The Readiness Goal

This Article, which appeared in the GAO Journal, No. 16, Fall/Winter 1992, discusses: (1) views of a child's readiness to learn versus the child's readiness for school; (2) new attention to the issue of readiness by professional societies and federal agencies; (3) efforts to ensure readiness involving families, neighborhoods and communities, federal and state programs, child-care and early-education services, schools, and the media; and (4) the government's collection and dissemination of useful data, generation of relevant research, and creation of mechanisms to support the readiness goal.