Abstract
In the United States, kindergarten marks the beginning of formal schooling for more than 3 million children each year (Shepard & Smith, 1986). At the end of the kindergarten year, most of these children demonstrate expected levels of achievement and are promoted to traditional first-grade classrooms. Others are labeled “unready” or “immature” for successful performance in today's academically rigorous first grade. In most elementary schools, the placement for these at-risk children is either retention in kindergarten or social promotion to first grade. An alternative in approximately 17% of the nation's elementary schools is assignment to a “transitional classroom” between kindergarten and first grade (Educational Research Service, in press). This additional year of instruction is often viewed as a “gift of time” — time for children to mature and make a gradual transition from kindergarten to first grade.
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Additional information
Judith E. Stroud is Assistant Professor of Elementary Education, Ball State University, Munice, IN. R. Ann Williams is Professor of Elementary Education, Ball State University, Muncie, IN.
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Stroud, J.E., Williams, R.A. Do transitional classrooms really provide transitional time?. Early Childhood Educ J 17, 9–12 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01623191
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01623191