# Presentation: 013964

## Kindergarten Cohort

- Chris Chapman
- National Center for Education Statistics
- Institute of Education Sciences
- IES Research Conference
- June 2006

## Agency Collaborators

- Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services
- Planning and Evaluation Service
- Office of English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement, and Academic Achievement for Limited English Proficient Students
- _U.S. Department of Agriculture_
- Economic Research Service
- _U.S. Department of Health and Human Services_
- National Institute for Child Health and Human Development
- Administration for Children, Youth and Families

**Agency Collaborators**

## Major Areas of Interest

-      School readiness
-      Transition to kindergarten, first grade, and beyond
-      Relationship between kindergarten experience and later                	 school performance
-      Growth in cognitive and non-cognitive domains

## Study Design

- Base year sample included more than 21,000 children and families attending more than 1,200 public and private schools
- Data are collected at multiple points in time
- Fall 1998 and Spring 1999: Kindergarten
- Fall 1999 and Spring 2000: First Grade
- Spring 2002: Third Grade
- Spring 2004: Fifth Grade
- Spring 2007: Eighth Grade
- Data are collected from children, their families, their     teachers, and their schools

## Sample counts for cases with child assessment data, by survey round and child and family characteristics: 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2001–02, and 2003-04

**Sample counts for cases with child assessment data, by survey round and child and family characteristics: 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2001–02, and 2003-04**

- SOURCE:  U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–99, Public-Use Base Year File, Restricted-Use First Grade and Third Grade Files, and the Public-Use Fifth Grade File. Unpublished table;  please do not cite or circulate.

## ECLS-K Sample Design

- Nationally representative of kindergartens, kindergartners, and kindergarten teachers
- Nationally representative sample of first graders
- Clustered PSU multi-stage sample design
- Oversampling of private schools and private school children
- Oversampling of Asian and Pacific Islander children

## Across Wave Changes in the Sample

- Freshened in 1st grade only
- Sample size gets smaller for a variety of reasons
- The number of children who have changed schools comprises an increasingly larger percentage of the sample
- Cluster sizes in schools and classrooms decrease

## Mean number of children per school, by data collection wave

**Mean number of children per school, by data collection wave**

- SOURCE:  U.S. Department of Education, NCES, Early Childhood Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K), Kindergarten – Third Grade Longitudinal Public-Use, and Fifth Grade Restricted-Use Data Files.

**Mean number of children per school**

## ECLS-K Components

**Child**

**Parent**

**Teacher**

**School**

- Demographics

- School

- Climate

- School

- Programs

- School

- Goals and

- Educational

- Objectives

- Background

- Teacher

- Environment

- Classroom

- Climate

- School

- Profile

- Student

- Demographics

- Parent and Child

- Health

- Child and Family

- Characteristics

- Family

- Interactions

- Parent-Child

- Status

- Developmental

- Cognitive

- Socioemotional

- Physical

- Language

- Expectations

## Core Data Collection Methods

- Direct and indirect assessments of children
- Parent interviews
- Teacher questionnaires (including special education)
- School administrator questionnaires
- School records abstracts
- School facilities checklist
- Student questionnaire

## Parent involvement for kindergarten children in poverty, by parent type: Spring 1999

- SOURCE: Prakash, N., West, J. and Denton, K. (2002). *Differences in parental involvement in their children’s school, among families in poverty.* Presentation at the annual meeting of the American Education Research Association, New Orleans, LA.

**Percent**

## Special Studies and Data

- Head Start verification
- Kindergarten teacher and school administrator salary and benefits
- Geocode Data

## What is Different About Grade 3?

- Children provide information on their perceptions of socials skills and interest in school subjects (SDQ).
- Social Rating Scale (SRS) is not collected from parents.
- Direct child assessment includes science (instead of the previous general knowledge assessment), in addition to reading and mathematics.

## What is Different About Grade 5?

- New data collection design for teacher questionnaires
- Teachers report on the sample child’s instruction
- Information about children’s food consumption was collected from children and also from school administrators

##  The ECLS-K Assessment

**Cognitive**
- Reading
- Mathematics
- General Knowledge (K-1)
- Science (3-5)
**Socioemotional**
- Social skills
- Approaches to Learning
- Externalizing and Internalizing Problem
- 	Behaviors
- Self-Control
- Self-Concept (3-5)

** ****The ECLS-K Assessment**
***Multiple Domains***** **

##  Multiple Domains 

** *****Multiple Domains***** **
*(Continued)*

**Physical**
-   Height and weight
-   Gross and fine motor skills
- 		(Fall kindergarten only)

## Cognitive Scores

*Broad-based scores**** ****(overall performance)*
- Number right “raw” scores (routing scale scores)
- IRT-based scores (scale scores)
- Standardized scores (T-scores)

## Cognitive Scores

- Proficiency level scores (*pass/fail*)
- Reading
- Mathematics
- Proficiency probability level scores (*IRT-based*)
- Reading
- Mathematics

**Cognitive Scores**

## Cognitive Assessment

- Level 1:  Letter recognition
- Level 2:  Beginning sounds
- Level 3:  Ending sounds
- Level 4:  Sight words
- Level 5:  Words in context
- Level 6:  Literal inference
- Level 7:  Extrapolation
- Level 8:  Evaluation
- Level 9:  Evaluating non-fiction

**Cognitive Assessment**
**Reading Proficiency Scores (K – 5****th****)**

## Mean fifth-grade reading, mathematics, and science scores, by poverty status over time: Fall 1998 through spring 2004

- SOURCE: Princiotta, D., Flanagan, K.D., and Germino Hausken, E. (2006). *Fifth Grade: Findings from the ECLS-K. *NCES Publication 2006-038*.*

## Cognitive Assessment

- Level 1:  Number and shape
- Level 2:  Relative size
- Level 3:  Ordinality, sequence
- Level 4:  Additional and subtraction
- Level 5:  Multiplication and division
- Level 6:  Place value
- Level 7:  Rate and measurement
- Level 8:  Fractions
- Level 9:  Area and Volume

**Cognitive Assessment**
**Mathematics Proficiency Scores (K-5****th****)**

## Mean mathematics scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners, by children’s race/ethnicity and time of assessment: Fall 1998 through spring 2004

- Fall
- 1998

- Spring
- 1999

- Spring
- 2000

- Spring
- 2002

- Spring
- 2004

- NOTE: Estimates are based on children assessed in English at all rounds of data collection.
- SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K), fall 1998 through spring 2004 data. Unpublished tables.

- Asian, non-Hisp.

- White, non-Hisp.

- Hispanic

- Black, non-Hisp.

## Direct Assessment

***Socioemotional and***
***Self-Description Questionnaire (SDQ)* ***

## The Direct Assessment

***Physical and Motor Specifications***

**Physical**
- 	Height
-      Weight
**Motor Skills**
- 	Fall Kindergarten only:
- Fine Motor Skills
- copy basic figures
- construct forms with wooden blocks
- Gross Motor Skills
- balance on each foot
- hop on one foot
- skip
- walk backward in a straight line

## The Indirect Assessment

**Academic Rating Scale (ARS)**
- Teacher report
- Children’s cognitive knowledge and skills
**Social Rating Scale (SRS)***
- Teacher and parent reports
- Children’s social skills
- * Adapted with permission from the instrument Social Skills Rating System: Elementary Scale A (Gresham, F. M. and Elliott, S.N., 1990).

## Academic Rating Scale (ARS): Domains

- Language and Literacy (K – 5th grade)
- Mathematical Thinking (K – 5th grade)
- General Knowledge (K – 1st grade)
- Social Studies (3rd grade)
- Science (3rd – 5th grade)

## Social Rating Scale*: Parent Subscales

**K- 1**

- Approaches to Learning
- Self-control
- Social Interaction
- Impulsivity/Over activity
- Sadness/Loneliness

- * Adapted with permission from the instrument Social Skills Rating System: Elementary Scale A (Gresham, F. M. and Elliott, S.N., 1990).

## Social Rating Scale*: Teacher Subscales

**K- 5**

- Approaches to Learning
- Self-control
- Interpersonal Skills
- Externalizing Problem Behaviors
- Internalizing Problem Behaviors
- Peer Relations (3rd and 5th: Self-control & Interpersonal Skills Combined)

- * Adapted with permission from the instrument Social Skills Rating System: Elementary Scale A (Gresham, F. M. and Elliott, S.N., 1990).

## Children’s fall kindergarten approaches to learning relate to their spring kindergarten reading ability

- Children’s fall kindergarten **approaches to learning** relate to their spring kindergarten reading ability

**Percent**
**proficient**

- SOURCE: Denton, K. and West, J. (2002). *Children’s Reading and Mathematics Achievement in Kindergarten and First Grade. *NCES Publication 2002-125*.*

**Spring kindergarten, specific reading skills**

## Data Training Opportunities

- Future Data Training Seminars
- SRCD Pre-conference Training Seminar (March 28, 2007)
- AERA Professional Development Seminar (April 2007)
- ECLS-K Data Users Training Seminar (Summer 2007)

## For more information:

**ECLS website**
_**http://nces.ed.gov/ecls/**_

**ECLS email address**
_**ecls@ed.gov**_