 5-year-olds are on track to enter kindergarten. But being ready for school involves a lot more than a child’s ability to count or recite their ABCs.

The effort to get a snapshot of kindergarten readiness is part of the National Survey of Children’s Health, and that metric has been reported each year since 2022. Thousands of parents and guardians submitted answers about their child in five categories — early learning, motor skills, social-emotional development, self-regulation and health — with the goal of answering the big question: Is your child ready for school?

While there’s growing interest in assessing school readiness, education experts differ on what to measure and how. And some dispute whether children should be ready for school or if schools should be ready for their students.

Despite the complexities, it’s indisputable that what a young child learns before they enter classrooms can set the course for the rest of their academic career.

Kindergarten readiness encompasses the foundational skills necessary to engage in a more formal learning environment, said Ohio State University educational psychology professor Laura Justice. In some ways, it’s very similar to the expectations for a college graduate to be successful in their first job, she said.

There isn’t a universal definition of kindergarten readiness, but many experts and educators rely on guidance from the bipartisan National Education Goals Panel’s five developmental domains critical to a child’s success upon entering grade school. The criteria emphasize a child’s health and motor skills, social-emotional development, cognition, language development and general attitude toward learning — a very similar framework as the federal survey.

But school readiness is a relatively new concept, as the panel’s guidelines came in the 1990s. Historically, there weren’t many expectations for children entering kindergarten, although some students — typically from wealthier families — would come in with more advanced skills than others, said Robert Crosnoe, a sociology professor at the University of Texas at Austin. That meant providing enriching learning opportunities before children set foot in a kindergarten classroom – so they could learn not only their ABCs, but also skills such as carrying on a conversation and problem-solving during playtime.

“If we just focus on those strictly academic things, it’s only going to get us so far,” Crosnoe said.

There are a few ways to measure readiness, but each method has its drawbacks, said Jill Cannon, a senior policy researcher at global policy think tank RAND.

Parents can answer questions about their child — such as in the NSCH survey — but can be biased or misinterpret questions, especially if English isn’t their first language. Teachers can assess children instead, but interpretations of a child’s behavior can depend on which teacher is doing the assessment.

Alternatively, a young child can be directly assessed on certain skills. But that approach can be “hit or miss,” according to Cannon, because a child that young may perform differently on any given day.

When to measure readiness can also be a factor.

A child’s age when they enter kindergarten — typically at age 5 — can also factor into readiness, as children who are several months older are often in the same class as students who just turned 5, Cannon said.

“Six months now to me means nothing, but back then … I had a lot of learning to do. I grew a lot,” Cannon said. “These kids, they grow a lot over the kindergarten year.”

If your child is scheduled for a kindergarten readiness assessment, don’t worry. Most experts agree that readiness tests are, overall, a crucial tool for educators – but only to identify what supports kids will need.

“We have an arsenal of interventions that can improve these skills in kids,” Justice said. “So the screening instrument can help us identify where the need is so that we can respond.”

Research suggests that attending a high-quality preschool program is one of the best ways to boost kindergarten readiness.

However, preschool curricula vary vastly across the U.S., with some prioritizing certain development areas, such as literacy, over others. And the quality of preschool can vary drastically depending on where someone lives, making that goal a lot easier said than done.

But some measures of quality are universal. Many early childhood education experts rely on the National Institute for Early Education Research’s 10 quality benchmarks to make broad assessments in all states that offer public preschool programs.

Parents can use the standards as a guide for choosing a preschool that’s most likely to help prepare their child for the next step. The standards include requiring pre-K teachers to hold bachelor’s degrees, keeping class sizes at 20 children or fewer, implementing professional development for staff and offering health screenings and referrals. In 2024, 13 states met five or fewer of NIEER’s standards, while just five states met all 10 benchmarks.

At home, parents can take many steps to prepare their child for kindergarten, too.

You can read to your child every day to boost their early literacy skills. Giving your child small responsibilities around the house develops their independence and gets them acclimated to tasks that may be expected of them in kindergarten. And coaching your child to name their emotions can strengthen those social-emotional and self-regulation skills that are integral to building positive relationships with classmates and teachers.

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Data journalist Todd Feathers contributed reporting.

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