This research proposes to identify the range of knowledge and attitudes among kindergarten teachers toward childrens' sexual behaviors. The following behaviors are addressed: 1. Masturbation 2. Heterosexual play 3. Homosexual play 4. Questions related to sexuality. Specifically, the study is developed through the examination of the following eight sub-problems: (1) The first sub-problem is to determine the frequency with which teachers observe these specified behaviors; (2) the second sub-problem is to determine if teachers consider these specified behaviors to be normal expressions of child development, non-normal expressions of child developments, or if they don't know how to consider them; (3) the third sub-problem is to determine if teachers consider these specified behaviors to be sexual, non-sexual, or if they don't know how to consider them; (4) the fourth sub-problem is to determine whether teachers respond to these specified behaviors by suppressing them, ignoring them, or discussing them with the class; (5) the fifth sub-problem is to determine if years of experience in teaching at a kindergarten level is related to the frequency with which teachers observe these specified behaviors; (6) the sixth sub-problem is to determine if years of experience in teaching at a kindergarten level is related to whether teachers consider these specified behaviors as sexual, nonsexual, or to their not knowing how to consider them; and finally, (8) the eighth sub-problem is to determine if years of experience in teaching at a kindergarten level is related to whether teachers' response to these specified behaviors is suppressing them, ignoring them, or discussing them with the class. The present study is limited to kindergarten teachers only, as well as to four districts within the San Joaquin Valley area: Lodi Unified School District, Stockton Unified School District; Lincoln Unified School District; and the Manteca Unified School District. The study is also limited in representativeness, since participation was voluntary. Results will not include generalizations; only the data is described.

This dissertation includes three papers. Using two nationally representative datasets – Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K: 1998) and 2010-11 (ECLS-K: 2010) – the first paper examines changes in disparities in school readiness by parental education from 1998 to 2010 in the United States. Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition analysis is used for investigating if financial resources, in- and out-of-home environment and activities, parenting, and child care contributed to these disparities differently in 2010 compared to 1998. The second paper follows the achievement trajectories of these two cohorts of kindergarteners and studies how school readiness disparities by parental education changed in 2010 compared to 1998 when children progressed through third grade. Using hierarchical linear modeling with piecewise spline function, it also estimates the roles of family and school factors at kindergarten in predicting school achievement growth rates for these two cohorts and compares to examine if there is any change in these roles. Since the content and data collection procedures of the two ECLS-K cohort datasets are very similar, the second paper pools these two datasets and uses interaction terms to examine the changes, providing more precise estimation. The third paper pools the China Family Panel Study (CFPS) 2010 and 2014 and investigates disparities in vocabulary and math by parental education and the roles of parenting and home environment in explaining and accounting for these disparities in China. Besides the whole sample, analysis is also conducted for the subsamples of children in rural, urban, and migrant settings due to different economic and cultural factors in these settings.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a tier-2 combined oral narrative and expository language intervention on kindergarteners' narrative and expository skills in comparison to an alternate decoding intervention and no treatment control condition. This study included 54 kindergarten students. After being administered the PEARL Kindergarten Screener at the beginning of the school year, eight students were found as at-risk for future reading comprehension difficulty and were matched to nine students not-at-risk, and all assigned to a language treatment group. Additional students not-at-risk for future reading comprehension difficulty were randomly assigned to an alternate decoding treatment group (n = 9) and to a no treatment control group (n = 9). Narrative intervention took place for approximately four months biweekly for 15 minutes, then expository language intervention was provided for approximately two months biweekly for 15 minutes. Students across all conditions were administered narrative and expository measures at the conclusion of the study. Results indicated that the typically developing students had significantly higher narrative and expository outcomes when compared to the typically developing students in the alternate decoding treatment and no treatment condition. Additionally, we found that the at-risk students who received oral language intervention were able to catch up to their typically developing peers in both narrative and expository outcomes with a trajectory that suggested that they would eventually meet grade level narrative language benchmark expectations. Early oral language intervention is the first step in reducing the poor reading comprehension outcomes across the nation. By targeting oral language comprehension, even young kindergarten students can improve both decoding and comprehension, better preparing them for future academic success.

The purpose of this study was to determine if dialogic reading involving diverse kindergarten students would significantly affect narrative language. Various studies have corroborated the effectiveness of dialogic reading instruction on the expressive vocabulary of monolingual children. However, few studies have examined oral narrative language outcomes, especially with diverse students. A total of 142 kindergarten students were randomly assigned to a treatment group or control group. Each child in the treatment group received 14 weeks of whole-class dialogic reading instruction from their kindergarten teacher two times per week for 20 minutes each session in their classroom. The dialogic reading program included explicit target vocabulary instruction based on unfamiliar vocabulary selected from each storybook. The oral narrative language (narrative retells and personal narratives) of each child were assessed using the CUBED Narrative Language Measures subtest (NLM). Results indicated that students in the control group and the treatment group (including culturally and linguistically diverse students) showed no significant difference in their narrative retell scores after the intervention. However, students (including CLD students) in the treatment group demonstrated significant improvement in their personal story generations when compared with the control group after dialogic reading intervention. The current research gives implications for current kindergarten education by indicating that a focus on early dialogic reading can augment oral language skills and therefore academic skills later in elementary school.

There are many ways to approach difficult subjects with children in preschool and the main focus in this thesis lays in the work with children and books. The purpose of the work has been to investigate the way teachers work with subjects that break the norm within books together with children in kindergarten. This study is based on four semi-structured interviews with teachers and Claes Nilholms concept of special needs education and Linda Pallas discourse analytic thinking. Furthermore, are the interviews based on eight questions that were open to interpretation and further conversations based on the participants' answers. The results show an awareness amongst the participants about the beneficial side of books as ways for integration. However, there seems to be a common conception that some subjects are only brought up in the group if there is a child that in some way represents the topic.

Researchers recognize that if certain academic skills are not present upon entrance into formal schooling, literacy achievement can be affected. The impact of a local early childhood program on student school readiness was unknown at the study elementary school. The purpose of this quantitative study was to compare the academic readiness between kindergarten students who participated in the Nonpublic School Early Childhood Development Program and those who did not. The theoretical framework was based on Bruner's constructivist theory of scaffolding, which highlights the importance of providing support to students in the initial stages of learning. Early achievement data from a sample of 42 students at a rural elementary school were examined to compare the Stanford Early School Achievement Test scores between students who attended the early childhood program (n = 20) and those who did not (n = 22). Analysis of variance indicated no statistically significant differences in scores between the groups. The current study was limited by a small sample size, and it is recommended that additional studies be conducted with larger samples in order to explore any impact early childhood education programs might have on kindergarten readiness. This study contributes to positive social change by informing school stakeholders on the impact of their early childhood program on school readiness. These findings may prompt additional study and discourse on the specific dimensions of early childhood programs that might improve school readiness.

Children participating in kindergarten programming across the United States are expected to perform at a higher level than ever before. Many of these children are unprepared and developmentally unready for the academic tasks that await them. Researchers have shown that an older age at the start of kindergarten is a predictor of academic achievement. Researchers have also shown that prior preschool experience impacts academic achievement. What has been unknown though is how the relationship between both beginning kindergarten at an older age and attending preschool prior to beginning kindergarten impacts academic success. Using Piaget's theory of development as a foundation, this study examined the relationships among age at the start of kindergarten, prior preschool experience, and academic achievement. A quantitative quasiexperimental methodology was used with ex post facto data. Data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study were analyzed using a 2-way ANOVA to assess the strength of the effects of the variables. Results indicated that children who were 6 years of age at the start of kindergarten outperformed their younger peers on 3rd grade reading achievement assessment. Preschool experience was found to not impact reading achievement, nor did it moderate the relationship between age at the start of kindergarten and 3rd graders' reading achievement. These results support the notion that social change can come about through the dissemination of this research to parents and early childhood educators and provide assistance in making decisions about when children are ready for school.

Conventional literacy is important for academic and life success. Emergent literacy is a precursor to conventional literacy, and parent-child book read ing experiences can foster emergent literacy development. Fathers are important figures in children's development and may make important contributions to their emergent literacy development. This study observed 179 fathers from families who participated in research evaluating the Bear River Early Head Start program. Father-child book reading was videotaped as part of a 10-minute observation session in each child 's home at 14 months, 24 months, 36 months, and pre- kindergarten (age 4 or 5). Book reading observation sessions were coded based on parental strategies (i.e. language and behaviors) used during book reading. Pre-kindergarten observation sessions were transcribed for a measure of children's oral language. Children were tested in their homes at prekindergarten with measures of phonological processing, receptive vocabulary, and concepts of print. Regression analyses investigated the individual impact of book reading strategies on outcomes and the impact of strategies over time (cumulative). Findings revealed certain individual strategies had more impact than cumulative strategies, which was contrary to the hypotheses. The most positive cumulative impact was time spent during book reading. Overall, receptive vocabulary was the emergent literacy domain most strongly predicted by father book read ing strategies, and cumulative time spent book reading was the strategy that predicted emergent literacy outcomes most consistently.

The construct of academic language—while of great interest, in part, because of recently adopted or revised content and English-language development (ELD) standards that explicitly focus on academic language—and its role in the academic success of all students, including young learners and English learners (ELs), is far from clearly understood. Nowhere is the issue of the construct of academic language more contested than in the locus where many students are formally introduced to schooling in the United States; that is, in kindergarten classrooms. Kindergarten is many students’ formal introduction to public education in the United States, and this includes ELs, who represent a growing percentage of students in U.S. schools. Indeed, about 16% of kindergarteners in the country are classified as ELs (U.S. Department of Education, 2019a). Beginning at the kindergarten level, academic language is a primary focus of College and Career Readiness (CCR) standards, such as the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), which require students to engage in cognitively and linguistically complex academic practices (van Lier & Walqui, 2012). Similarly, ELD standards in the U.S. have recently been written anew or revised to correspond to the ambitious CCR standards, and, therefore, English language proficiency (ELP) expectations inherent in the ELD standards have become more rigorous as well. A hallmark of both ELD standards and CCR standards is a predominant focus on academic language. Yet consensus is lacking on what academic language is, exactly, and how it is operationalized in classrooms; some researchers argue that the construct of academic language may not even exist as it is currently conceptualized (e.g., Bunch, 2014; Gutiérrez et al., 2011; Valdés, 2004). In this study, I provide a description of classroom language usage in formal literacy contexts in kindergarten, inclusive of ELs, through a qualitative analysis of language use at the lexical, syntactic, and discoursal levels in academic literacy events. Additionally, I investigate whether students’ degree of exposure to academic language in kindergarten, language status, prior exposure to formal classroom contexts, gender, and age are related to academic language proficiency at the end of one academic year and when controlling for beginning-of-year academic language knowledge. Qualitative analyses illustrated that, while classroom discourse contained a relatively small percentage of lexically and syntactically complex language, students were exposed to a wide range of language during formal literacy events, from high-frequency to low-frequency (sophisticated) words, and from syntactically simple to complex utterances, across a variety of language functions aligned with the state’s literacy standards, both within and across classrooms. Greater amounts of sophisticated words and syntactically complex structures were present during shared reading activities specifically and, to a lesser degree, during foundational literacy activities. Exemplars from qualitative analyses illustrated that common, high-frequency words and simple syntactic structures were, at times, employed to present and discuss academic language and concepts and also employed, at times, as an instructional support for some ELs. Lessons that featured language functions related to the reading strand of the literacy standards and, to a lesser degree, the foundational literacy skills strand, afforded opportunities for sophisticated vocabulary and complex syntax. At this formative grade, then, the use of common, high-frequency words and simple syntax in service of teaching academic vocabulary and academic concepts during shared reading and other literacy activities was characteristic of the classrooms observed. Quantitative analyses indicated a significant relationship between academic language proficiency, as measured by a standardized language proficiency assessment, and language status, gender, and academic language exposure. However, when controlling for students’ beginning-of-year academic language proficiency (operationalized as their pretest scores), the relationship between academic language proficiency and academic language exposure in the classroom was no longer significant. In consideration of both qualitative and quantitative results, then, minimal exposure to academic language may not be sufficient to promote academic language proficiency. I recommend that literacy instruction could be enhanced to maximize exposure to and productive use of sophisticated words and syntactically complex language, as appropriate for kindergarten ELs and EOs, and in consideration of their developing language proficiency. Findings contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the language used in academic literacy contexts as instantiated in kindergarten classrooms, and begin to explore under what linguistic conditions all students, ELs and EOs, can more readily develop academic language proficiency in the earliest of elementary grades. / Applied Linguistics

This study utilized the 2013 language arts data from the Mississippi Curriculum Test II to examine the impact Pre-k has on the reading achievement of low socio-economic African American students. This study was guided by one research question and employed a causal-comparative research design. The research question sought to determine the difference in MCT2 language arts scores of third grade students who participated in a school district’s Pre-k program and those who did not attend the district’s Pre-k program. The results indicated that there was a significant difference in the language arts scores of students who attended Pre-k and those that did not. The study concludes with implications for practicing educators and recommendations for future research.