Entering kindergarten ready to learn has become a growing concern in this country. The kindergarten year has important consequences for a child's acquisition of knowledge and skills that are powerful determinants for later school success. Kindergarten teachers report that more than half of children enter school with a number of problems and are not optimally ready to learn, posing them at-risk for school failure, retention, or in need of later intervention. Despite these concerns, research on kindergarten readiness and teachers' beliefs about readiness is sparse. The purpose of this study was to examine kindergarten teachers' perceptions of readiness and the degree of importance they placed on 43 different characteristics, skills, and abilities demonstrating kindergarten readiness within seven theorized constructs of early learning and development, largely based on the National Educational Goals Panel's multidimensional framework. These constructs represented the seven scales in the researcher-designed and validated 5-point Likert-type response scale survey instrument. The survey was administered in early 2010 online and in paper format to a non-probability, convenience sample of 653 kindergarten teachers from the California Kindergarten Association and one public, Northern California school district. Descriptive statistics indicated that kindergarten teachers placed greater importance on the social and emotional constructs of kindergarten readiness and on children's approaches towards learning than on academic skills. An exploratory, unconstrained factor analysis yielded six factors that statistically explained 61% of the variance in relation to the total variance explained by all the six factors. The grouping of the items in the original seven constructs were conceptually reorganized. The findings reinforced kindergarten teachers' perceptions of the importance of emotional maturity and self-regulation, sensitivity to and respect for others, and enthusiasm and eagerness to learn. The results of the study suggest that kindergarten teachers recognize important relationships, associations, and distinctions among the items, and they do not make the same kind of distinctions in constructs of readiness as has been previously theorized. These findings can assist in developing a common language among administrators, teachers, parents, policy makers, and legislators involved in early childhood education and can impact future steps taken by these stakeholders that determine curriculum development, instructional methodology, transitional practices, and school readiness policies. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]