Promotion rates increased significantly and dropouts decreased to produce nearly double the number of students reaching the junior year compared to before the reforms. If these students persist through the senior year as the first graduating class from the Talent Development Model, the dropout rate will have been reduced by half. The Center developed a paper based on a national survey of kindergarten teachers. It reveals four key points that are vital for teacher practices and transitions to school. Thus, children and families who may need the best form of transition practices are least likely to receive them.
Teachers identify a number of barriers to implementing practices.
The most common are that class lists are generated too late to make contacts with families before school starts, summer work is not supported, and no plan for the transition to kindergarten is available in the school district. Teachers' perceptions that family characteristics are barriers occur with increasing frequency as schools become more urban, have a higher minority population, or are located in high poverty districts.