U.S. Department of Education

Institute of Education Sciences

NCES 2004–007

From Kindergarten

Through Third Grade

Children’s Beginning

School Experiences
Amy Rathbun

Education Statistics

Services Institute

Jerry West

Institute of Education Sciences

National Center for

Education Statistics

Elvira Germino Hausken

Project Officer

Institute of Education Sciences

National Center for

Education Statistics

U.S. Department of Education

Institute of Education Sciences

NCES 2004–007

From Kindergarten

Through Third Grade

Children’s Beginning

School Experiences

August 2004
U.S. Department of Education

Rod Paige

Secretary

Institute of Education Sciences

Grover J. Whitehurst

Director

National Center for Education Statistics

Robert Lerner

Commissioner

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary federal entity for collecting,

analyzing, and reporting data related to education in the United States and other nations. It fulfills

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August 2004

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Suggested Citation

Rathbun, A. and West, J. (2004) From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning

School Experiences (NCES 2004–007). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education

Statistics. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

For ordering information on this report, write:

U.S. Department of Education

ED Pubs

P.O. Box 1398

Jessup, MD 20794-1398

Call toll free 1-877-4ED-PUBS; or order online at http://www.edpubs.org

Content Contact:

Jerry West

(202) 502-7335

Jerry.West@ed.gov
iii

Executive Summary

1

Several other federal agencies provide support for this

study, including the Economic Research Service of the U.S.

Department of Agriculture, the Head Start Bureau of the

Administration on Children, Youth, and Families of the

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the

National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, and the Office of Special Education Programs, the

Office of English Language Acquisition, and the Policy and

Programs Studies Service within the U.S. Department of

Education.

2

This report refers to data collected in the spring of 2002 as

third-grade data and the sampled children as third-graders,

although not all children in the analytic sample used for

this report were enrolled in third grade. In the spring of

2002, about 89 percent of children in the analytic sample

were in third grade, 10 percent were in second grade, and

about 1 percent were enrolled in other grades (e.g., first or

fourth grade). Analyses are limited to those children who

were assessed in English in all rounds. Approximately 68

percent of Hispanic children and 78 percent of Asian/

Pacific Islander children were assessed in English in the fall

and spring of kindergarten and in the spring of first grade

(Denton and West 2002).

3

Family risk factors included living below the federal

poverty level, primary home language was non-English,

mother’s highest education was less than a high school

diploma/GED, and living in a single-parent household.

Values range from 0–4, depending on the number of risk

factors present.

Children begin kindergarten with many different levels of reading and mathematics skills and make

significant gains in their reading and mathematics

achievement over the first 2 years of school (West,

Denton, and Germino Hausken 2000; West,

Denton, and Reaney 2001; Denton and West

2002). The knowledge and skills children acquire

in kindergarten and first grade can serve as a foundation for their later educational success. It is important to explore children’s growth and development as they move from the beginning of kindergarten through the elementary school years.

This is the fourth report in a series that provides descriptive information about young children’s

school experiences, based on data from the Early

Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class

of 1998–99 (ECLS-K). Sponsored by the National

Center for Education Statistics (NCES), part of the

U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences,1

 the ECLS-K selected a nationally

representative sample of kindergartners in the fall

of 1998 and is following these children through

the spring of fifth grade. The study collects information directly from the children and their families, teachers, and schools. The full ECLS-K baseyear sample is composed of 22,782 children who

attended 1,277 schools with kindergarten programs

during the 1998–99 school year.

The first ECLS-K report, America’s Kindergartners (West, Denton, and Germino Hausken 2000),

provided a national picture of the knowledge and

skills of entering kindergartners. In the second report, The Kindergarten Year (West, Denton, and

Reaney 2001), children’s gains and status in reading and mathematics were explored during their

first year of school. The third report in this series,

Children’s Reading and Mathematics Achievement in

Kindergarten and First Grade (Denton and West

2002), described children’s reading and mathematics achievement in the spring of kindergarten and

the spring of first grade.

This fourth report highlights children’s gains

in reading and mathematics over their first 4 years

of school, from the start of kindergarten to the point

when most of the children are finishing third grade.2

The report also describes children’s achievement in

reading and mathematics at the end of third grade,

both in terms of their overall achievement in the

two subject areas and in terms of their specific reading and mathematics knowledge and skills. It examines whether differences in reading and mathematics achievement that were identified for certain groups of children in kindergarten and first

grade persist 2 or 3 years later. Specifically, comparisons are made by children’s sex, race/ethnicity,

and the number of family risk factors.3

 Achievement is also compared for children with different

early school experiences (i.e., attended full-day vs.

half-day kindergarten programs, attended public

vs. private vs. both school types from kindergarten

through third grade).

Information on two new ECLS-K direct child

assessments conducted in the spring of 2002 is included. In the third-grade year, children were administered a science assessment for the first time in
iv From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

4

Estimates in this report are weighted by the ECLS-K

Longitudinal full-sample child weight, C1_5FC0.

5

It is possible that a few students may have switched from

one school to another in second grade, then switched back

again to the original school at the start of third grade. Since

data were not collected in second grade, it is not possible

to identify when such instances occurred.

place of the general knowledge assessment, which

was used in the kindergarten and first-grade years.

In addition, third-graders completed a self-description questionnaire (SDQ) on their perceptions of

their competence and interests in reading, mathematics, and school in general. They also rated their

popularity with peers and competence in peer relationships, and reported on any internalizing and

externalizing problem behaviors that they might

exhibit. The SDQ questionnaire provides the first

direct information from the ECLS-K children about

how they feel about their school experiences.

The purposes of this report are to describe the

academic gains children have made from kindergarten through third grade, their achievement status at the end of third grade, and their perceptions

about their school experiences. Two types of analyses were used to achieve these purposes. In addition to comparing the overall mean estimates and

scores for different groups of children (i.e., bivariate analyses), more complex multivariate analyses

(i.e., ordinary least squares regression) were conducted to describe the relationships of different

child, family, and early school experience characteristics (e.g., race/ethnicity, number of risk factors,

kindergarten program type) with children’s achievement and perceptions, while controlling for the

other characteristics. One of the limitations of mean

comparisons is that they describe children’s achievement gains and status for different groups of children without taking into account other factors that

may also be related to achievement differences. For

instance, family risk factors are related to children’s

achievement (West, Denton, and Reaney 2001),

though the average number of these factors varies

by children’s race/ethnicity (Zill and West 2001).

Bivariate results are included in the report to describe overall, unadjusted mean values for subgroups

in the population. Findings from the regression

analyses follow the bivariate results within each section of the report and further explain whether bivariate differences hold when other risk factors are

taken into account.

This is a descriptive report. Readers should not

draw causal inferences from the regression results

in this report, since apparent relationships can

change based on the particular independent variables examined. The small set of independent variables used in this report’s regression analyses were

included with the specific purpose of clarifying the

descriptive results observed in the multiple bivariate comparisons.

Research Questions

The report uses data from the ECLS-K to address the following questions:

• What knowledge and skills do children demonstrate in the spring of third grade? How have

these changed since they first started school?

Do children’s knowledge and skills and the

gains they have made over time differ by certain child, family, and school characteristics?

• How do third-graders perceive themselves and

their relations with other children? Is their

academic achievement at the end of third grade

related to their perceptions?

The findings in this report are based on children in the ECLS-K sample who entered kindergarten for the first time in 1998 and were administered the direct cognitive assessments in English in

fall 1998, spring 1999, spring 2000, and spring

2002.4

 Comparisons in the text are tested for statistical significance to ensure that the differences

are larger than might be expected due to sampling

variation. All differences described are significant

at the .05 level. Due to the large sample size, many

differences (no matter how substantively minor) are

statistically significant. In this report, as in earlier

reports in this series, “substantive differences” are

defined as mean score differences of one-quarter of

a standard deviation or more, and percentage differences of 5 points or greater for specific proficiency

levels, unless otherwise noted.

Changes Over Time for the ECLS-K

Children

Over the first 4 years of school, young children

may encounter different early learning experiences. From the start of kindergarten to the end

of third grade, many children had changed

schools at least one time (table 2).5

 For instance,
Executive Summary v

in the spring of 2002, about half of the children

remained in the same school they had attended in

kindergarten, 39 percent had made one school

change, and 10 percent had changed schools two

or more times since the start of kindergarten.

Some children also changed the type of school

they attended. Eighty-one percent of the children

had attended public schools for the duration of

the study, and 9 percent always attended private

schools. Ten percent changed the type of school

they attended at least once between kindergarten

and the end of third grade. Also, in the spring of

2002, about 89 percent of first-time kindergartners were in third grade, 10 percent were in

second grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled

in other grades (e.g., first or fourth grade) (data

not shown in tables).

Overall Gains in Reading and Mathematics

Knowledge and Skills From Kindergarten

to Third Grade

The ECLS-K reading and mathematics assessments were designed to reflect children’s knowledge and skills in both subjects over the duration

of the study. The reading assessment captured information on children’s basic literacy skills, vocabulary, and comprehension. The mathematics assessment measured children’s conceptual understanding of numbers, shapes, patterns, mathematical

operations, and processes for problemsolving. From

the start of kindergarten to the end of third grade,

children’s reading scale scores, a measure of their

overall reading achievement, increased an average

of 81 points, and their mathematics scale scores

increased about 63 points (tables A-4 and A-5).

Children’s spring third-grade reading scale scores

were about 8.4 standard deviations higher than their

fall kindergarten scores, and their spring third-grade

mathematics scale scores were about 7.3 standard

deviations higher than their fall kindergarten scores.

Thus, one standard deviation in the reading score

amounts to a 9.6 point difference in the reading

scale score, and one standard deviation in the mathematics score amounts to an 8.6 point difference

in the mathematics scale score. It is important to

note that the data points represented in the figures

and tables in this report cover different time spans

(i.e., the kindergarten school year, the full calendar

year between spring of kindergarten and spring of

first grade, and 2 full calendar years between spring

of first grade and spring of third grade). Thus, increases in achievement over time must be interpreted relative to the amount of time between

assessments.Between the start of kindergarten and

the end of third grade, the reading and mathematics achievement gaps across certain groups of children widened (tables A-4 through A-6). Black children had made smaller gains in reading and mathematics by the end of third grade than White, Hispanic, and Asian/Pacific Islander children.6

 As the

number of children’s family risk factors (e.g., living

in a single-parent household, living below the federal poverty level) increased, children tended to gain

less in both subject areas than children with fewer

family risk factors (figures A and B). Children’s gains

in their first 4 years of school did not differ substantively, however, by their sex, the type of kindergarten program they attended (i.e., half-day or

full-day), or the type of school they attended (i.e.,

public school all 4 years, private school all 4 years,

both public and private school attendance).

Overall Reading, Mathematics, and Science

Knowledge and Skills in Third Grade

Consistent with the patterns of differences found

in children’s achievement gains, children’s reading,

mathematics, and science status in third grade varied by their race/ethnicity and their number of family risk factors (tables A-4 through A-6, A-8). After

controlling for the other child, family, and school

characteristics, Black third-graders had lower

achievement scores than White, Hispanic, and

Asian/Pacific Islander children in all three subjects,

and Hispanic third-graders had lower overall

achievement scores in science compared with White

children (figure C). Those with more family risk

factors had lower mean achievement scores in all

subjects than those with fewer family risk factors.

In addition, third-graders who had always attended

private schools from kindergarten through third

grade had higher reading achievement scores than

those who had always attended public schools.

Children’s third-grade achievement did not differ

substantively by their sex.

6

White refers to White, non-Hispanic; Black refers to

Black, non-Hispanic; and Other refers to Other, nonHispanic (i.e., American Indian, Alaska Native, or multiracial) for the remainder of the report.
vi From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

NOTE: Family risk factors included living below the federal poverty level, primary home language was non-English, mother’s highest education was

less than a high school diploma/GED, and living in a single-parent household. Values range from 0 to 4. Estimates reflect the sample of children

assessed in English in all assessment years. The ECLS-K assessment was not administered in 2001, when most of the children were in second grade.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–99 (ECLS-K),

Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring 1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Figure A. Mean reading scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners, by time of

assessment and number of family risk factors: Fall 1998, spring 1999, spring 2000,

and spring 2002

Mean reading scale score

20

40

60

80

100

120

29

41

73

113

22

32

58

95

Time of assessment

Fall 1998 Spring 1999 Spring 2000 Spring 2002

0

2 or more risks

1 risk

36 No risks

65

105

25

NOTE: Family risk factors included living below the federal poverty level, primary home language was non-English, mother’s highest education was

less than a high school diploma/GED, and living in a single-parent household. Values range from 0 to 4. Estimates reflect the sample of children

assessed in English in all assessment years. The ECLS-K assessment was not administered in 2001, when most of the children were in second grade.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–99 (ECLS-K),

Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring 1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Figure B. Mean mathematics scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners, by time

of assessment and number of family risk factors: Fall 1998, spring 1999, spring

2000, and spring 2002

Mean mathematics scale score

20

40

60

80

100

120

Time of assessment

Fall 1998 Spring 1999 Spring 2000 Spring 2002

0

24

34

59

89

17

25

47

74

81

2 or more risks

1 risk

No risks

20

29

52
Executive Summary vii

Specific Reading and Mathematics Knowledge and Skills in Third Grade

In addition to assessing children’s overall reading and mathematics achievement, the ECLS-K

provides more specific information on the knowledge and skills that children have acquired in both

subjects by the end of third grade (tables A-9

through A-12). By the end of third grade, almost

all children could identify the ending sounds of

words, name sight words, and recognize words in

context. They could also demonstrate mathematics

concepts of ordinality (e.g., identify ordinal positions of objects) and solve simple addition and subtraction problems. Seventy-eight percent could

make literal inferences based on text (e.g., recognize the comparison being made in a simile) and

solve simple multiplication and division problems.

Forty-six percent were able to use cues to derive

meaning from text (e.g., use background knowledge combined with sentence cues to understand

the use of homonyms) and 42 percent demonstrated

an understanding of place value in integers to the

hundreds place. Twenty-nine percent were able to

make interpretations beyond what was stated in text

(e.g., make connections between problems in a narrative and similar life problems) and 16 percent could

use rate and measurement to solve word problems.

Many of the patterns of differences in children’s

overall achievement gains and third-grade status

were also present when children’s proficiency in

specific reading and mathematics knowledge and

skills was examined (tables A-10 and A-12). After

controlling for the other child, family, and early

school experience characteristics, Black third-graders were less likely to be proficient in more advanced

reading levels (i.e., making literal inferences, deriving meaning from text, and making interpretations

beyond text) and mathematics levels (i.e., multiplication and division, place value, and rate and

measurement) than White, Asian/Pacific Islander,

and Hispanic children. Children with more family

risk factors were also less likely to be proficient in

these skills than their peers with fewer family risk

factors. Hispanic third-graders were less likely to

be proficient in deriving meaning from text and

making interpretations beyond text than White

third-graders, and were less likely than White and

Asian/Pacific Islander children to demonstrate masNOTE: Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. Although most of the children in the sample

were in third grade in the spring of 2002, 10 percent were in second grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled in other grades.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class

of 1998–99 (ECLS-K), Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, spring 2002.

Figure C. Mean scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners in spring of third grade, by

subject area and race/ethnicity: Spring 2002

Subject area

Mean scale score

Black, non-Hispanic

White, non-Hispanic

Hispanic

Asian/Pacific Islander

Reading Mathematics Science

112

98

105

111

89

73

82

88

37

27

32 35

0

20

40

60

80

100

120
viii From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

tery of in place value and rate and measurement

skills. In addition, children who attended public

school from kindergarten through third grade were

less likely to demonstrate some of the more advanced

reading and mathematics skills and knowledge than

those who had attended private schools for some or

all of their first 4 years of school (figures D and E).

Finally, although overall reading and mathematics

achievement status did not differ substantively by

children’s sex, girls were more likely to demonstrate

proficiency in most of the advanced reading skills

than boys, and were less likely to exhibit proficiency

in most of the advanced mathematics skills than boys.

Children’s Perceptions About Themselves

and Their School Experiences

At the end of third grade, children were asked

about their perceptions of their competence and

interest in reading, mathematics, and school in general, and about their peer relationships and problem behaviors that they may exhibit (details on the

measure used to assess children’s perceptions are

provided in appendix B). On average, children indicated that they were generally interested in and

enjoyed school, and that they did not perceive their

schoolwork to be too difficult (table A-13). Girls

tended to have greater interest and perceived competence in reading than boys, a finding that persisted after controlling for children’s race/ethnicity,

number of family risk factors, and their early school

experiences (tables A-13 and A-14).

On average, children also responded positively

regarding their peer relationships, with most indicating that they generally made friends easily and

got along well with their peers (tables A-13 and A14). Black third-graders were more likely to feel this

way than Asian/Pacific Islander children, after controlling for other child, family, and school experience factors. Children tended to indicate that they

only occasionally exhibited externalizing (e.g., fighting and arguing) or internalizing (e.g., anxiety, sadness, loneliness) problem behaviors. Boys indicated

a higher likelihood of exhibiting externalizing behaviors than girls. Black third-graders reported more

of both types of problem behaviors than White, Hispanic, and Asian/Pacific Islander third-graders. In

addition, as the number of family risk factors increased for third-graders, they were more likely to

report internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors (figure F, tables A-13 and A-14).

Third-graders’ perceptions about their interest

and competence in reading and mathematics were

NOTE: Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. Although most of the children in the sample

were in third grade in the spring of 2002, 10 percent were in second grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled in other grades.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring

1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Figure D. Percent of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners demonstrating specific reading

knowledge and skills in spring of third grade, by school type: Spring 2002

Reading proficiency level

0

20

40

60

80

100

Percent

Literal inference Deriving meaning Interpreting beyond text

76

90

84

44

60

54

27

38 35

Private school all years

Public school all years

Switched school types
Executive Summary ix

NOTE: Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. Although most of the children in the sample

were in third grade in the spring of 2002, 10 percent were in second grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled in other grades.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring

1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Figure E. Percent of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners demonstrating specific mathematics

knowledge and skills in spring of third grade, by school type: Spring 2002

Mathematics proficiency level

0

20

40

60

80

100

Percent

Multiplication and division Place value Rate and measurement

Private school all years

Public school all years

Switched school types 77

87 84

41

52 48

14

20 22

NOTE: Family risk factors included living below the federal poverty level, primary home language was non-English, mother’s highest

education was less than a high school diploma/GED, and living in a single-parent household. Values range from 0 to 4. Scale scores on

children’s perceptions come from a self-description questionnaire (SDQ). Scores on the SDQ scales ranged from 1 “not at all true” to 4

“very true.” Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. Although most of the children in the

sample were in third grade in the spring of 2002, 10 percent were in second grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled in other grades.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring

1999, and spring 2002.

Figure F. Mean scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners’ perceptions of problem

behaviors they exhibit in spring of third grade, by number of family risk factors:

Spring 2002

Self-description questionnaire (SDQ) problem behavior scale

Internalizing problem behaviors Externalizing problem behaviors

1 risk

No risks

2 or more risks

1

2

3

4

2.0

2.3 2.5

1.9 2.1 2.3

Mean SDQ scale score
x From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

also associated with their achievement at the end of

the school year (tables A-15 and A-16). Those scoring in the highest third on the reading assessment

in spring of 2002 expressed greater interest and

competency in reading than children scoring in the

lower two-thirds. The same pattern of relationships

between perceptions and achievement occurred in

mathematics. The relationship between children’s

perceptions and achievement were subject-specific,

in that there was no relationship between achievement in one subject area and perceived interest and

competence in a different subject area.

Conclusion

In summary, the findings from this report are

consistent with patterns identified in earlier ECLS-K

reports on children’s achievement in kindergarten

and first grade (Denton and West 2002; West,

Denton, and Reaney 2001; West, Denton, and

Germino Hausken 2000). The knowledge and skills

children demonstrated at the end of third grade

continued to differ in relation to their race/ethnicity

and number of family risk factors. In addition, this

report found that the achievement gaps between

disadvantaged and more advantaged children identified at the beginning of school (West, Denton,

and Germino Hausken 2000) grew wider over the

first 4 years of school attendance.

In the first months of school, private school kindergartners demonstrated higher achievement status in reading and mathematics than public school

kindergartners (West, Denton, and Germino

Hausken 2000). These unadjusted mean differences

were also found in third grade between children

who attended public schools for all 4 years and those

who attended private schools for part or all of the

time, and were also found in terms of children’s

science achievement. However, when other factors

(e.g., race/ethnicity and number of risk factors) were

taken into account, some of the substantive schooltype achievement differences did not persist. Also,

the achievement gap between public and private

school children did not widen substantively over

the first 4 years of school, even between those children who always attended the same types of school

from kindergarten through third grade.

In earlier ECLS-K reports, findings also indicated that public school children who attended fullday (vs. half-day) kindergarten programs had higher

overall achievement at the end of kindergarten in

reading and mathematics, after controlling for other

characteristics, and were more likely to demonstrate

advanced reading skills at the end of the kindergarten year (Walston and West 2004; Denton, West,

and Walston 2003). When overall kindergarten

achievement was compared for full-day and halfday children from both public and private schools,

however, differences in reading and mathematics

achievement were not detected (West, Denton, and

Reaney 2001). Findings from this report also indicate no substantive differences in reading, science,

and mathematics achievement at the end of third

grade related to the type of kindergarten program

children had attended.

New information collected directly from children at the end of third grade indicates that, on

average, they generally enjoyed reading, mathematics, and school in general, and felt competent in

their schoolwork in these areas. Children’s academic

performance in reading and mathematics was positively related to their perceptions of their competence in the corresponding subject area. Third-graders perceived that it was easy for them to make and

maintain friendships, and that they only occasionally exhibited internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors in school. However, disadvantaged children were more likely than more advantaged children

to indicate that they exhibited problem behaviors.
xi

Acknowledgments

We wish to recognize the 20,000 parents and

children who participated during the first 4 years

of the study. We would like to thank the teachers

and administrators of the more than 3,800 schools

we visited across the United States for allowing us

to work with their children and parents, and for

providing us with information about their students

and schools. We are especially appreciative of the

assistance we received from the Chief State School

Officers, district superintendents and staff, and private school officials.

We also thank Elvira Germino Hausken and

Karen Manship of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES); Jonaki Bose, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, U.S. Department of Transportation (formerly with NCES); Kristin Denton

Flanagan, Jill Walston, Emily Rosenthal, Nikkita

Willis, DeeAnn Brimhall, Sandra Eyster, Frank

Avenilla, and Margaret Noonan of the Education

Statistics Services Institute (ESSI); and Lizabeth

Reaney, Teachers College, Columbia University (formerly with ESSI) for their hard work and dedication in supporting all aspects of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K) program. We appreciate the

technical review comments provided by Bill Hussar,

Robert Lerner, Val Plisko, and Marilyn Seastrom of

NCES and Leslie Scott, David Miller, Jason Sellers,

and Ruth Atchison of ESSI. We would also like to

recognize the input we received from Catherine

Freeman and Peggy Quinn at NCES, Ok-Choon

Park at the Institute of Education Sciences, from

outside reviewer Richard J. Coley at Educational

Testing Service, and two anonymous reviewers.

Westat, Incorporated—in affiliation with the

Institute for Social Research and the School of Education at the University of Michigan, and the Educational Testing Service, under the direction of

NCES—conducted the base-year, first-grade, and

third-grade studies. We would like to express our

appreciation for the efforts of the staff from each of

these organizations, and especially to the more than

400 field staff who conducted the child assessments

and parent interviews in fall 1998, spring 1999,

spring 2000, and spring 2002.

We wish to acknowledge the support that we

have received from the Head Start Bureau of the

Administration on Children, Youth, and Families

of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; the Economic Research Service of the U.S.

Department of Agriculture; the National Institute

for Child Health and Human Development; and

the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs, Office of English Language

Acquisition, and Policy and Program Studies

Service.

A special thank you to Kendra Chandler Webb,

age 9 (1994), for designing the ECLS logo, and to

Mariel Escudero at ESSI for the design of the

report.

xiii

Table of Contents

Executive Summary .................................................................. iii

Acknowledgments ..................................................................... xi

List of Tables and Figures......................................................... xiv

I. Introduction .......................................................................1

Research Questions..................................................................................... 2

Organization of the Report .......................................................................... 2

Measures................................................................................................... 3

Analytic Sample ......................................................................................... 7

Changes Over Time for the ECLS-K Children ..................................................... 8

Limitations ............................................................................................... 9

II. Children’s Cognitive Knowledge and Skills .............................. 11

Overall Gains in Reading and Mathematics Knowledge and Skills

from Kindergarten to Third Grade.................................................................11

Overall Reading, Mathematics, and Science Knowledge and Skills in

Third Grade ..............................................................................................15

Specific Reading and Mathematics Knowledge and Skills in Third Grade ..............17

Summary of Findings .................................................................................23

III. Children’s Perceptions about Themselves and Their

School Experiences ............................................................ 25

Children’s Perceptions in Third Grade ............................................................25

Children’s Perceptions about School and Their Cognitive Status .........................26

Summary of findings ..................................................................................28

IV. Conclusion........................................................................ 31

IV. References........................................................................ 35

Appendix A: Text Tables ...........................................................A-1

Appendix B: Methodology and Technical Notes ............................B-1
xiv From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

List of Tables and Figures

List of Executive Summary Figures

Figure A. Mean reading scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners,

by time of assessment and number of family risk factors: Fall

1998, spring 1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002...........................vi

Figure B. Mean mathematics scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners, by time of assessment and number of family risk

factors: Fall 1998, spring 1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002 .........vi

Figure C. Mean scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners in spring

of third grade, by subject area and race/ethnicity: Spring 2002 ....... vii

Figure D. Percent of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners demonstrating

specific reading knowledge and skills in spring of third grade, by

school type: Spring 2002.......................................................... viii

Figure E. Percent of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners demonstrating

specific mathematics knowledge and skills in spring of third grade,

by school type: Spring 2002 .......................................................ix

Figure F. Mean scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners’

perceptions of problem behaviors they exhibit in third grade, by

number of family risk factors: Spring 2002 ....................................ix

List of Text Figures

Figure 1. Mean reading scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners,

by time of assessment: Fall 1998, spring 1999, spring 2000, and

spring 2002.............................................................................12

Figure 2. Mean mathematics scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners, by time of assessment: Fall 1998, spring 1999, spring

2000, and spring 2002 ..............................................................12

Figure 3. Mean reading scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners,

by time of assessment and number of family risk factors: Fall

1998, spring 1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002..........................13

Figure 4. Mean mathematics scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners, by time of assessment and number of family risk factors:

Fall 1998, spring 1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002 ....................14

Figure 5. Mean scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners in spring

of third grade, by subject area and race/ethnicity: Spring 2002 .......16

Figure 6. Mean scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners in spring

of third grade, by subject area and school type: Spring 2002...........17

Figure 7. Percent of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners demonstrating

specific reading knowledge and skills, by time of assessment:

Fall 1998, spring 1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002 ....................18
xv

Figure 8. Percent of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners demonstrating

specific reading knowledge and skills in spring of third grade,

by race/ethnicity: Spring 2002.................................................18

Figure 9. Percent of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners demonstrating

specific reading knowledge and skills in spring of third grade, by

school type: Spring 2002 ........................................................19

Figure 10. Percent of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners demonstrating

specific mathematics knowledge and skills, by time of assessment:

Fall 1998, spring 1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002 .................20

Figure 11. Percent of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners demonstrating

specific mathematics knowledge and skills in spring of third

grade, by race/ethnicity: Spring 2002 .......................................21

Figure 12. Percent of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners demonstrating

specific mathematics knowledge and skills in spring of third

grade, by school type: Spring 2002...........................................22

Figure 13. Mean scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners’

perceptions of problem behaviors they exhibit in spring of third

grade, by number of family risk factors: Spring 2002 ...................27

Figure 14. Mean scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners’

perceptions of their competence and interest in reading and

mathematics in spring of third grade, by their spring third-grade

reading and mathematics achievement status: Spring 2002 ..........28

List of Text Tables

Table 1. Percentage distribution of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners in

the analytic report sample and the full ECLS-K sample, by child’s

sex, race/ethnicity, and number of family risk factors: Fall 1998 .... 9

Table 2. Percentage distribution of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners in

the ECLS-K sample over the first 4 years of school, by selected

family and school characteristics: Fall 1998, spring 1999, spring

2000, and spring 2002 ...........................................................10

List of Appendix A Tables

Standard Errors for Main Text Tables

Table A-1a. Standard errors of the percentage distribution of fall 1998

first-time kindergartners in the analytic report sample and the

full ECLS-K sample, by child’s sex, race/ethnicity, and number of

family risk factors: Fall 1998 ................................................. A-1

Table A-2a. Standard errors of the percentage distribution of fall 1998 firsttime kindergartners in the ECLS-K sample over the first 4 years

of school, by selected family and school characteristics: Fall

1998, spring 1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002 ..................... A-2
xvi From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

Supplementary Tables

Table A-3. Percentage distribution of family risk factors for fall 1998 firsttime kindergartners, by selected child, family, and early school

experience characteristics: Academic year 1998–99 ................. A-3

Table A-3a. Standard errors of the percentage distribution of family risk

factors for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners, by selected child,

family, and early school experience characteristics: Academic

year 1998–99 .................................................................... A-4

Table A-4. Mean reading scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners,

by time of assessment and selected child, family, and early

school experience characteristics: Fall 1998, spring 1999, spring

2000, and spring 2002........................................................ A-5

Table A-4a. Standard errors of the mean reading scale scores for fall 1998

first-time kindergartners by time of assessment and child, family,

and early school experience characteristics: Fall 1998, spring

1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002 ..................................... A-6

Table A-5. Mean mathematics scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners, by time of assessment and selected child, family, and

early school experience characteristics: Fall 1998, spring 1999,

spring 2000, and spring 2002 .............................................. A-7

Table A-5a. Standard errors of the mean mathematics scale scores for fall

1998 first-time kindergartners, by time of assessment and child,

family, and early school experience characteristics: Fall 1998,

spring 1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002 ............................ A-8

Table A-6. Regression of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners’ reading and

mathematics gains from the fall of kindergarten to the spring

of third grade on selected child, family, and early school

experience characteristics: Fall 1998 and spring 2002 .............. A-9

Table A-7. Mean science scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners in spring of third grade, by selected child, family, and

early school experience characteristics: Spring 2002 .............. A-10

Table A-7a. Standard errors of the mean science scale scores for fall 1998

first-time kindergartners in spring of third grade, by selected

child, family, and early school experience characteristics:

Spring 2002 .................................................................... A-11

 Table A-8. Regression of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners’ spring of third

grade reading, mathematics, and science achievement on

lected child, family, and early school experience characteristics:

Spring 2002 .................................................................... A-12

Table A-9. Percentage of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners demonstrating

specific reading knowledge and skills in spring of first and

third grade, by grade level and selected child, family, and

early school experience characteristics: Spring 2000 and

spring 2002 .................................................................... A-13
xvii

Table A-9a. Standard errors of the percentage of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners demonstrating specific reading knowledge and skills in

spring of first and third grade, by grade level and selected

child, family, and early school experience characteristics:

Spring 2000 and spring 2002 ............................................. A-14

Table A-10. Regression of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners’ probability

of demonstrating specific reading knowledge and skills in

spring of third grade on selected child, family, and early

school experience characteristics: Spring 2002 ...................... A-15

Table A-11. Percentage of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners demonstrating specific mathematics knowledge and skills in spring of first

and third grade, by grade level and selected child, family, and

early school experience characteristics: Spring 2000 and

spring 2002 .................................................................... A-16

Table A-11a. Standard errors of the percentage of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners demonstrating specific mathematics knowledge and

skills in spring of first and third grade, by grade level and

selected child, family, and early school experience characteristics: Spring 2000 and spring 2002 ................................... A-17

Table A-12. Regression of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners’ probability of

demonstrating specific mathematics knowledge and skills in

spring of third grade on selected child, family, and early

school experience characteristics: Spring 2002 ...................... A-18

Table A-13. Mean scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners’

perceptions about their school experiences, peer relationships,

and problem behaviors in spring of third grade, by selected

child, family, and early school experience characteristics:

Spring 2002 .................................................................... A-19

Table A-13a. Standard errors of the mean scale scores for fall 1998 firsttime kindergartners’ perceptions about their school

experiences, peer relationships, and problem behaviors in

spring of third grade, by selected child, family, and early

school experience characteristics: Spring 2002 ...................... A-20

Table A-14. Regression of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners’ perceptions

about their school experiences, peer relationships, and

problem behaviors in spring of third grade on selected child,

family, and early school experience characteristics: Spring

2002 .............................................................................. A-21

Table A-15. Mean scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners’

perceived competence and interest in reading, mathematics,

and school subjects in spring of third grade, by their spring

third-grade reading, mathematics, and science achievement

scores: Spring 2002 .......................................................... A-22
xviii From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

Table A-15a. Standard errors of the mean scale scores for fall 1998 firsttime kindergartners’ perceived competence and interest in

reading, mathematics, and all school subjects in spring of

third grade, by their spring third-grade reading, mathematics,

and science achievement scores: Spring 2002 ....................... A-23

Table A-16. Regression of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners’ reading and

mathematics perceptions in spring of third grade on their

spring third-grade achievement scores and selected child,

family, and early school experience characteristics: Spring

2002 .............................................................................. A-24
1

I. Introduction

7

Several other federal agencies provide support for this

study, including the Economic Research Service of the U.S.

Department of Agriculture, the Head Start Bureau of the

Administration on Children, Youth, and Families of the U.S.

Department of Health and Human Services, the National

Institute for Child Health and Human Development, and

the Office of Special Education Programs, the Office of

English Language Acquisition, and the Policy and Programs

Studies Service within the U.S. Department of Education.

Children begin kindergarten with many different levels of reading and mathematics skills and make

significant gains in their reading and mathematics

achievement over the first 2 years of school (West,

Denton, and Germino Hausken 2000; West,

Denton, and Reaney 2001; Denton and West

2002). The knowledge and skills children acquire

in kindergarten and first grade can serve as a foundation for their later educational success. It is important to explore children’s growth and development as they move from the beginning of kindergarten through the elementary school years.

This is the fourth report in a series that provides descriptive information about young children’s

school experiences, based on data from the Early

Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class

of 1998–99 (ECLS-K). The ECLS-K is a multisource, multimethod study that focuses on

children’s early education, beginning with kindergarten. The ECLS-K includes measures of children’s

health and socioemotional status, cognitive achievement, and their family, classroom, school, and community environments.

Sponsored by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), part of the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences,7

 the ECLS-K selected a nationally representative sample of kindergartners in the fall of 1998

and is following these children through the spring

of fifth grade. The study collects information directly from the children and their families, teachers, and schools. The full ECLS-K base-year sample

is composed of 22,782 children who attended 1,277

schools with kindergarten programs during the

1998–99 school year.

The first ECLS-K report, America’s Kindergartners (West, Denton, and Germino Hausken 2000),

provided a national picture of the knowledge and

skills of beginning kindergartners. It revealed that

while first-time kindergartners were similar in many

ways, differences existed in their knowledge and

skills in relation to their age at school entry, race/

ethnicity, health status, home educational experiences, and child care histories. Some of these types

of differences found at school entry were consistent

with the differences noted in other national studies

of older children (e.g., National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)) (Grigg et al. 2003;

Braswell et al. 2001).

The second report, The Kindergarten Year (West,

Denton, and Reaney 2001), showed that children

considered at risk for school failure acquired many

of the basic skills in reading and mathematics during their first year of school that they did not have

when they began kindergarten. Consequently, by

the spring of kindergarten, the majority of these

children knew their letters, numbers, and shapes;

about half made the connection between letter and

sound at the beginning of words; and almost threequarters understood the mathematical concept of

relative size (e.g., out of two objects, they could

identify which object was longer). However, these

children generally fell behind their more advantaged

classmates in higher level knowledge and skills.

Specifically, across the kindergarten year, the gap

between disadvantaged children and other children

widened in more advanced reading (e.g., recognizing words by sight) and mathematics skills (e.g.,

adding and subtracting).

The third report in this series, Children’s Reading and Mathematics Achievement in Kindergarten and

First Grade (Denton and West 2002), focused on

the status of children’s reading and mathematics

achievement in the spring of kindergarten and the

spring of first grade. It found that some of the differences in children’s reading and mathematics skills

in relation to their race/ethnicity, federal poverty status, and school type that were present as they entered school had persisted through the spring of first

grade. Differences also began to emerge in first grade

that were not present during the kindergarten year,

with girls more likely to be reading and boys more

likely to demonstrate advanced mathematics
2 From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

8

This report refers to data collected in the spring of 2002 as

third-grade data and the sampled children as third-graders,

although not all children in the analytic sample used for

this report were enrolled in third grade. In the spring of

2002, about 89 percent of the children in the analytic

sample were in third grade, 10 percent were in second

grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled in other grades

(e.g., first or fourth grade).

proficiency. In contrast, some differences present in

the kindergarten year began to wane in first grade,

as Hispanic children’s scores tended to move toward

the national mean from the start of kindergarten to

the end of first grade.

This fourth report in the series highlights

children’s gains in reading and mathematics over

their first 4 years of school, from the start of kindergarten to the point when most of the children

are finishing third grade.8

 The report also describes

children’s achievement in reading and mathematics at the end of third grade, both in terms of their

overall achievement in the two subject areas and in

terms of their specific reading and mathematics

knowledge and skills. It examines whether differences in reading and mathematics achievement that

were identified for certain groups of children in kindergarten and first grade persist 2 or 3 years later.

Achievement is also compared for children with

different early school experiences (i.e., attending

full-day vs. half-day kindergarten programs, attending public vs. private schools from kindergarten

through third grade) to explore whether such experiences are associated with later achievement.

Information on two new ECLS-K direct child

assessments conducted in the spring of 2002 is included. In the third-grade year, children were administered cognitive assessments in science for the

first time in place of the general knowledge assessments, which were used in the kindergarten and

first-grade years. In addition, third-graders completed a questionnaire about their perceptions of

their school experiences and their relations with

other students. Prior to third grade, information

about children’s social skills and socioemotional

development came from the reports of their parents and teachers. More information on these two

new instruments is provided in the Measures section of the Introduction.

Research Questions

The report uses data from the ECLS-K to address the following questions:

• What knowledge and skills do children demonstrate in the spring of third grade? How have

these changed since they first started school?

Do children’s knowledge and skills and the

gains they have made over time differ by certain child, family, and school characteristics?

• How do third-graders perceive themselves and

their relations with other children? Is their

academic achievement at the end of third grade

related to their perceptions?

Organization of the Report

The findings in this report are organized in two

sections, which coincide with the two sets of research questions identified above. First, information on children’s achievement and growth in various subject areas is presented. Within this section,

children’s knowledge and skills are presented in

terms of their overall achievement in reading and

mathematics and in terms of the acquisition of specific skills in the two subjects. The second section

describes children’s perceptions about themselves

and their relationships with others on six different

dimensions, including children’s perceptions about

their competence and interest in (1) reading, (2)

mathematics, and (3) school in general and their

perceptions about their (4) peer relationships and

any (5) internalizing or (6) externalizing behaviors

that they may exhibit. Both sections describe the

population of children overall and in relation to

characteristics of the children, their families, and

their early school experiences. Following the main

sections of the report, appendix A includes the tables

of estimates and standard errors cited in the report

and appendix B provides methodology details and

other technical notes relevant to the report.

The purposes of this report are to describe the

academic gains children have made from kindergarten through third grade, their achievement status at the end of third grade, and their perceptions

about their school experiences. Two types of analyses were used to answer the research questions. First,

bivariate analyses (i.e., t-tests) that compare the

overall unadjusted mean scores for different groups
3

9

For information on reliability of the scores, see Pollack et

al. (forthcoming).

10Details on the administration of the cognitive assessments

are provided in the Methodology and Technical Notes

section of this report (appendix B).

Introduction

of children were conducted. Second, ordinary least

squares (OLS) regression analyses were used in order to describe the relationships of different child,

family, and early school experience characteristics

(e.g., race/ethnicity, number of risk factors, kindergarten program type) with children’s achievement

and perceptions, after controlling for other characteristics. One of the limitations of bivariate statistics is that they describe children’s achievement

gains and status for different groups of children

without taking into account the influence of other

factors that may also be related to achievement differences. For instance, family risk factors are related

to children’s achievement (West, Denton, and

Reaney 2001), though the average number of these

risk factors varies by children’s race/ethnicity (Zill

and West 2001). Thus, it is possible that lower

achievement scores for some minority children may

be attributed to their number of family risk factors,

which are not controlled for in bivariate analyses.

Bivariate results are included in the report to describe overall, unadjusted mean values for subgroups

in the population. Findings from the regression

analyses follow the bivariate analyses results within

each section of the report and address this question: Do the differences found in the mean comparisons persist after controlling for other child, family, and school characteristics?

This is a descriptive report. Readers should not

draw causal inferences from the regression results

in this report, since apparent relationships can

change based on the particular independent variables examined. The small set of independent variables used in this report’s regression analyses were

included with the specific purpose of clarifying the

descriptive results observed in the multiple bivariate comparisons.

Measures

Information in this report was collected through

direct, one-on-one child assessments and parent

interviews. Below is a brief description of some of

the measures and characteristics used from these

information sources. The variables used for the

analyses in this report come from the ECLS-K Third

Grade restricted-use data file, unless otherwise

noted. More detailed information on the measures

can be found in the Appendix B: Methodology and

Technical Notes of this report or in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 User’s Manuals (NCES 2001, NCES

2002, NCES 2003a).

Children’s Cognitive Knowledge

and Skills

The ECLS-K cognitive assessment batteries were

developed with the goal of assessing children’s cognitive status in kindergarten, first grade, and third

grade, and to provide a means of measuring growth

since kindergarten entry. In kindergarten and first

grade, the same reading and mathematics assessment battery was used in all rounds of data collection. For third grade, a new reading and mathematics battery was developed since children’s academic

skills could be expected to have advanced beyond

the levels covered by the kindergarten-first grade

assessment. Some of the kindergarten-first grade

items were retained in the third-grade assessment

to support the development of a longitudinal score

scale (Pollack et al. forthcoming). In addition to

calculating overall achievement scores for reading,

mathematics, and science in third-grade, proficiency scores were created for specific reading and

mathematics skills.9

 These proficiency scores represent a progression of skills. No proficiency levels

were developed for the science assessment, however,

since the items did not follow a hierarchical pattern. This report includes information from the assessments administered in the fall and spring of kindergarten (fall 1998 and spring 1999), the spring

of first grade (spring 2000), and the spring of third

grade (spring 2002).10

Reading Knowledge and Skills. The ECLS-K

kindergarten and first-grade reading assessment included questions designed to measure basic skills

(letter recognition, beginning and ending sounds),

vocabulary (receptive vocabulary, as in “point to the

picture of the cat”), and comprehension (listening

comprehension, words in context). In third grade,

the assessment included items designed to measure

phonemic awareness, single word decoding,
4 From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

13The two mathematics proficiency levels excluded from

this report include Counting, Numbers, and Shapes (level

1) and Relative Size (level 2).

vocabulary, and passage comprehension. It also included some of the more difficult test items from the

kindergarten-first-grade battery, such as identifying

sight words and reading words in context in order to

link the kindergarten and first-grade assessment and

the third-grade assessment for scaling purposes.

In addition to an overall reading achievement

score11 at each time point, the reading assessments

contained eight proficiency levels. This report focuses on the six highest proficiency levels that reflect a progression of knowledge and skills at the

third grade level, including (from easiest to most

difficult): (1) understanding the letter-sound relationship at the end of words (identifying the letter

that represents the sound at the end of a word); (2)

recognizing words by sight (reading simple words

aloud); (3) understanding words in context (listening comprehension and reading simple text passages); (4) making inferences using cues that were

directly stated with key words in text (literal inference); (5) identifying clues used to make inferences

(deriving meaning); and (6) demonstrating understanding of author’s craft and making connections

between a problem in the narrative and similar life

problems (interpreting beyond text).12

Mathematics Knowledge and Skills. The

ECLS-K kindergarten and first-grade mathematics

assessment was designed to measure skills in conceptual knowledge, procedural knowledge, and

problemsolving. Approximately one-half of the

mathematics assessment consisted of questions on

number sense and number properties and operations. The remainder of the assessment included

questions in measurement; geometry and spatial

sense; data analysis, statistics, and probability; and

patterns, algebra, and functions. In third grade, the

mathematics assessment addressed these same content areas, with the easier forms focusing on number sense, properties and operations and the more

difficult forms focusing on measurement, algebra,

and geometry. Also, a greater emphasis on

problemsolving was included in third grade compared with the kindergarten and first-grade battery

(Pollack et al. forthcoming). Similar to the reading

assessment, a subset of items from the first-grade

assessment was included in the third-grade assessment in order to link the kindergarten and firstgrade assessment and the third-grade assessment

for scaling purposes.

In addition to an overall mathematics achievement score at each time point, the mathematics

assessment contained seven proficiency levels. This

report focuses on the five highest proficiency levels

that reflect a progression of knowledge and skills at

the third-grade level, including (from easiest to most

difficult): (1) ordinality (number sequence, reading 2-digit numerals, identifying ordinal position

of an object, solving simple word problems); (2)

solving simple addition and subtraction items (sums

up to 10 and relationships of numbers in sequence);

(3) solving simple multiplication and division problems and recognizing more complex number patterns; (4) demonstrating understanding of place

value in integers to the hundreds place; and (5)

using knowledge of measurement and rate to solve

word problems.13

Science Knowledge and Skills. In the first 2

years of the ECLS-K, children were administered a

general knowledge assessment that measured their

knowledge of the social and physical worlds. In third

grade, the general knowledge assessment was replaced by a science assessment. Due to time constraints and to the widely different content coverage of social studies in schools across the United

States, social studies was not assessed directly in

the ECLS-K.

The third-grade science battery placed equal

emphasis on life science, earth and space science,

and physical science. Similar to the kindergarten

and first-grade general knowledge assessment, chil11The overall achievement score in each subject area is an

Item Response Theory (IRT) scale score. Children’s IRT

scale score values are a reflection of the number of items

they would have answered correctly on the assessment if

they had been administered all items in the battery. More

information on the development of the assessment scores is

available in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study,

Kindergarten Class of 1998–99 (ECLS-K): Psychometric

Report for the Third Grade (Pollack et al. forthcoming).

12The two reading proficiency levels excluded from this

report include Letter Recognition (level 1) and Identifying

Beginning Sounds (level 2).
Introduction 5

dren were asked to demonstrate understanding of

the physical and natural world, make inferences,

and understand relationships. In the third grade,

they were also required to interpret scientific data,

form hypotheses, and develop plans to investigate a

given question. Scores on the kindergarten and firstgrade general knowledge assessment battery are not

linked and are not on the same scale with the thirdgrade science battery, however, since the two assessments covered different content.

Self-Description Questionnaire (SDQ)

In earlier rounds of data collection, parents and

teachers provided information about children’s social skills, approaches to learning, and problem behaviors. In the third-grade year, children provided

information for the first time in the ECLS-K study

about themselves by completing a short self-description questionnaire (SDQ). On the SDQ, children

rated their perceptions of their competence and their

interests in reading, mathematics, and school in

general. They also rated their popularity with peers

and competence in peer relationships and reported

on any problem behaviors that they might exhibit.

Children were read a series of behavioral statements about their perception of themselves and

asked to respond on a scale from 1 to 4, including

“not at all true,” “a little bit true,” “mostly true,”

and “very true.” Responses were then used to create

six scales: (1) reading scale, (2) mathematics scale,

(3) school scale, (4) peer scale, (5) externalizing

problem behavior (anger/distractibility) scale, and

(6) internalizing problem behavior (sad/lonely/anxious) scale. Children’s scale scores on each of the

SDQ scales represent the mean rating of the items

included in the scale. The reading and mathematics scales covered items related to children’s grades,

the difficulty of work in the subject area, and their

interest in and enjoyment in the subject area.14 The

more general school scale reflected how well thirdgraders perceived themselves to be doing in all

school subjects and how well they enjoyed school

in general. The peer scale captured how easily they

found it to make friends and to get along with children, as well as their perception of their popularity.

The final two scales were based on responses to items

that characterize externalizing and internalizing

problem behaviors. For instance, the externalizing

problem behavior scale was based on responses to

items about fighting and arguing with other children, disturbing others, and problems with distractibility. The internalizing problem behavior scale

focused on behaviors such as feeling ashamed of

mistakes, worrying about school and friendships,

and expressing that they often feel sad and/or lonely.

Child, Family, and School Experience

Characteristics

This report builds on findings of the ECLS-K

program’s earlier reports, with the main purpose to

continue to examine whether differences by certain

child, family, and school characteristics found in

earlier reports persist, desist, widen, or narrow.

Those characteristics associated with differences in

children’s achievement found in earlier reports (and

which are explored here) are: (1) child’s sex; (2)

race/ethnicity; (3) number of family risk factors;

(4) kindergarten program type (full/half day); and

(5) school type across the first 4 years of the study.

Family Risk Index. Previous research has found

significant differences in the academic and

socioemotional skills of entering kindergartners between children from high-risk families and those

with fewer family risk factors (Zill and West 2001;

West, Denton, and Reaney 2001). For instance,

children with one risk factor (e.g., single-parent

household, primary home language other than English) had lower achievement scores in reading,

mathematics, and general knowledge than children

with no factors, and those with 2 or more risk factors lagged behind their peers with only one risk

factor. In addition, kindergarten teachers reported

that children with one or more family risk factors

were more likely to fight with their classmates than

children with no family risk factors. These findings

indicate the need to examine children’s achievement

not only in relation to whether they are at risk or

not at risk but also in terms of the number of risk

factors they experience in their homes.

For this report, a family risk factor composite

variable was created, based on children’s household

federal poverty status, family type, mother’s highest education level, and primary home language, as

14Due to copyright agreements, the exact wording of the

SDQ items for each scale cannot be included in this report.
6 From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

15Previous ECLS-K reports on children’s achievement have

used a similar risk factor index (Zill and West 2001; West,

Denton, and Reaney 2001), using family receipt of welfare

assistance in place of federal poverty status.

16The federal poverty level status composite variable is

derived from household income and the total number of

household members. Federal poverty thresholds are used to

define households below the poverty level. For instance, in

1998 if a household contained 4 members, and the

household income was lower than $16,655, then the

household was considered to be in poverty.

collected in the kindergarten year.15 Risk factors

identified in previous education research include

coming from a low-income family or single-parent

household, having parents who did not complete

high school, and having parents who speak a language other than English in the home (Croninger

and Lee 2001; Natriello, McDill, and Pallas 1990;

Zill and West 2001). Previous research has found

associations among these family background characteristics and poor educational outcomes, including low achievement scores, grade repetition, and

dropping out of high school. In this report, children receive one point on the index for each of the

following risk factors: single-parent household, below federal poverty level,16 primary home language

other than English, and mother’s highest education level less than a high school diploma or its

equivalent, for a possible range of 0 to 4 points. For

the bivariate comparisons in this report, children

are grouped into three categories: no risk factors,

one risk factor, or two or more risk factors, following the grouping categories for risk factors used in

earlier ECLS-K reports (West, Denton, and Reaney

2001; Zill and West 2001). In the regression analyses, the continuous number of risk factors was used.

The variables used to create the risk factor index

come from the ECLS-K Longitudinal Kindergarten—First Grade public-use data file.

Table A-3 (in appendix) provides the distribution of risk index values for children with different

characteristics, showing that certain groups of children are more likely to be at risk than other groups.

For instance, three-quarters of White, non-Hispanic

children had no family risk factors in kindergarten,

compared with about one-third of Black, non-Hispanic children, 40 percent of Hispanic children,

and almost half of Asian/Pacific Islander children.17

Furthermore, of those children who had always attended private schools, 82 percent had zero risk

factors, compared with 58 percent of children who

had always attended public schools. Some risk factors are also associated with each other. For instance,

55 percent of children in poverty live in single-parent households, compared with 17 percent of children who are at or above the poverty threshold (data

not shown in tables).18

Kindergarten Program Type in 1998–99. In

the base year, 45 percent of children attended halfday kindergarten and 55 percent attended full-day

kindergarten programs (West, Denton, and Reaney

2001). Earlier analyses of the ECLS-K data have

shown that full-day kindergartners in public schools

made greater gains in reading and mathematics over

the kindergarten year than half-day kindergartners,

even after accounting for differences associated with

children’s sex, race/ethnicity, federal poverty status,

fall achievement level, class size, the amount of time

spent in subject-area instruction, and the presence

of an instructional aide in the classroom (Walston

and West 2004; Denton, West and Walston 2003).

This report explores whether children who attended

full-day kindergarten programs continue to demonstrate higher achievement in reading and mathematics in relation to their peers who attended halfday kindergartens. The variable used to identify

children’s kindergarten program type comes from

the ECLS-K Longitudinal Kindergarten—First

Grade public-use data file.

A recent ECLS-K study showed that there were

differences in children’s likelihood of attending fullor half-day kindergartens related to characteristics

of children (Walston and West 2004). For example,

Black kindergartners were more likely than White,

Asian, or Hispanic children to attend full-day kin17The percentages of Hispanic and Asian/Pacific Islanders

with no family risk factors based on the analytic sample for

this report (40 and 47 percent, respectively) are an

overestimate of the population (28 percent of Hispanic and

37 percent of Asian/Pacific Islander) because the analytic

sample excludes children who were not administered the

assessments in English at all time points in the study.

Standard errors of 1.4 (population Hispanic) and 2.2

(population Asian/Pacific Islander).

18Standard errors of 1.9 (below poverty threshold) and 0.7

(at or above poverty threshold).
7

20Estimates in this report are weighted by the ECLS-K

longitudinal full-sample child weight, C1_5FC0.

Introduction

dergarten programs, and children living below the

federal poverty threshold were also more likely to

be enrolled in full-day kindergarten programs than

those from more affluent families. Furthermore,

private schools are more likely to offer full-day kindergarten programs than public schools.

School Type Across All Waves of the Study.

Previous research has indicated that private school

children have higher average achievement scores than

children in public school settings (West, Denton,

and Reaney 2001; Denton and West 2002; Braswell

et al. 2001). In this report, children are categorized into 3 groups; those who attended public

school all 4 years (i.e., kindergarten through third

grade), those who attended private school all 4 years,

and those who attended both public and private

schools between the start of kindergarten and the

end of third grade. Children’s likelihood of attending certain types of schools over the course of the

study was associated with their individual and family characteristics. As noted earlier, children with

no risk factors were more likely to attend private

schools from kindergarten through third grade.

Also, 11 percent of White children and 10 percent

of Asian/Pacific Islander children attended private

schools for all 4 years, compared with 4 percent of

Black children (data not in tables).19 The variables

used to create the school type composite for this

report come from the ECLS-K Longitudinal Kindergarten—First Grade public-use data file and the

ECLS-K Third Grade restricted-use data file.

Differences in third-graders’ achievement in

relation to the type of school they attend should be

interpreted with caution, as children also demonstrated differences in achievement by their school

type in the fall of kindergarten, when schools had

little opportunity to have an effect on children’s

performance (West, Denton, and Reaney 2001).

In addition, it is possible that a few students may

have switched from one school to another in second grade, then switched back again to the original

school at the start of third grade. Since data were

not collected in second grade, it is not possible to

identify when such instances occurred.

Analytic Sample

The findings in this report are based on 10,500

public and private school children who entered kindergarten for the first time in fall of 1998 and were

administered the English version of the ECLS-K cognitive assessments in the fall of 1998, spring of 1999,

spring of 2000, and spring of 2002.20 Estimates in

this report may not exactly match those of previous

ECLS-K reports on young children’s achievement

(West, Denton, and Germino Hausken 2000; West,

Denton, and Reaney 2001; Denton and West 2002).

This report uses data for respondents assessed in the

fall and spring of kindergarten, spring of first grade,

and spring of third grade, so a different weight was

used to produce estimates than was used in earlier

reports. The weight in this report is stricter in its

response requirements compared to some other reported analyses and, thus, utilizes a slightly smaller

sample of children due to attrition. In addition, the

ECLS-K IRT-scale scores are recalibrated after each

round of data collection. The assessment score variables used in this report all come from the ECLS-K

Third Grade restricted-use data file, which includes

the recalibrated scores for all rounds of data collection. Further, this report is based on all first-time

kindergartners’ performance in their fourth year of

school, not only those who were in third grade in

the spring of 2002. Therefore, this report includes

some children who were excluded from the earlier

ECLS-K report, Children’s Reading and Mathematics

Achievement in Kindergarten and First Grade (Denton

and West 2002), because they did not progress to

first grade in the spring of 2000.

This report focuses on those children who were

assessed in English at all points in time. Prior to

administering the English reading and mathematics assessment in kindergarten and first grade,

children’s English language proficiency was evaluated. Children whose home language was other than

English (as determined by school records) were

administered the Oral Language Development Scale

(OLDS) (for more information, see the ECLS-K

Base-Year User’s Manual, National Center for Education Statistics 2001). If children demonstrated

sufficient proficiency in English for the ECLS-K

19Standard errors of 0.8 (White), 1.1 (Black), and 1.9

(Asian/Pacific Islander).
8 From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

direct child assessment, they received the English

reading and mathematics battery. Approximately

68 percent of Hispanic children and 78 percent of

Asian/Pacific Islander children were assessed in English in the fall and spring of kindergarten and in

the spring of first grade (Denton and West 2002).21

In the fall of kindergarten, 1,567 children were not

administered the English battery because of their

performance on the OLDS. By spring of first grade,

this number was down to 350.22 In the third-grade

year, the OLDS was not administered and all children were assessed in English.23

Table 1 provides a comparison of the population of children represented by the sample used in

this report and the full ECLS-K population of firsttime kindergartners. The analytic sample used in

this report has a larger percentage of White24 children (64 percent) and a smaller percentage of Hispanic children (13 percent) than the full ECLS-K

sample of first-time kindergartners (59 and 18 percent, respectively), and the percentage of children

with no risk factors is higher for the analytic sample

than the full sample (62 percent vs. 58 percent)

Differences between the racial/ethnic and the risk

factor index distributions of the analytic sample and

the ECLS-K population distributions are due, in

part, to the exclusion of children who were not administered the assessments in English at all time

points in the study.

Comparisons in the text of this report are tested

for statistical significance to ensure that the differences are larger than might be expected, due to sampling variation. All differences described are statistically significant at the .05 level. Due to the large

sample size, many differences (no matter how substantively minor) are statistically significant. Therefore, in this report, following the criteria established

in earlier reports in this series, we define “substantive differences” as effect size differences of one-quarter of a standard deviation or more for mean scores,

and percentage differences of 5 points or greater for

specific proficiency levels, unless otherwise noted.

Based on the criteria set in this report, group differences are only reported as being substantive if

they have at least a small effect size (Cohen 1988).

Because of the multitude of possible bivariate comparisons, the statistically significant results that

meet the specified criteria for substantive importance are discussed in the text, but not noted in the

tables. However, in the regression analyses, all statistically significant coefficients are noted, with an

additional notation for those that also meet the specified criteria for substantive importance.

Changes Over Time for the

ECLS-K Children

Over the first 4 years of school, young children

may encounter different learning experiences. From

the start of kindergarten to the end of third grade,

many children had changed schools at least one time

(table 2).25 For instance, in the spring of 2002,

about half of the children remained in the same

school they had attended in kindergarten, 39 percent had made one school change, and 10 percent

had changed schools two or more times since the

start of kindergarten. Some children also changed

the type of school they attended. In the spring of

2002, 88 percent of the children were enrolled in

public schools and 12 percent attended private

schools. Eighty-one percent of the children had attended public schools for the duration of the study,

21In an earlier ECLS-K report (Denton and West 2002),

analyses were conducted to explore how including children

who initially could not take the battery in English but were

screened in by spring of first grade would impact achievement estimates. Significant reading t-score differences

overall and by specific racial/ethnic group were not

detected between the analytic sample of children assessed

in English at all time points and the total sample, including

those who were screened into the English assessment over

time.

22This information is based on the ECLS-K Longitudinal

Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Electronic Code Book

(NCES 2002–148) variable CPSOLDS (Round in which

child passed English OLDS).

23The OLDS was not administered in the spring of third

grade due to the small number of children to whom it

would apply and the associated costs of administering it to

them.

24White refers to White, non-Hispanic; Black refers to

Black, non-Hispanic; and Other refers to Other, nonHispanic (i.e., American Indian, Alaska Native, or

multiracial) for the remainder of this report.

25It is possible that a few students may have switched from

one school to another in second grade, then switched back

again to the original school at the start of third grade. Since

data were not collected in second grade, it is not possible

to identify when such instances occurred.
9

Selected child and family characteristics Analytic report sample Full ECLS-K sample

Sex

Male 51 51

Female 49 49

Race/ethnicity

White, non-Hispanic 64 59

Black, non-Hispanic 16 15

Hispanic 13 18

Asian/Pacific Islander 3 3

Other, non-Hispanic 4 4

Number of family risk factors1

No risks 62 58

One risk 23 23

Two or more risks 15 19

1

Family risk factors included living below the federal poverty level, primary home language was non-English, mother’s highest education

was less than a high school diploma/GED, and living in a single-parent household. Values range from 0 to 4.

NOTE: Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. Estimates for the analytic report sample reflect the sample of children assessed in

English in all assessment years.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998 and

spring 2002.

Table 1. Percentage distribution of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners in the analytic report

sample and the full ECLS-K sample, by child’s sex, race/ethnicity, and number of family

risk factors: Fall 1998

and 9 percent always attended private schools. Ten

percent changed the type of school they attended

at least once between kindergarten and the end of

third grade. In the spring of 2002, 89 percent of

first-time kindergartners were in third grade, 10

percent were in second grade, and about 1 percent

were enrolled in other grades (e.g., first or fourth

grade) (not shown in tables).

Limitations

This report provides a detailed description of

children’s achievement gains over the first 4 years

of school and their achievement status and their

perceptions of competence at the end of third grade.

However, there are limitations of the data and analyses used in this report. For instance, children’s reported perceptions of their interests and competence may be affected by response bias if the children feel the need to provide socially desirable answers on the SDQ. Steps were taken in the study to

reduce children’s concerns, including helpful hints

to the children to not worry about anyone seeing

or hearing their answers (see Appendix B: Measures

and Technical Notes); however, it is not possible to

estimate the degree to which such bias may occur.

As noted earlier, the analytic sample used in

this report excludes children who were unable to

be assessed in English in the first 2 years of the

study due to limited English proficiency. At the

end of third grade, no children were excluded from

the assessments due to language proficiency. However, since children who were previously excluded

from the cognitive assessments do not have reading

and mathematics scores for all rounds, they were

not included in this report.

In addition, many of the differences detected in

children’s third-grade achievement were already

present in the first month or two of kindergarten,

when children were just beginning their school experiences. As an example, private school kindergartners

demonstrated higher achievement in reading, mathematics, and general knowledge in the fall of kindergarten than children who attended public schools

(West, Denton, and Reaney 2001). Initial differences should be recognized when examining differences in achievement status in the early school grades.

Introduction
10 From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

Selected family and school characteristics Fall 1998 Spring 1999 Spring 2000 Spring 2002

 Total 100 100 100 100

Family type

Two-parent/other 77 77 78 78

Single parent 23 23 22 2

Federal poverty status1

Living below poverty level — 18 17 17

Living at or above poverty level — 82 83 83

School mobility

Enrolled in fall kindergarten school 100 97 72 51

One school change † 3 28 39

Two or more school changes † † 1 10

School type

Public school all years — 84 82 81

Private school all years — 16 12 9

Switched from public to private school † † 2 3

Switched from private to public school † † 4 6

Multiple changes in school type † † † 1

† Not applicable.

— Not available (Data were not collected on this variable in the fall of kindergarten).

1

Poverty is a function of household size and household income. Based on 1998 Census information, a household of four with a total

income below $16,655 was considered to be below the federal poverty level.

NOTE: Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment

years. The ECLS-K assessment was not administered in 2001, when most of the children were in second grade.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring

1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Table 2. Percentage distribution of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners in the ECLS-K

sample over the first 4 years of school, by selected family and school

characteristics: Fall 1998, spring 1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002
11

II. Children’s Cognitive Knowledge

and Skills

What knowledge and skills do children demonstrate in the spring of third grade? How have these changed since they first started school?

Do children’s knowledge and skills and the gains they have made over time differ by certain child, family, and school characteristics?

26In the fall of kindergarten, children’s reading scale scores

ranged from 12 to 114 and their mathematics scale scores

ranged from 6 to 64.

Although the ECLS-K is the first National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) study to conduct direct assessments of children’s cognitive achievement in their first years of school, other NCES surveys have assessed children’s reading, mathematics,

and science skills as early as fourth grade. The 2003

National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)

reading and mathematics assessments found that

fourth-graders’ achievement scores in both subject

areas differed in terms of children’s sex, race/ethnicity,

eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch, and the

type of school they attended (NCES 2003b; NCES

2003c). In reading, fourth-grade girls had higher

average scores than fourth-grade boys (NCES 2003c).

White and Asian/Pacific Islander fourth-graders outperformed their Black, Hispanic, and American Indian/Alaska Native counterparts in reading and mathematics. Also, low-income fourth-graders (those who

were eligible for free or reduced-price lunch programs)

had lower average scores in both subject areas than

those who were not eligible for such assistance. In

addition, children attending private schools outperformed their peers in public schools in both subject

areas in fourth grade (NCES 2003b; NCES 2003c).

The first part of this section examines how

children’s achievement in reading and mathematics

changes from the start of kindergarten to the end of

their fourth year of schooling, when most children

are enrolled in third grade. Second, children’s overall

achievement status in reading, mathematics, and science at the end of third grade is described. Third,

information is provided on the specific sets of reading and mathematics knowledge and skills that children demonstrate at the end of third grade. Differences in children’s achievement are described overall

and in relation to characteristics of the children, their

families, and their early school experiences.

Overall Gains in Reading and Mathematics Knowledge and Skills From

Kindergarten to Third Grade

The design of the ECLS-K reading and mathematics assessments permits the examination of longterm gains that children make over their first 4 years

of formal schooling, from the start of kindergarten to

the end of third grade (figures 1 and 2). The science

assessment was not administered until the third-grade

year; thus, it is not possible to calculate gain scores

for children’s science achievement or to describe the

acquisition of these skills across time.

Children’s gains in reading and mathematics were

calculated by subtracting children’s fall kindergarten overall achievement scale score in each subject

area from their corresponding spring third-grade overall achievement scale score. From the start of kindergarten to the end of third grade, on average, children’s

reading scale scores increased an average of 81 points,

and their mathematics scale scores increased about

63 points (tables A-4 and A-5). In the fall of kindergarten, the standard deviations for the reading and

mathematics overall achievement scale scores were

9.63 and 8.67 points, respectively.26 Thus, children’s

spring third-grade reading scale scores were about

8.4 standard deviations higher than their fall kindergarten scores, and their spring third-grade mathematics scale scores were about 7.3 standard deviations higher than their fall kindergarten scores.

It is important to note that the data points represented in the figures and tables in this report cover

different time spans (i.e., the kindergarten school

year, the full calendar year between spring of kindergarten and spring of first grade, and 2 full calendar

years between spring of first grade and spring of third

grade). Thus, increases in achievement over time must
12 From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

Figure 1. Mean reading scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners, by time of

assessment: Fall 1998, spring 1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002

NOTE: Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. The ECLS-K assessment was not administered in

2001, when most of the children were in second grade.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring 1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

NOTE: Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. The ECLS-K assessment was not administered in

2001, when most of the children were in second grade.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring 1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Figure 2. Mean mathematics scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners, by time of

assessment: Fall 1998, spring 1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002

Mean reading scale score

20

40

60

80

100

120

Time of assessment

Fall 1998 Spring 1999 Spring 2000 Spring 2002

0

27

39

69

108

Mean mathematics scale score

20

40

60

80

100

120

Time of assessment

Fall 1998 Spring 1999 Spring 2000 Spring 2002

0

22

32

55

85
13

27 The fall kindergarten to spring third-grade reading scale gains ranged from 16 to 125 points, with a mean of 81 points and a

standard deviation (SD) of 16.8 points, and the mathematics scale gains ranged from 17 to 104 points, with a mean of 63 points

and an SD of 13.7 points. Thus, differences in group mean gains were substantive if they were statistically significant and greater

than or equal to an effect size of 4.2 points in reading and 3.4 points in mathematics.

28Although many differences between the “other, non-Hispanic” children and the other subgroups of children are substantively

significant, they are not noted in the later text of this report since the “other, non-Hispanic” group is composed of children from

varying racial/ethnic backgrounds, and thus, the findings are more difficult to interpret.

Children’s Cognitive Knowledge and Skills

be interpreted relative to the amount of time between assessments. For instance, over the 12-month

period from spring of kindergarten to spring of first

grade, children averaged a gain of 30 points in reading (a gain of 3.1 standard deviations), compared

with an average annual gain of 19.5 points over the

24-month period from spring of first grade to spring

of third grade (average gain of 2.0 standard deviations each year). Similarly, for mathematics, a gain

of 23 points from spring of kindergarten to spring

of first grade was 8 points greater than the average

annual gain from spring of first grade to spring of

third grade (for a difference of 0.9 standard

deviations).

Bivariate comparisons. The gains that children

made in reading and mathematics from the start of

kindergarten to the end of the third-grade year differed for some groups of children (tables A-4 and

A-5).27 For instance, when comparing the overall,

unadjusted mean scores for children from different

racial/ethnic groups, Black children made smaller

gains in reading and mathematics than White, Hispanic, and Asian/Pacific Islander children over the

first 4 years of school. In addition, White children

made greater gains in both subjects than other, nonHispanic children over the first 4 years of school.28

Children with fewer risk factors made greater

progress in both subject areas than children with

more family risk factors (figures 3 and 4). Children’s

NOTE: Family risk factors included living below the federal poverty level, primary home language was non-English, mother’s highest

education was less than a high school diploma/GED, and living in a single-parent household. Values range from 0 to 4. Estimates reflect

the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. The ECLS-K assessment was not administered in 2001, when most of the

children were in second grade.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring

1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Figure 3. Mean reading scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners, by time of

assessment and number of family risk factors: Fall 1998, spring 1999, spring 2000,

and spring 2002

Mean reading scale score

20

40

60

80

100

120

29

41

73

113

105

22

32

58

95

Time of assessment

Fall 1998 Spring 1999 Spring 2000 Spring 2002

0

2 or more risks

1 risk

No risks

25

36

65
14 From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

NOTE: Family risk factors included living below the federal poverty level, primary home language was non-English, mother’s highest

education was less than a high school diploma/GED, and living in a single-parent household. Values range from 0 to 4. Estimates reflect

the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. The ECLS-K assessment was not administered in 2001, when most of the

children were in second grade.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–99 (ECLS-K),

Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring 1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Figure 4. Mean mathematics scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners, by time

of assessment and number of family risk factors: Fall 1998, spring 1999, spring

2000, and spring 2002

reading and mathematics gains over the first 4 years

of school did not differ substantively, however, by

their sex or the type of school or kindergarten program they attended.

Regression analyses. In order to describe

children’s gains in reading and mathematics in relation to each of the described child, family, and

early school experience variables, regression analyses were conducted to examine each relationship

while controlling for the other variables. The dependent variable in the first two regression analyses

(i.e., reading and mathematics gain scores) were

calculated by subtracting children’s fall kindergarten scale score in each subject area from their corresponding spring third-grade scale score. The results

of these analyses are thus presented in terms of the

amount of learning children demonstrate during

the first 4 years of school, as opposed to children’s

status at the end of the third grade adjusted by

their fall status, as would be the case with an alternative approach (i.e., a covariance model).29

The regression analyses of children’s gains in

reading and mathematics from the start of kindergarten to the end of third grade (table A-6) showed

the same patterns of differences between groups of

children as were detected in the bivariate analyses.

Black children demonstrated gains that were about

6 to 7 points lower in reading and 8 to 9 points

lower in mathematics than White, Hispanic, and

Asian/Pacific Islander children, after accounting for

the other selected characteristics (i.e., sex, number

of family risk factors, kindergarten program type,

and types of schools attended). Also, the number

of family risk factors was negatively related to

children’s reading gains (effect size = 0.22 standard

deviations (SD)) and mathematics achievement

gains (effect size = .0.18 SD). For each risk factor,

children’s gains in reading decreased by about

4 points and their mathematics gains decreased by

about 2 points. Thus, although race/ethnicity was

related to the number of family risk factors (Zill and

West 2001), each of the two characteristics was also

independently related to children’s gains in reading

and mathematics over the first 4 years of school. 29More information on the use of gain scores is provided in

Appendix B: Methodology and Technical Notes.

Mean mathematics scale score

20

40

60

80

100

120

2 or more risks

1 risk

No risks

Time of assessment

Fall 1998 Spring 1999 Spring 2000 Spring 2002

0

24

34

59

89

17

25

47

74

29

52

81

20
15

At the start of kindergarten, Black children and

those with more family risk factors had lower mean

achievement scores in reading and mathematics than

White, Hispanic, and Asian/Pacific Islander children and children with fewer risk factors (West,

Denton, and Reaney 2001). The findings in this

section indicate that the achievement gap between

Black children and other racial/ethnic groups, and

between children with no risk factors and those with

multiple risk factors, grew wider from the start of

kindergarten to the end of third grade.

Overall Reading, Mathematics,

and Science Knowledge and Skills

in Third Grade

In addition to describing the achievement that

children made in reading and mathematics over their

first 4 years of school, children’s third-grade achievement status in these subject areas was explored in

relation to characteristics of the children, their families, and their early school experiences. This section

also includes information about children’s achievement in science, since the ECLS-K included a science assessment in the third-grade year.30

Child and Family Characteristics

Bivariate comparisons. At the end of third

grade, children’s reading, mathematics, and science

knowledge and skills differed in relation to children’s

race/ethnicity and number of family risk factors

(tables A-4, A-5, A-7 and figure 5).31 White and

Asian/Pacific Islander children had higher reading,

mathematics, and science scale scores than Black

and Hispanic children, and Hispanic children obtained higher scale scores in all three subject areas

than Black children (figure 5). Also, the fewer the

risk factors present, the better children performed

on the reading, mathematics, and science assessments in third grade. No substantive differences

were found between girls’ and boys’ overall reading, mathematics, or science knowledge and skills.

Regression analyses. In order to describe

children’s overall reading, mathematics, and science

achievement at the end of third grade in relation to

each of the described child, family, and early school

experience variables, regression analyses were conducted that examine each relationship while controlling for the other characteristics (table A-8).

Results of the three regression analyses (i.e., reading, mathematics, and science) indicated that Black

third-graders had lower achievement scores in all

three subject areas compared with White, Hispanic,

and Asian/Pacific Islander third-graders, after accounting for the other selected characteristics (i.e.,

sex, number of family risk factors, kindergarten program type, types of schools attended). Black thirdgraders’ reading scores were about 9 points lower

than White third-graders, 6 points lower than Hispanic third-graders, and about 10 points less than

Asian Pacific Islander third-graders. In mathematics, Black third-graders scored about 12 points lower

than White third-graders, 9 points lower than Hispanic third-graders, and about 14 points lower than

Asian/Pacific Islander children. Black children’s

third-grade science scores were about 8 points lower

than White children, 5 points lower than Hispanic

children, and 7 points lower than Asian/Pacific Islander children. Consistent with the bivariate findings, children with one or more family risk factors

also demonstrated lower achievement scores in all

three subject areas than children with no family

risk factors. For each family risk factor, children’s

reading scores decreased by about 6 points, their

mathematics scores decreased by about 5 points,

and their science scores decreased by about 3 points.

On the other hand, although the bivariate results

indicated that Hispanic children had lower achievement scores at the end of third grade in all three

subjects than White and Asian/Pacific Islander thirdgraders, the regression findings indicated that Hispanic children’s achievement was substantively lower

than White children’s achievement only in science

(a 3 point difference), after controlling for the other

factors.

30In the spring of third grade, reading scale scores ranged

from 42 to 149 points, with a standard deviation (SD) of

19.9 points, mathematics scale scores ranged from 33 to

120 points, SD of 17.8 points, and the science scale scores

ranged from 11 to 59 points, SD of 9.6 points. Thus,

differences in group mean scale scores were substantive if

they were statistically significant and greater than or equal

to an effect size of 5.0 points in reading, 4.5 points in

mathematics, and 2.4 points in science.

31Tables A-4 and A-5 also provide information on the mean

achievement scores for children at the start and end of

kindergarten and the end of first grade, although comparisons are only made for third-grade data.

Children’s Cognitive Knowledge and Skills
16 From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

NOTE: Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. Although most of the children in the sample

were in third grade in the spring of 2002, 10 percent were in second grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled in other grades.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class

of 1998–99 (ECLS-K), Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, spring 2002.

Figure 5. Mean scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners in spring of third grade, by

subject area and race/ethnicity: Spring 2002

Early School Experiences

Bivariate comparisons. Children’s achievement

scores in reading, mathematics, and science in third

grade were also related to some of their early school

experiences (tables A-4, A-5, and A-7). Third-graders’ reading, mathematics, and science achievement

scores were related to the types of schools they attended (figure 6). Children who attended public

schools for the first 4 years of school had lower scale

scores in reading and science than children who had

always attended private schools or those who had

attended both public and private schools. In addition, those who attended public schools the whole

time had lower mathematics scale scores than those

who attended private school the whole time. As

noted previously, differences related to school type

should be interpreted with caution since children

also demonstrated differences in achievement by

their school type at the start of kindergarten, when

schools have had little opportunity to have an effect

on children’s performance (West, Denton, and

Reaney 2001).

Regression analyses. After accounting for the

other described characteristics (i.e., sex, race/

ethnicity, number of family risk factors, and kindergarten program type), there were no substantive differences in children’s achievement in mathematics or science related to the types of schools

they attended from kindergarten through third

grade (table A-8). In reading, children who had

always attended private schools had achievement

scores that were about 5 points higher than those

who had always attended public school. Thus, although the bivariate results showed that children

who attended private schools for part or all of their

first 4 years of school generally had higher reading,

mathematics, and science achievement than children who had attended only public schools, many of

these school type differences could be attributed to

other factors, such as race/ethnicity or family risk

factors.

Subject area

Mean scale score

Black, non-Hispanic

White, non-Hispanic

Hispanic

Asian/Pacific Islander

Reading Mathematics Science

112

98

105

111

89

73

82

88

37

27

32 35

0

20

40

60

80

100

120
17

NOTE: Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. Although most of the children in the sample

were in third grade in the spring of 2002, 10 percent were in second grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled in other grades.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring

1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Figure 6. Mean scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners in spring of third grade, by

subject area and school type: Spring 2002

Specific Reading and Mathematics

Knowledge and Skills in Third

Grade

In addition to overall reading and mathematics

achievement scores, the ECLS-K includes proficiency level scores for both subject areas that provide more specific information on the knowledge

and skills that children have acquired by the end of

third grade.32 This section highlights differences in

children’s achievement status in specific knowledge

and skills relative to child and family characteristics and early education experiences.

Reading

By the end of third grade, almost all children

had mastered identifying ending sounds (100 percent), sight words (99 percent), and words in context (95 percent) (figure 7, table A-9). About threequarters of the children could make literal inferences

based on cues stated in text, 46 percent were able to

use identifying clues to derive meaning in text, and

29 percent demonstrated the ability to make interpretations beyond text. The next two parts of this

section compare third-graders’ proficiency in making literal inferences, deriving meaning from text,

and making interpretations beyond text, in terms of

children’s characteristics and their early school experiences. Subgroup comparisons were not made for

ending sounds, sight words, and words in context

mastery since almost all children were proficient in

these skills in the spring of third grade.

Child and Family Characteristics

Bivariate comparisons. Third-graders’ proficiency in specific reading knowledge and skills

32Information on the percent of children reaching each

proficiency level at the end of first grade is also provided in

this report, although comparisons are only made for thirdgrade data. For a more detailed analysis of children’s reading

and mathematics knowledge and skills in kindergarten and

first grade, refer to America's Kindergartners (West, Denton,

and Germino Hausken 2000), The Kindergarten Year (West,

Denton, and Reaney 2001), and Children’s Reading and

Mathematics Achievement in Kindergarten and First Grade

(Denton and West 2002).

Subject area

Mean scale score

Private school all years

Public school all years

Switched school types

Reading Mathematics Science

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

107

116 113

84

90 88

34 38 37

Children’s Cognitive Knowledge and Skills
18 From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

NOTE: Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. Although most of the children in the sample

were in third grade in the spring of 2002, 10 percent were in second grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled in other grades.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, spring 2002.

Figure 8. Percent of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners demonstrating specific reading

knowledge and skills in spring of third grade, by race/ethnicity: Spring 2002

# Rounds to zero.

NOTE: Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. The ECLS-K assessment was not administered in

2001, when most of the children were in second grade.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring 1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Figure 7. Percent of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners demonstrating specific reading

knowledge and skills, by time of assessment: Fall 1998, spring 1999, spring 2000,

and spring 2002

Reading proficiency level

0

20

40

60

80

100

Ending 

sounds

Percent

Sight 

words

Words 

in context

Literal 

inference

Deriving 

meaning

17

51

93

100

3

15

77

99

1 4

46

95

# 1

16

78

# 4

46

#

Spring 1999

Fall 1998

Spring 2000

Spring 2002

# 3

29

#

Interpreting 

beyond text

Reading proficiency level

0

20

40

60

80

100

Percent

Black, non-Hispanic

White, non-Hispanic

Hispanic

Asian/Pacific Islander

Literal inference Deriving meaning Interpreting beyond text

84

63

74

82

53

27

39

48

34

15

23

31
19

differed in relation to their sex, race/ethnicity, and

number of family risk factors (table A-9). By the

end of third grade, girls were more likely to be proficient in making literal inferences and deriving

meaning from text than boys.33 Black children were

less likely to demonstrate proficiency in making literal inferences, deriving meaning from text, and

making interpretations beyond text than White,

Asian/Pacific Islander, and Hispanic children (figure 8). Also, Hispanic third-graders were less likely

to be proficient in these three areas than White and

Asian/Pacific Islander children. For instance, 53

percent of White and 48 percent of Asian/Pacific

Islander third-graders could derive meaning based

on textual clues and background knowledge, compared to 39 percent of Hispanic and 27 percent of

Black third-graders. In addition, children with more

family risk factors were less likely to be proficient

in these three areas than those with fewer risk

factors. As an example, 85 percent of children with

no risk factors were able to make inferences based

on cues stated in text, compared with 73 percent of

children with one risk factor and 57 percent of children with 2 or more risk factors.

Regression analyses. Many of the differences

found in the bivariate comparisons persisted after

taking into account children’s sex, race/ethnicity,

number of family risk factors, and early school experiences, with the exception of some differences

between Hispanic, White, and Asian/Pacific Islander

children’s attainment of specific reading skills (table

A-10). For instance, 5 to 6 percent fewer thirdgrade boys were proficient in literal inference or

deriving meaning, compared to girls, after controlling for the other factors. When compared to White

third-graders, 12 to 13 percent fewer Black thirdgraders were proficient in literal inference and interpreting beyond text, and 18 percent fewer were

able to derive meaning from text. Also, 6 to 7 percent fewer Hispanic third-graders could derive

meaning or interpret beyond text compared with

White children. On the other hand, no differences

were detected between the percentage of Hispanic

third-graders who were proficient in making literal

inferences and the percentages of White and Asian/

Pacific Islander children demonstrating such skills.

NOTE: Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. Although most of the children in the sample

were in third grade in the spring of 2002, 10 percent were in second grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled in other grades.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring

1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Figure 9. Percent of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners demonstrating specific reading

knowledge and skills in spring of third grade, by school type: Spring 2002

Reading proficiency level

0

20

40

60

80

100

Percent

Literal inference Deriving meaning Interpreting beyond text

76

90

84

44

60

54

27

38 35

Private school all years

Public school all years

Switched school types

33When reporting on differences in the percentage of

children proficient in specific skills and knowledge, a

difference of 5 percentage points is substantively important.

Children’s Cognitive Knowledge and Skills
20 From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

Also, no differences were detected between the likelihood of Hispanic and Asian/Pacific Islander children to derive meaning based on textual cues after

controlling for the other factors. Thus, some of the

differences between the performance of Hispanic

children and those from other racial/ethnic groups

may be attributed to other factors, such as family

risk factors.

Early School Experiences

Bivariate comparisons. Children’s reading proficiency in specific knowledge and skills also differed

in third grade by the types of schools they attended

(table A-9). Children enrolled in private schools from

kindergarten through third grade were more likely

to be able to make literal inferences or derive meaning from text than those who attended only public

schools or those who switched school types during

the study, and those who had switched school types

were more likely to be proficient in these areas than

children who attended public schools for all 4 years

(figure 9). In addition, 27 percent of public school

children were able to make interpretations beyond

text, compared with 38 percent of children who always had attended private schools and 35 percent of

children who changed school types in the first 4 years

of school. No differences were detected in children’s

reading proficiency in relation to the type of kindergarten program they had attended.

Regression analyses. After controlling for

children’s sex, race/ethnicity, number of family risk

factors, and kindergarten program type, children

who had attended public schools in kindergarten

through third grade were still less likely than children who had always attended private schools to

reach the top three proficiency levels (i.e., literal

inference, deriving meaning, and interpreting beyond text had 8, 10, and 6 percent fewer students

from the public school only group than from the

private school only group) (table A-10). Further,

children who had always attended public schools

were less likely to be proficient at deriving meaning

and interpreting beyond the text than those children who had changed school types. However, there

were no substantive differences in the percentage of

children who demonstrated the ability to make literal inferences between those who had attended

private school for all 4 years and those who had

Figure 10. Percent of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners demonstrating specific

mathematics knowledge and skills, by time of assessment: Fall 1998, spring

1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002

# Rounds to zero.

NOTE: Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. The ECLS-K assessment was not administered in

2001, when most of the children were in second grade.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring 1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Mathematics proficiency level

0

20

40

60

80

100

Ordinality 

and sequence

Percent

Addition 

and subtraction

Multiplication 

and division

Place value Rate and 

measurement

Spring 1999

Fall 1998

Spring 2000

Spring 2002

21

56

95

100

4

17

72

97

# 2

25

78

# # 3

42

###

16
21

only attended private schools for a portion of the

time, after accounting for the other factors. Also,

children who had always attended public school

were not substantively less likely to be proficient at

literal inferences than those who had attended both

public and private schools.

Mathematics

By the end of third grade, all children had

mastered ordinality and sequence skills and 97 percent were proficient in solving simple addition and

subtraction problems (figure 10, table A-11). Seventy-eight percent of the children could solve simple

multiplication and division problems, 42 percent

demonstrated an understanding of place value in

integers to the hundreds place, and 16 percent were

able to use knowledge of rate and measurement to

solve word problems. The next two parts of this

section focus on differences in third-graders’ proficiency in multiplication and division, place value,

and rate and measurement relative to children’s

characteristics and their early school experiences.

Subgroup comparisons were not made for ordinality

and sequence skills or simple addition and subtraction problemsolving since almost all children were

proficient in these skills in the spring of third grade.

Child and Family Characteristics

Bivariate comparisons. Consistent with the patterns found in reading, third-graders’ proficiency

in specific mathematics knowledge and skills varied by their sex, race/ethnicity, and number of family risk factors (table A-11). Boys were more likely

than girls to demonstrate an understanding of place

value concepts and knowledge of rate and measurement to solve word problems. Black third-graders

were less likely to demonstrate proficiency in multiplication and division, place value, and rate and

measurement than White, Hispanic, and Asian/Pacific Islander third-graders, and the percentage of

Hispanic children reaching each of these proficiency

levels was lower than the percentage of White and

Asian/Pacific Islander children reaching these respective levels (figure 11). For instance, in third

grade about half of White and Asian/Pacific Islander

children were proficient in understanding place

value, compared with 35 percent of Hispanic children and 20 percent of Black children in third grade.

Also, children from homes with more risk factors

were less likely to have reached each of the three

proficiency levels than children with fewer risk factors. As an example, about one-fifth of children with

no risk factors were proficient at using rate and

Children’s Cognitive Knowledge and Skills

Figure 11. Percent of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners demonstrating specific

mathematics knowledge and skills in third grade, by race/ethnicity: Spring 2002

NOTE: Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. Although most of the children in the sample

were in third grade in the spring of 2002, 10 percent were in second grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled in other grades.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, spring 2002.

Mathematics proficiency level

0

20

40

60

80

100

Percent

Black, non-Hispanic

White, non-Hispanic

Hispanic

Asian/Pacific Islander

Multiplication and division Place value Rate and measurement

84

58

75

83

50

20

35

49

19

5

11

22
22 From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

measurement knowledge to solve word problems,

compared with 11 percent of children with one family risk and 5 percent of children with 2 or more

risk factors.

Regression analyses. All but one of the differences in specific math proficiency levels persisted

after controlling for the other described factors (table

A-12). For instance, 7 to 8 percent fewer thirdgrade girls were proficient in place value and rate

and measurement, compared to boys. Also, when

compared to White third-graders, a smaller percentage of Black third-graders were proficient in

multiplication and division, place value, and rate

and measurement (20, 23, and 11 percent fewer,

respectively). In addition, for each family risk factor, the percent of third-graders proficient in multiplication and division and place value decreased

by 8 to 9 percent, and the percent proficient in

rate and measurement decreased by 5 percent.

However, after taking into account children’s sex,

number of family risk factors, and early school experiences, the percentage of Hispanic third-graders

proficient in multiplication and division did not

differ substantively from the percentage of White

children demonstrating such skills and knowledge.

Early School Experiences

Bivariate comparisons. Children’s performance

in specific mathematics knowledge and skills also

differed by their school type (table A-11). Children

who had attended public schools for all 4 years were

less likely to be proficient in multiplication and division, place value, and rate and measurement than

children who had attended private schools for all or

some of the time between kindergarten and third

grade (figure 12). For instance, 14 percent of children who had always attended public schools were

able to use rate and measurement to solve word

problems, compared with 22 percent of children

who had attended both public and private schools,

and 20 percent who had always attended private

schools.

Regression analyses. After controlling for

children’s sex, race/ethnicity, number of family risk

factors, and kindergarten program type, some of

the differences in specific mathematics knowledge

and skills attributed to school type did not persist

(table A-12). For instance, compared to children

who had always attended private schools, 5 percent

fewer children who had always attended public

NOTE: Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. Although most of the children in the sample

were in third grade in the spring of 2002, 10 percent were in second grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled in other grades.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring

1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Figure 12. Percent of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners demonstrating specific mathematics

knowledge and skills in spring of third grade, by school type: Spring 2002

Mathematics proficiency level

0

20

40

60

80

100

Percent

Multiplication and division Place value Rate and measurement

Private school all years

Public school all years

Switched school types 77

87 84

41

52 48

14

20 22
23

schools reached the multiplication/division and

place value proficiency levels. However, children who

had always attended public schools were not substantively less likely to reach these two levels than

children who had attended both public and private schools. On the other hand, 5 percent fewer

children who had exclusively attended public school

were able to use rate and measurement to solve word

problems, compared with those who attended both

public and private schools, but children who only

attended public schools were not less likely to demonstrate this skill than children who attended private school for all 4 years.

Summary of Findings

Overall Gains in Reading and Mathematics

Skills and Knowledge From Kindergarten

to Third Grade

• Children gained an average of 81 points in

reading (range 16 to 125 points) and 63

points in mathematics (range 17 to 104 points)

from the beginning of kindergarten to the end

of third grade.

• Black children made smaller gains in reading

and mathematics from the start of kindergarten to the end of third grade than White, Hispanic, and Asian/Pacific Islander children, even

after controlling for sex, number of family risk

factors, school types, and kindergarten program type.

• As the number of children’s family risk factors

(i.e., single-parent household, below federal

poverty level, primary home language other

than English, and mother’s highest education

level less than a high school diploma or its

equivalent) increased, children made smaller

gains in both subjects, after controlling for the

other child, family, and school characteristics.

• Children’s reading and mathematics gains did

not differ substantively by their sex, kindergarten program type (i.e., half-day or full-day),

or the type of schools in which they were enrolled (i.e., public school all 4 years, private

school all 4 years, mixture of public and private school attendance).

Overall Reading, Mathematics, and

Science Knowledge and Skills in Third Grade

• In the spring of third grade, children’s mean

reading score was 113 (range 42 to 149), their

mean mathematics score was 89 (range 33 to

120), and their mean science score was 35

(range 11 to 59).

• Black third-graders had lower overall achievement scores in reading, mathematics, and science than White, Hispanic, and Asian/Pacific

Islander children, even after controlling for sex,

number of family risk factors, school types,

and kindergarten program type.

• In bivariate comparisons, Hispanic children

had lower achievement in all three subject areas than White and Asian/Pacific Islander thirdgraders. However, after controlling for children’s

sex, number of family risk factors, school type,

and kindergarten program type, Hispanic

third-graders only had substantively lower

achievement in science than White children.

• In all three subjects, those with more family

risk factors had lower achievement scores at

the end of third grade than those with fewer

family risk factors, after controlling for the

other child, family, and school characteristics.

• In bivariate comparisons, children who attended public schools from kindergarten

through third grade had lower achievement

scores in reading and science than those who

had attended private schools for some or all of

the time, and they had lower mathematics

scores than those who attended private schools

the whole time. However, after controlling for

the other factors (i.e., sex, race/ethnicity, number of family risk factors, and kindergarten

program type) the only substantive schooltype difference that persisted was that thirdgraders who had attended private schools all

of their first 4 years of school had higher reading achievement than children who had always attended public school. Differences in

third-graders’ achievement in relation to the

type of school they attend should be interpreted with caution, as children also demonstrated differences in achievement by their

school type in the fall of kindergarten, when

Children’s Cognitive Knowledge and Skills
24 From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

schools had little opportunity to have an effect on children’s performance (West, Denton,

and Reaney 2001).

• Third-grade reading, mathematics, and science

achievement did not differ substantively by

children’s sex or kindergarten program type.

Specific Reading and Mathematics Knowledge and Skills in Third Grade

• Almost all children were proficient in identifying ending sounds of words, naming sight

words, and recognizing words in context, and

had mastered concepts of ordinality and simple

addition and subtraction. About three-quarters could make literal inferences based on text

and solve simple multiplication and division

problems. Forty-six percent were able to use

cues to derive meaning from text and 42 percent understood place value concepts. Twentynine percent were able to make interpretations

beyond what was stated in text and 16 percent could use rate and measurement to solve

word problems.

• Girls were more likely than boys to demonstrate the ability to make literal inferences and

derive meaning from text in reading. On the

other hand, boys were more likely than girls

to demonstrate an understanding of place

value concepts and knowledge of rate and

measurement to solve word problems, even

after controlling for the other child, family,

and school characteristics.

• In bivariate comparisons, Black and Hispanic

third-graders were less likely than White and

Asian/Pacific Islander children to reach the

three highest reading proficiency levels (i.e.,

making literal inferences, deriving meaning

from text, and making interpretations beyond

text) and the three highest mathematics proficiency levels (i.e., multiplication and division, place value, and rate and measurement).

Black third-graders were also less likely to reach

each of these proficiency levels than Hispanic

children.

• After controlling for the other characteristics,

however, Hispanic children were not substantively less likely than White or Asian/Pacific

Islander children to make literal inferences, and

were not substantively less likely than Asian/

Pacific Islander children to be able to derive

meaning based on textual cues. In addition,

the percentage of Hispanic third-graders reaching the multiplication/division proficiency level

did not differ substantively from the percentage of White children reaching the same level,

after accounting for the other factors.

• Children with more family risk factors were

less likely to have reached the three highest

reading and mathematics proficiency levels

than their peers with fewer family risk factors,

overall and after taking into account the other

characteristics.

• In bivariate comparisons, children who attended public school from kindergarten

through third grade were less likely than those

who had attended private schools for some or

all of their first 4 years of school to demonstrate proficiency in making literal inferences

and deriving meaning from text in reading and

proficiency in multiplication and division,

place value, and rate and measurement in

mathematics.

• After controlling for the other factors (e.g.,

number of family risk factors), some of the

differences associated with school type did not

persist. For example, children who had exclusively attended public schools were no longer

substantively less likely to make literal inferences than those who had attended both public and private schools. Also, those who attended public schools for all 4 years were no

longer substantively less likely to be proficient

in using rate and measurement to solve word

problems than children who had exclusively

attended private schools.
25

III. Children’s Perceptions About

Themselves and Their School

Experiences

How do third-graders perceive themselves and their relations with other children? Is their academic achievement at the end of third

grade related to their perceptions?

In the early school years, children begin to develop perceptions about their competence and interest in school and their relationships with others.

Children’s ratings of their academic competence

begin to correspond with objective measures of their

cognitive performance about the time that they

enter second or third grade (Chapman and Tunmer

2003; Guay, Marsh, and Boivin 2003; Wigfield et

al. 1997).

In the first 2 years of the ECLS-K (i.e., kindergarten and first grade), parents and teachers responded to questions about children’s

socioemotional development. For the first time in

the third-grade year, the children were asked to report on this by completing a self-description questionnaire (SDQ), which included 42 items related

to their perceptions about their school abilities and

interests, their peer relationships, and their perceptions about any problem behaviors they might exhibit. Trained assessors read each statement to the

child, then provided time for children to mark their

answer in a booklet.34 Children responded to each

behavioral statement on a scale from 1 to 4, including the response categories of “not at all true,” “a

little bit true,” “mostly true,” and “very true.”

Children’s responses were used to develop six scales

that describe children’s perceptions about their competence and interest in (1) reading, (2) mathematics, and (3) school in general and their perceptions

about their (4) peer relationships and any (5) internalizing or (6) externalizing behaviors that they

may exhibit. Scale scores were based on the mean

value calculated from the items that composed each

scale.35 This section describes the children’s perceptions overall and in relation to characteristics of

the children themselves, their families, and their

early school experiences on each of the six scales.

For each scale, bivariate and regression analyses were

conducted.

Children’s Perceptions in Third

Grade

Reading, Mathematics, and General School

SDQ Scales

In general, few group differences were found in

terms of children’s perceptions about their abilities

and interests in reading, mathematics, and school

in general (table A-13). On average, children indicated that items on the reading, mathematics, and

“all school subjects” scale were “mostly true” for

them, based on average scale scores of 3.3, 3.2, and

2.9, respectively. These scores indicate that, on average, children generally were interested in and

enjoyed reading, mathematics, and school in general, and that they did not perceive the academic

work to be too difficult for them in these areas. In

the bivariate analyses, girls felt more positively about

their interests and competence in reading than boys

34More details on the SDQ administration procedures are

provided in Appendix B: Methodology and Technical

Notes.

35The standard deviations for each of the SDQ scale scores

are as follows: reading scale = 0.67, mathematics scale

= 0.81, all subjects = 0.66, peer relationships = 0.65,

internalizing problem behaviors = 0.73, and externalizing

problem behaviors = 0.70. Thus, differences in group mean

scale scores were substantive if they were statistically

significant and greater than or equal to an effect size of 0.17

points on the reading scale, 0.20 on the mathematics scale,

0.17 on the all subjects scale, 0.16 on the peer relationships

scale, 0.18 on the internalizing problem behaviors scale,

and 0.18 on the externalizing problem behaviors scale.
26 From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

and children who attended public schools for the

first 4 years of school had reported greater competence and interest in mathematics than children

who had always attended private schools. Results

from the regression analyses for each scale also found

that girls responded more positively on the reading

scale than boys, although school type was not found

to be substantively related to mathematics perceptions, after controlling for other factors (table

A-14).

Peer-Relationships SDQ Scale

On average, children responded positively

about their relationships with their peers, with an

overall mean score on the peer-relationships scale

of 3.0 (“mostly true”) (table A-13). The relatively

high scores on this measure indicated that children

generally felt that they made friends easily and got

along well with their peers. Black and Hispanic

third-graders reported more positively about their

peer relationships than Asian/Pacific Islander children. After controlling for the other factors, such as

number of family risk factors and school type, Black

third-graders still had higher scores on the peerrelationships scale than Asian/Pacific Islander thirdgraders (effect size of 0.24 SD) (table A-14).

Internalizing and Externalizing Problem

Behaviors SDQ Scales

In terms of the problem behaviors scales, children tended to indicate that items on the internalizing problem behavior (e.g., sad/lonely/anxious)

scale and the externalizing problem behavior (e.g.,

anger/distractibility) scale were “a little bit true”

for them, with means of 2.2 and 2.0, respectively

(table A-13). These values indicate that children

felt they occasionally exhibited internalizing problem behaviors (e.g., feeling ashamed of mistakes,

worrying about school and friendships, and feelings of sadness or loneliness) or externalizing problem behaviors (e.g., fighting and arguing with other

children, disturbing others, or causing distractions).

Children’s perceptions of their own problem

behaviors varied by sex, race/ethnicity, number of

family risk factors, and school type. In mean comparisons, boys were more likely than girls to indicate that they exhibited externalizing problem behaviors. Black third-graders reported the highest

scores on both problem behavior scales, and Hispanic

children rated themselves higher on the internalizing problem behavior scale than White and Asian/

Pacific Islander children. Also, as children’s number of family risk factors increased, they tended to

rate themselves higher on both problem behavior

scales (figure 13). In terms of early school experiences, children who attended only public schools

from kindergarten through third grade had higher

scores on the internalizing problem behavior scale

than children who had been enrolled in private

schools for some or all of the first 4 years of school.

Many of the bivariate findings were supported

in the corresponding regression analyses (table

A-14). For instance, boys were more likely than girls

to report exhibiting externalizing problem behaviors and Black children were more likely to indicate

that they exhibited both types of problem behaviors than White and Asian/Pacific Islander thirdgraders, after controlling for the other characteristics. They were also more likely than Hispanic thirdgraders to have higher scores on the externalizing

problem behavior scale. Also, children with more

than one family risk factor were more likely to report experiencing internalizing and externalizing

problem behaviors than those with no family risk

factors.

However, after controlling for the other factors,

some of the bivariate differences did not persist in

the regression analyses. For instance, Hispanic children were not substantively more likely to indicate

that they experienced internalizing problem behaviors than White or Asian/Pacific Islander third-graders. Also, school type was not substantively related

to the likelihood of either problem behavior type

in the regression analyses.

Children’s Perceptions About

School and Their Cognitive Status

Previous research has noted positive associations

between young children’s perceptions about their

cognitive abilities and interests in subject areas and

their academic achievement in different subject areas (Chapman and Tunmer 2003; Guay, Marsh,

and Boivin 2003; O’Sullivan and Weiss 1999;

Valeski and Stipek 2001). For instance, fourth-graders who outperformed others on the NAEP science

assessment were more likely to report that they enjoyed science (O’Sullivan and Weiss 1999). The
Children’s Perceptions About Themselves and Their School Experiences 27

NOTE: Family risk factors included living below the federal poverty level, primary home language was non-English, mother’s highest

education was less than a high school diploma/GED, and living in a single-parent household. Values range from 0 to 4. Scale scores on

children’s perceptions come from a self-description questionnaire (SDQ). Scores on the SDQ scales ranged from 1 “not at all true” to 4

“very true”. Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. Although most of the children in the

sample were in third grade in the spring of 2002, 10 percent were in second grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled in other grades.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring

1999, and spring 2002.

Figure 13. Mean scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners’ perceptions of problem

behaviors they exhibit in spring of third grade, by number of family risk factors:

Spring 2002

ECLS-K data can also be used to explore relationships between children’s perceptions and their

achievement in school. In order to examine the relationship between children’s perceptions about

their competence and interests in reading, mathematics, and school in general with their achievement in different subject areas, children were

categorized for this report into three equally sized

achievement groups (lowest third, middle third, and

highest third) in reading, mathematics, and science,

based on their IRT-scale scores for each subject area

(table A-15).36 Children’s perceptions of their competence and interest in reading, mathematics, and

school in general were compared across the three

achievement group categories because initial scatter plots displayed a non-linear relationship between

achievement and perceptions.

Children scoring in the highest third of the

third-grade reading assessment tended to respond

more positively on the SDQ reading scale than children who scored in the lower two-thirds of the reading assessment (figure 14). Thus, children who performed best on the reading assessment were more

likely than children at the lowest reading levels to

indicate that they were interested in and enjoyed

reading, and that they did not perceive their reading assignments to be too difficult for them. The

same pattern was detected for children’s mathematics achievement; those achieving in the top third in

mathematics had higher perceptions of their competence and interest in mathematics than children

in the lower two-thirds of the third-grade mathematics assessment. Both sets of findings persisted

after controlling for the other factors, such as

children’s race/ethnicity and school type (table

A-16). The relationship between children’s perceptions and achievement were subject-specific, however. For instance, children in the top third of the

science assessment did not report substantively

higher perceptions of their reading, mathematics,

36The correlation between children’s overall reading scale

score in third grade and their score on the reading

perceptions scale was 0.19 (t-value = 13.07). The correlation between children’s overall mathematics scale score in

third grade and their score on the SDQ mathematics

perceptions scale was 0.11 (t-value = 6.83).

Self-description questionnaire (SDQ) problem behaviors scale

Internalizing problem behaviors Externalizing problem behaviors

1 risk

No risks

2 or more risks

1

2

3

4

2.0

2.3 2.5

1.9 2.1 2.3

Mean SDQ scale score
28 From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

NOTE: Perceived competence and interest scores are from a self-description questionnaire (SDQ). Scores on the SDQ scales ranged from 1

“not at all true” to 4 “very true”. Children were categorized into 3 equally sized achievement groups (lowest, middle, and highest) for

reading and mathematics based on their scale scores for each subject area. Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in

all assessment years. Although most of the children in the sample were in third grade in the spring of 2002, 10 percent were in second

grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled in other grades.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, spring 2002.

Figure 14. Mean scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners’ perceptions of their

competence and interest in reading and mathematics in spring of third grade, by

their spring third-grade reading and mathematics achievement status: Spring

2002

or general school competence than children at lower

levels, and there was no substantive relationship

between achievement in one subject area and perception of competence and interest in a different

subject area.

Summary of Findings

Children’s Perceptions in Third Grade

• On average, children’s scores on the reading,

mathematics, and general school scales were

high, indicating that they were generally interested in and enjoyed school, and that they

did not perceive their schoolwork to be too

difficult.

• Girls tended to have greater interest in and

perceived competence in reading than boys.

• On average, children responded positively on

the peer-relationships scale, indicating that

they generally made friends easily and got

along well with their peers.

• Black and Hispanic third-graders responded

more positively overall on the peer-relationships scale than Asian/Pacific Islander children.

After controlling for the other factors, such as

the child’s sex, number of family risk factors,

kindergarten program type, and school type,

Black third-graders still had higher scores on

the peer-relationships scale than Asian/Pacific

Islander third-graders.

• On average, scores on the two problem behaviors scales were relatively low, with children

generally indicating that they only occasionally exhibited externalizing (e.g., fighting and

arguing) or internalizing (e.g., anxiety, sadness, loneliness) problem behaviors.

• Boys indicated a higher likelihood of exhibiting externalizing behaviors than girls.

• Black third-graders were generally more likely

to indicate that they exhibited externalizing

and internalizing problem behaviors than children from other racial/ethnic groups, even after controlling for other factors.

Perceived competence in school subjects self-description questionnaire (SDQ) scale

Reading scale Mathematics scale

Middle achievers in subject area

Lowest achievers in subject area

Highest achievers in subject area

1

2

3

4

Mean SDQ scale score

3.2 3.2

3.4

3.1 3.1

3.3
29

• As the number of family risk factors increased

for third-graders, they were more likely to indicate that they exhibited both types of problem behaviors, even after accounting for other

factors.

Children’s Perceptions About School and

Their Cognitive Status

• Those scoring in the highest third on the reading assessment had higher perceived interest

and competency in reading than children scoring

in the lower two-thirds. The same pattern of relationships between perceptions and achievement

occurred in mathematics.

• The relationship between children’s perceptions and achievement were subject-specific,

in that there was no substantive relationship

between achievement in one subject area and

perceived interest and competence in a different subject area.

Children’s Perceptions About Themselves and Their School Experiences

31

IV. Conclusion

This report provides information on the range

of cognitive skills and knowledge that children demonstrate in their first 4 years of school, as they

progress from kindergarten through third grade. It

also describes how children perceive themselves in

terms of their school experiences and their relationships with their peers.

This report builds on findings of the ECLS-K

program’s earlier reports, with the main purpose

to continue to examine whether differences by certain child, family, and school characteristics found

in earlier reports persist, desist, widen, or narrow.

Those characteristics associated with differences in

children’s achievement found in earlier reports (and

which are explored here) are: (1) child’s sex; (2)

race/ethnicity; (3) number of family risk factors;

(4) kindergarten program type (full/half day); and

(5) school type across the first 4 years of the study.

Consistent with patterns found in earlier

ECLS-K reports, the knowledge and skills children

demonstrated at the end of third grade continued

to differ in relation to their race/ethnicity and their

number of family risk factors. Black children had

lower overall mean achievement scores in reading,

mathematics, and science at the end of third grade,

and were less likely to demonstrate specific thirdgrade reading and mathematics skills than White,

Hispanic, and Asian/Pacific Islander children. Children with more family risk factors also demonstrated lower achievement in these areas than children with fewer risk factors. These types of differences were also present at the start and end of kindergarten and at the end of first grade (Denton

and West 2002; West, Denton, and Reaney 2001).

In addition, Black children made smaller gains in

reading and mathematics from the start of school

to the end of third grade than White, Hispanic,

and Asian/Pacific Islander children. Over the same

time period, as the number of family risk factors

increased, children tended to make smaller gains

in the two subject areas. Thus, the achievement

gaps between disadvantaged and more advantaged

children grew wider over the first 4 years of school.

Findings from this report indicate that children’s

overall gains and status in reading and mathematics at the end of third grade did not differ substantively by sex. In addition, substantive sex differences were not found in terms of children’s third

grade overall science achievement. However, as was

found in first grade (Denton and West 2002), girls

continued to be more likely than boys to demonstrate more advanced reading knowledge and skills,

and boys were more likely than girls to demonstrate more advanced mathematics knowledge and

skills.

This report also described children’s achievement status and gains in relation to whether they

had always attended a public school, private school,

or had attended both types of schools between kindergarten and the end of third grade. In the first

weeks of school, private school kindergartners demonstrated higher achievement status in reading and

mathematics than public school kindergartners

(West, Denton, and Germino Hausken 2000).

When mean achievement scores were compared by

school type, these differences also existed in third

grade between children who attended public

schools for all 4 years and those who attended private schools for all or part of the time, and were

also found in terms of children’s science achievement. When regression analyses were used, however, to control for the influence of other factors

(e.g., race/ethnicity and number of family risk factors), the only substantive difference detected was

that children who had always attended private

schools had higher third-grade reading achievement

than those who had only attended public schools.

Also, the achievement gap between public and private school children did not widen substantively

over the first 4 years of school, even between those

children who always attended the same type of

school from kindergarten through third grade.

Earlier ECLS-K reports found that public

school children who attended full-day (vs. half-day)

kindergarten programs made greater gains in kindergarten in reading and mathematics, after controlling for other characteristics, and were more

likely to demonstrate advanced reading skills at the

end of the kindergarten year (Walston and West

2004; Denton, West, and Walston 2003). When

Conclusion
32 From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

overall achievement was compared for full-day and

half-day children from both public and private

schools, however, differences in reading and mathematics achievement were not detected (West,

Denton, and Reaney 2001). Findings from the current report also detected no differences in achievement at the end of third grade for public and private school children combined, related to the type

of kindergarten program children had attended.

During the kindergarten year, teachers reported

that children tended to form friendships easily

(82 percent) and accept peer ideas in cooperative

activities (77 percent) and that few exhibited problem behaviors such as fighting with others (8 percent) or get angry easily (9 percent) (West, Denton,

and Reaney 2001). In that year, White and Asian

kindergartners were rated as more likely to accept

peer ideas and form friendships than Black kindergartners, and teachers also indicated that children

with fewer risk factors were more likely to demonstrate these skills than those with more risk factors.

In third grade, when children reported for themselves on their school experiences, there were few

group differences reported in their perceptions

about their reading, mathematics, or general school

interest and competence, or in their perceptions

about their abilities to make and maintain friendships. In third grade, children generally indicated

that they felt positively about their competence in

these four areas. Girls had greater interest in and

perceived competence in reading than boys.

Children’s academic performance in reading and

mathematics was also related to their perceptions

of their interest and competence in the corresponding subject area. Children who were performing in

the top third of the sample in a given subject area

rated their competence in it more highly than children achieving at lower levels.

More differences were detected at the end of

third grade on the two scales of internalizing (e.g.,

shy, withdrawn, sad) and externalizing (e.g., fighting, arguing, distractibility) problem behaviors than

were detected on the other SDQ scales. Although

children’s scores on the problem behavior scales were

generally low, indicating that they only exhibited

these behaviors on an occasional basis, those groups

that also have lower achievement scores at the end

of third grade (e.g., those with higher numbers of

family risk factors) tended to rate themselves higher

on both of the behavior scales than those with higher

achievement levels (e.g., those with fewer family

risk factors). In the kindergarten year, teachers also

reported that these groups of disadvantaged children were more likely to get angry easily, argue with

others, and fight with others (West, Denton, and

Reaney 2001). Also, by the end of third grade,

boys indicated that they were more likely to demonstrate externalizing problem behaviors than girls

were.

The use of regression analyses in addition to

bivariate analyses of children’s school performance

demonstrates the importance of taking other factors (e.g., family risk factors) into account when

comparing scores for different groups of children.

Although many of the bivariate findings in this report were consistent with the regression analyses,

there were some cases where initial findings did not

hold in the regression results. In such instances,

overall differences attributed to a given characteristic (e.g., being Hispanic) may instead be associated

with other factors, such as the number of family

risk factors. Thus, it is important to supplement

bivariate statistics with the use of multiple regression analyses that control for other variables that

may be associated with children’s school experiences.

It is important to remember that although the

bivariate comparisons and regression analyses identify correlations between some independent variables and outcome measures, correlation does not

imply causation. Apparent relationships between

variables can change based on the particular independent variables examined. The small set of independent variables included in this descriptive

report’s regression analyses were used with the specific purpose to clarify the descriptive results observed in the multiple bivariate comparisons.

Many of the findings in this report suggest the

value of more in-depth exploration into children’s

early school experiences. For instance, findings from

this report indicate that children’s achievement in

the spring of third grade and some of their perceptions about school differ in relation to their cumulative number of family risk factors. Further research

could disaggregate the family risk factor index into

its components (i.e., primary home language, family structure, poverty status, and maternal education) to examine which components are more

strongly related to children’s achievement and perceptions about school.
33

Initial findings from this report did not detect

any substantive differences in children’s third-grade

achievement relative to the type of kindergarten

program (full-day vs. half-day) they attended. Given

the fact that the percentage of children attending

full-day kindergartens has increased in recent years

(Walston and West 2004), further research is

needed to more closely examine the relationships

between kindergarten program type and children’s

achievement after 4 years of schooling by exploring

interactions between kindergarten program type and

child, family, and school characteristics. For instance, full-day kindergarten is not randomly distributed; rather, children at risk of school failure

are more likely to attend such programs (Walston

and West 2004). Researchers could also explore

whether part-day kindergarten programs in conjunction with supplemental daycare arrangements

function similarly to full-day kindergarten programs,

in that both types of arrangements may provide

the similar amounts of instructional time.

The ECLS-K data provide a unique opportunity to investigate how children’s perceptions about

their school experiences are influenced by and have

an impact on their school achievement. For example,

researchers could explore whether third-graders’ selfratings of their internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors are related to their academic achievement, both in third grade and later when data are

collected in fifth grade. Also, future studies could

examine whether children’s actual achievement is

predicted by their perceived competence and interest in school subjects.

The ECLS-K is designed to provide a wealth of

information on children’s cognitive, socioemotional,

and physical development from kindergarten

through fifth grade across multiple contexts, including the home, classroom, school, and community.

Using ECLS-K data collected from children’s parents, teachers, and school administrators, future

research on children’s achievement could also include information on parenting practices, the types

of instructional experiences that children are exposed

to in their classrooms, the qualifications of their

teachers, or characteristics of the schools they attend. The availability of child, parent, teacher, and

school information also provides a data source that

can be used for more sophisticated analysis models

(e.g., hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), structural equation modeling (SEM)).

Conclusion

35

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A-1

Appendix A: Tables

Selected child and family characteristics Analytic report sample Full ECLS-K sample

Sex

Male 0.6 0.4

Female 0.6 0.4

Race/ethnicity

 White, non-Hispanic 1.8 1.5

 Black, non-Hispanic 0.9 1.1

 Hispanic 0.9 1.0

 Asian/Pacific Islander 0.6 0.3

 Other, non-Hispanic 0.9 0.8

Number of family risk factors1

 No risks 1.0 1.0

 One risk 0.7 0.5

 Two or more risks 0.8 0.8

1

Family risk factors included living below the federal poverty level, primary home language was non-English, mother’s highest education

was less than a high school diploma/GED, and living in a single-parent household. Values range from 0 to 4.

NOTE: Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. Estimates for the analytic report sample reflect the sample of children assessed in

English in all assessment years.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998 and

spring 2002.

Table A-1a. Standard errors of the percentage distribution of fall 1998 first-time

kindergartners in the analytic report sample and the full ECLS-K sample, by

child’s sex, race/ethnicity, and number of family risk factors: Fall 1998
A-2 From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

Selected family and

school characteristics Fall 1998 Spring 1999 Spring 2000 Spring 2002

Family type

 Two-parent/other 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.7

 Single parent 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.7

Federal poverty status1

 Living below poverty level — 0.9 1.0 1.0

 Living at or above poverty level — 0.9 1.0 1.0

School mobility

 Enrolled in fall kindergarten school 0.0 0.3 1.1 1.3

 One school change † 0.3 1.1 1.3

 Two or more school changes † † 0.2 0.6

School type

 Public school all years — 0.7 0.8 0.8

 Private school all years — 0.7 0.6 0.6

 Switched from public to private school † † 0.4 0.3

 Switched from private to public school † † 0.4 0.5

 Multiple changes in school type † † † 0.1

— Not available (Data were only collected in the spring of kindergarten).

† Not applicable.

1

Poverty is a function of household size and household income. Based on 1998 Census information, a household of four with a total

income below $16,655 was considered to be below the federal poverty level.

NOTE: Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. The ECLS-K assessment was not administered in

2001, when most of the children were in second grade.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring

1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Table A-2a. Standard errors of the percentage distribution of fall 1998 first-time

kindergartners in the ECLS-K sample over the first 4 years of school, by

selected family and school characteristics: Fall 1998, spring 1999, spring

2000, and spring 2002
Appendix A A-3

Table A-3. Percentage distribution of family risk factors for fall 1998 first-time

kindergartners, by selected child, family, and early school experience

characteristics: Academic year 1998–99

Selected child, family, and

school characteristics Total Zero One Two Three Four

 Total 100 62 23 12 3 #

Child’s sex

Male 100 62 23 11 3 #

Female 100 62 23 12 3 #

Child’s race/ethnicity

White, non-Hispanic 100 75 18 6 1 #

Black, non-Hispanic 100 34 34 26 7 #

Hispanic 100 40 28 21 9 1

Asian/Pacific Islander 100 47 36 12 4 #

Other, non-Hispanic 100 53 25 19 2 #

Mother’s education

Less than high school 100 † 35 38 26 2

High school diploma or equivalent 100 60 26 14 # †

Some college 100 70 21 9 # †

Bachelor’s degree or higher 100 85 13 1 # †

Family type

Two parent/other 100 81 14 5 1 †

Single parent 100 † 52 36 11 1

Primary home language

English 100 66 22 11 2 †

Non-English language 100 † 46 34 16 4

Federal poverty status1

Below federal poverty level 100 † 29 54 16 1

At or above federal poverty level 100 76 22 2 # †

School type

Public all years 100 58 25 14 4 #

Private all years 100 83 15 2 # #

Changes in school type 100 76 19 6 # #

# Rounds to zero.

† Not applicable. This value must equal zero by definition.

1

Poverty is a function of household size and household income. Based on 1998 Census information, a household of four with a total

income below $16,655 was considered to be below the federal poverty level.

NOTE: Family risk factors included living below the federal poverty level, primary home language was non-English, mother’s highest

education was less than a high school diploma/GED, and living in a single-parent household. Values range from 0 to 4. Estimates reflect

the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File, and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring

1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Number of family risk factors
A-4 From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

Table A-3a. Standard errors of the percentage distribution of family risk factors for fall

1998 first-time kindergartners, by selected child, family, and early school

experience characteristics: Academic year 1998–99

Selected child, family, and

school characteristics Zero One Two Three Four

 Total 0.9 0.6 0.7 0.3 0.1

Child’s sex

Male 1.2 0.8 0.8 0.4 0.1

Female 1.1 0.8 0.9 0.4 0.1

Child’s race/ethnicity

White, non-Hispanic 0.9 0.7 0.5 0.2 #

Black, non-Hispanic 2.2 2.1 2.2 1.0 #

Hispanic 1.8 2.1 1.7 0.9 0.4

Asian/Pacific Islander 2.8 2.6 2.0 1.0 0.3

Other, non-Hispanic 6.5 3.4 4.0 0.8 #

Mother’s education

Less than high school † 2.6 2.3 1.9 0.5

High school diploma or equivalent 1.3 1.0 1.2 0.1 †

Some college 1.2 1.0 0.8 0.1 †

Bachelor’s degree or higher 0.9 0.8 0.3 0.1 †

Family type

Two parent/other 0.9 0.7 0.4 0.1 †

Single parent † 1.9 1.8 1.0 0.3

Primary home language

English 1.0 0.6 0.7 0.3 †

Non-English language † 2.5 2.4 1.9 1.1

Federal poverty status1

Below federal poverty level † 1.8 1.6 1.3 0.3

At or above federal poverty level 0.8 0.7 0.3 0.0 †

School type

Public all years 1.1 0.7 0.8 0.3 0.1

Private all years 1.5 1.4 0.6 # #

Changes in school type 2.7 2.4 1.2 0.1 0.1

# Rounds to zero.

† Not applicable. This value must equal zero by definition.

1

Poverty is a function of household size and household income. Based on 1998 Census information, a household of four with a total

income below $16,655 was considered to be below the federal poverty level.

NOTE: Family risk factors included living below the federal poverty level, primary home language was non-English, mother’s highest

education was less than a high school diploma/GED, and living in a single-parent household. Values range from 0 to 4. Estimates reflect

the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File, and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring

1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Number of family risk factors
Appendix A A-5

Table A-4. Mean reading scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners, by time of

assessment and selected child, family, and early school experience

characteristics: Fall 1998, spring 1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002

Fall

Fall Spring Spring Spring kindergarten

1998 1999 2000 2002 to 3rd grade

Selected child, family, and kinder- kinder- 1st 3rd reading

school characteristics garten garten grade grade score gain

 Total 27 39 69 108 81

Child’s sex

Male 26 38 67 107 80

Female 28 39 70 110 83

Child’s race/ethnicity

White, non-Hispanic 28 40 71 112 84

Black, non-Hispanic 25 34 61 98 73

Hispanic 24 36 65 105 81

Asian/Pacific Islander 30 43 75 111 81

Other, non-Hispanic 25 36 63 101 76

Number of family risk factors1

No risks 29 41 73 113 84

One risk 25 36 65 105 79

Two or more risks 22 32 58 95 73

Kindergarten program type

Half-day program 27 37 68 110 83

Full-day program 27 39 69 108 80

School type across all waves of the study

Public school all years 26 37 67 107 81

Private school all years 31 44 78 116 85

Change in school type during study 30 42 74 113 83

1

Family risk factors included living below the federal poverty level, primary home language was non-English, mother’s highest education

was less than a high school diploma/GED, and living in a single-parent household.

NOTE: Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment

years. The ECLS-K assessment was not administered in 2001, when most of the children were in second grade. Although most of the

children in the sample were in third grade in the spring of 2002, 10 percent were in second grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled in

other grades.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring

1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Mean reading scale score
A-6 From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

Mean reading scale score Fall

Fall Spring Spring Spring kindergarten

1998 1999 2000 2002 to 3rd grade

Selected child, family, and kinder- kinder- 1st 3rd reading

school characteristics garten garten grade grade score gain

 Total 0.3 0.5 0.8 0.7 0.4

Child’s sex

Male 0.4 0.5 0.9 1.0 0.4

Female 0.3 0.5 0.8 0.6 0.4

Child’s race/ethnicity

White, non-Hispanic 0.4 0.5 0.8 0.7 0.3

Black, non-Hispanic 0.5 0.8 1.0 1.0 0.7

Hispanic 0.5 0.8 1.1 1.3 0.9

Asian/Pacific Islander 0.9 1.4 1.9 1.7 1.1

Other, non-Hispanic 1.2 1.6 2.8 3.5 2.4

Number of family risk factors1

No risks 0.4 0.5 0.8 0.7 0.3

One risk 0.3 0.5 1.0 0.9 0.6

Two or more risks 0.3 0.7 0.9 1.2 1.0

Kindergarten program type

Half-day program 0.4 0.5 0.8 0.7 0.4

Full-day program 0.4 0.7 1.0 1.0 0.6

School type across all waves of the study

Public school all years 0.4 0.6 0.9 0.9 0.4

Private school all years 0.5 0.7 1.0 0.6 0.6

Change in school type during study 0.7 1.1 1.6 1.1 0.9

1

Family risk factors included living below the federal poverty level, primary home language was non-English, mother’s highest education

was less than a high school diploma/GED, and living in a single-parent household.

NOTE: Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. The ECLS-K assessment was not administered in

2001, when most of the children were in second grade. Although most of the children in the sample were in third grade in the spring of

2002, 10 percent were in second grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled in other grades.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring

1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Table A-4a. Standard errors of the mean reading scale scores for fall 1998 first-time

kindergartners, by time of assessment and selected child, family, and early

school experience characteristics: Fall 1998, spring 1999, spring 2000, and

spring 2002
Appendix A A-7

Mean mathematics scale score Fall

Fall Spring Spring Spring kindergarten

1998 1999 2000 2002 to 3rd grade

Selected child, family, and kinder- kinder- 1st 3rd mathematics

school characteristics garten garten grade grade score gain

 Total 22 32 55 85 63

Child’s sex

 Male 22 32 56 86 65

 Female 22 32 55 83 62

Child’s race/ethnicity

 White, non-Hispanic 23 34 58 89 65

 Black, non-Hispanic 18 26 47 73 55

 Hispanic 19 29 52 82 63

 Asian/Pacific Islander 23 34 56 88 65

 Other, non-Hispanic 20 29 51 80 61

Number of family risk factors1

 No risks 24 34 59 89 65

 One risk 20 29 51 81 61

 Two or more risks 17 25 47 74 57

Kindergarten program type

 Half-day program 22 31 56 86 64

 Full-day program 22 32 55 84 62

School type across all waves of the study

 Public school all years 21 31 54 84 63

 Private school all years 26 37 61 90 64

 Change in school type during study 24 34 59 88 65

1

Family risk factors included living below the federal poverty level, primary home language was non-English, mother’s highest education

was less than a high school diploma/GED, and living in a single-parent household.

NOTE: Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. The ECLS-K assessment was not administered in

2001, when most of the children were in second grade. Although most of the children in the sample were in third grade in the spring of

2002, 10 percent were in second grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled in other grades.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring

1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Table A-5. Mean mathematics scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners, by time of

assessment and selected child, family, and early school experience characteristics:

Fall 1998, spring 1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002
A-8 From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

Mean mathematics scale score Fall

Fall Spring Spring Spring kindergarten

1998 1999 2000 2002 to 3rd grade

Selected child, family, and kinder- kinder- 1st 3rd mathematics

school characteristics garten garten grade grade score gain

 Total 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.3

Child’s sex

Male 0.4 0.5 0.7 0.9 0.4

Female 0.3 0.4 0.4 0.6 0.4

Child’s race/ethnicity

White, non-Hispanic 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.3

Black, non-Hispanic 0.3 0.6 0.7 1.0 0.8

Hispanic 0.4 0.7 0.8 1.1 0.7

Asian/Pacific Islander 0.9 1.2 1.3 1.4 0.8

Other, non-Hispanic 1.1 1.3 1.7 2.8 1.9

Number of family risk factors1

No risks 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.7 0.3

One risk 0.3 0.5 0.7 0.9 0.6

Two or more risks 0.2 0.6 0.6 0.9 0.8

Kindergarten program type

Half-day program 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.4

Full-day program 0.4 0.6 0.7 0.9 0.5

School type across all waves of the study

Public school all years 0.3 0.5 0.6 0.8 0.4

Private school all years 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.6 0.5

Change in school type during study 0.6 0.8 1.1 1.2 0.8

1

Family risk factors included living below the federal poverty level, primary home language was non-English, mother’s highest education

was less than a high school diploma/GED, and living in a single-parent household.

NOTE: Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. The ECLS-K assessment was not administered in

2001, when most of the children were in second grade. Although most of the children in the sample were in third grade in the spring of

2002, 10 percent were in second grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled in other grades.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring

1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Table A-5a. Standard errors of the mean mathematics scale scores for fall 1998 first-time

kindergartners, by time of assessment and selected child, family, and early

school experience characteristics: Fall 1998, spring 1999, spring 2000, and

spring 2002
Appendix A A-9

Selected child, family, and school characteristics Reading score gain Mathematics score gain

Intercept 85.55 64.53

Male –2.68* 2.86*

Race/ethnicity1

 Black, non-Hispanic –7.52*4 –8.21*4

 Hispanic –0.89 –0.10

 Asian/Pacific Islander –1.70 1.05

 Other, non-Hispanic –6.04*4 –3.65*4

Number of family risk factors2 –3.64* –2.43*

Full-day kindergarten program –1.50* –0.45

School type across all waves of the study3

 Private school all years 1.45* –1.11*

 Change in school type during study 0.34 0.67

*p<0.05.

1

The reference group for this comparison is White, non-Hispanic.

2

Family risk factors included living below the federal poverty level, primary home language was non-English, mother’s highest education

was less than a high school diploma/GED, and living in a single-parent household. Values range from 0 to 4.

3

The reference group for this comparison is children who attended public school for all years.

4

Effect size of estimate is greater than or equal to 0.25 standard deviations of the dependent variable (i.e., 4.2 points for reading gains

and 3.4 points for mathematics gains).

NOTE: Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. Although most of the children in the sample

were in third grade in the spring of 2002, 10 percent were in second grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled in other grades.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring

1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Table A-6. Regression of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners’ reading and mathematics

gains from the fall of kindergarten to the spring of third grade on selected

child, family, and early school experience characteristics: Fall 1998 and spring

2002

Unstandardized regression coefficients
A-10 From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

Mean science

Selected child, family, and school characteristics scale score

 Total 35

Child’s sex

Male 36

Female 34

Child’s race/ethnicity

White, non-Hispanic 37

Black, non-Hispanic 27

Hispanic 32

Asian/Pacific Islander 35

Other, non-Hispanic 32

Number of family risk factors1

No risks 37

One risk 33

Two or more risks 28

Kindergarten program type

Half-day program 35

Full-day program 34

School type across all waves of the study

 Public school all years 34

 Private school all years 38

 Change in school type during study 37

1

Family risk factors included living below the federal poverty level, primary home language was non-English, mother’s highest education

was less than a high school diploma/GED, and living in a single-parent household. Values range from 0 to 4.

NOTE: Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. Although most of the children in the sample

were in third grade in the spring of 2002, 10 percent were in second grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled in other grades.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring

1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Table A-7. Mean science scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners in spring

of third grade, by selected child, family, and early school experience

characteristics: Spring 2002
Appendix A A-11

Mean science

Selected child, family, and school characteristics scale score

 Total 0.4

Child’s sex

Male 0.5

Female 0.4

Child’s race/ethnicity

White, non-Hispanic 0.4

Black, non-Hispanic 0.6

Hispanic 0.7

Asian/Pacific Islander 0.7

Other, non-Hispanic 1.7

Number of family risk factors1

No risks 0.4

One risk 0.5

Two or more risks 0.5

Kindergarten program type

Half-day program 0.4

Full-day program 0.6

School type across all waves of the study

Public school all years 0.5

Private school all years 0.4

Change in school type during study 0.6

1

Family risk factors included living below the federal poverty level, primary home language was non-English, mother’s highest education

was less than a high school diploma/GED, and living in a single-parent household. Values range from 0 to 4.

NOTE: Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. Although most of the children in the sample

were in third grade in the spring of 2002, 10 percent were in second grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled in other grades.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring

1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Table A-7a. Standard errors of the mean science scale scores for fall 1998 first-time

kindergartners in spring of third grade, by selected child, family, and early school

experience characteristics: Spring 2002
A-12 From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

Selected child, family, and school characteristics Reading Mathematics Science

Intercept 115.04 88.18 36.64

Male –3.81* 3.13* 2.19*

Race/ethnicity1

Black, non-Hispanic –9.32*4 –11.74*4 –8.13*4

Hispanic –3.04* –2.55* –3.39*4

Asian/Pacific Islander 0.65 1.85 –1.17

Other, non-Hispanic –8.41*4 -6.54*4 –3.87*4

Number of family risk factors2 –6.05*4 -4.77*4 –2.70*4

Full-day kindergarten program –0.42 0.20 –0.13

School type across all waves of the study3

Private school all years 5.14*4 2.68 1.48

Change in school type during study 3.43* 2.33* 2.05*

*p<0.05.

1

The reference group for this comparison is White, non-Hispanic.

2

Family risk factors included living below the federal poverty level, primary home language was non-English, mother’s highest education

was less than a high school diploma/GED, and living in a single-parent household. Values range from 0 to 4.

3

The reference group for this comparison is children who attended public school for all years.

4

Effect size of estimate is greater than or equal to 0.25 standard deviations of the dependent variable (i.e., 5.0 for reading, 4.5 for

mathematics, and 2.4 for science).

NOTE: Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. Although most of the children in the sample

were in third grade in the spring of 2002, 10 percent were in second grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled in other grades.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring

1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Unstandardized regression coefficients

Table A-8. Regression of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners’ spring of third grade reading,

mathematics, and science achievement on selected child, family, and early school

experience characteristics: Spring 2002
Appendix A A-13

Table A-9. Percentage of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners demonstrating specific reading

knowledge and skills in the spring of first and third grade, by grade level and

selected child, family, and early school experience characteristics: Spring 2000 and

spring 2002

Reading knowledge and skills

Selected child, family, and 1st 3rd 1st 3rd 1st 3rd 1st 3rd 1st 3rd 1st 3rd

school characteristics grade grade grade grade grade grade grade grade grade grade grade grade

 Total 93 100 77 99 46 95 16 78 4 46 3 29

Child’s sex

Male 91 100 73 99 42 93 14 76 4 43 3 27

 Female 95 100 81 99 50 96 17 81 4 49 3 31

Child’s race/ethnicity

White, non-Hispanic 95 100 81 99 50 97 18 84 5 53 3 34

Black, non-Hispanic 88 100 66 98 33 90 8 63 1 27 1 15

Hispanic 92 100 74 99 40 93 11 74 2 39 2 23

Asian/Pacific Islander 95 100 83 99 57 98 24 82 6 48 4 31

Other, non-Hispanic 87 100 67 97 35 90 11 67 4 35 2 21

Number of family risk factors1

No risks 96 100 83 100 53 98 20 85 5 54 3 34

One risk 90 100 72 98 39 93 11 73 2 39 2 24

Two or more risks 86 99 60 97 25 86 5 57 1 24 1 14

Kindergarten program type

Half-day program 93 100 78 99 45 95 15 80 4 48 2 30

Full-day program 93 100 77 99 46 94 16 77 4 45 3 28

School type across all waves of the study

Public school all years 92 100 76 99 42 94 13 76 3 44 2 27

Private school all years 98 100 89 100 63 99 26 90 7 60 4 38

Change in school type during study 95 100 80 100 54 97 24 84 6 54 4 35

1

Family risk factors included living below the federal poverty level, primary home language was non-English, mother’s highest education

was less than a high school diploma/GED, and living in a single-parent household. Values range from 0 to 4.

NOTE: Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. The ECLS-K assessment was not administered in

2001, when most of the children were in second grade. Although most of the children in the sample were in third grade in the spring of

2002, 10 percent were in second grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled in other grades.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring

1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

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A-14 From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

Table A-9a. Standard errors of the percentage of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners

demonstrating specific reading knowledge and skills in the spring of first and

third grade, by grade level and selected child, family, and early school

experience characteristics: Spring 2000 and spring 2002

Selected child, family, and 1st 3rd 1st 3rd 1st 3rd 1st 3rd 1st 3rd 1st 3rd

school characteristics grade grade grade grade grade grade grade grade grade grade grade grade

 Total 0.7 0.0 1.4 0.1 1.5 0.5 0.7 1.2 0.2 1.2 0.1 0.8

Child’s sex

Male 0.9 0.0 1.8 0.2 1.5 0.8 0.7 1.7 0.2 1.5 0.2 1.0

Female 0.5 0.0 1.2 0.1 1.6 0.4 0.8 1.0 0.2 1.1 0.1 0.8

Child’s race/ethnicity

White, non-Hispanic 0.7 0.0 1.4 0.1 1.6 0.4 0.8 1.2 0.3 1.4 0.2 1.0

Black, non-Hispanic 1.0 0.1 1.9 0.4 1.9 1.1 1.0 2.0 0.2 1.5 0.1 0.8

Hispanic 0.9 0.0 2.0 0.2 2.3 1.2 1.1 2.3 0.3 2.1 0.2 1.4

Asian/Pacific Islander 0.8 0.1 2.3 0.3 4.2 0.8 2.5 2.7 1.0 3.2 0.6 2.3

Other, non-Hispanic 3.2 0.2 5.6 1.1 4.5 3.5 2.2 6.2 1.0 4.8 0.6 3.2

Number of family risk factors1

No risks 0.5 0.0 1.2 0.1 1.6 0.3 1.0 1.1 0.3 1.3 0.2 1.0

One risk 0.9 0.0 1.9 0.3 2.2 0.8 0.8 1.6 0.3 1.6 0.2 1.0

Two or more risks 1.7 0.1 2.3 0.5 1.4 1.8 0.7 2.3 0.4 1.6 0.2 1.1

Kindergarten program type

Half-day program 0.6 0.0 1.2 0.1 1.8 0.6 1.0 1.1 0.3 1.3 0.2 0.9

Full-day program 0.9 0.0 1.8 0.2 1.9 0.7 1.0 1.7 0.3 1.7 0.2 1.1

School type across all waves of the study

Public school all years 0.8 0.0 1.5 0.2 1.7 0.6 0.9 1.5 0.2 1.5 0.1 1.0

Private school all years 0.3 0.0 1.2 0.1 2.1 0.3 1.7 0.8 0.6 1.4 0.4 1.1

Change in school type during study 0.8 0.0 2.2 0.2 3.3 0.6 2.1 1.6 0.8 2.3 0.4 1.7

1

Family risk factors included living below the federal poverty level, primary home language was non-English, mother’s highest education

was less than a high school diploma/GED, and living in a single-parent household. Values range from 0 to 4.

NOTE: Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. The ECLS-K assessment was not administered in

2001, when most of the children were in second grade. Although most of the children in the sample were in third grade in the spring of

2002, 10 percent were in second grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled in other grades.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring

1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Ending

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words

Words in

context

Literal

inference

Deriving

meaning

Interpret

beyond

text

Reading knowledge and skills
Appendix A A-15

Table A-10. Regression of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners’ probability of

demonstrating specific reading knowledge and skills in the spring of

third grade on selected child, family, and early school experience

characteristics: Spring 2002

Literal Deriving Interpreting

Selected child, family, and school characteristics inference meaning beyond text

Intercept 0.88 0.58 0.37

Male –0.05*4 –0.06*4 –0.04*

Race/ethnicity1

 Black, non-Hispanic –0.12*4 –0.18*4 –0.13*4

 Hispanic –0.02 –0.07*4 –0.06*4

 Asian/Pacific Islander 0.03 -0.02 –0.01

 Other, non-Hispanic –0.12*4 –0.15*4 –0.10*4

Number of family risk factors2 –0.10*4 –0.10*4 –0.06*4

Full-day kindergarten program –0.01 –0.01 #

School type across all waves of the study3

Private school all years 0.08*4 0.10*4 0.06*4

Change in school type during study 0.04* 0.06*4 0.05*4

# Estimate rounds to zero.

*p<0.05.

1

The reference group for this comparison is White, non-Hispanic.

2

Family risk factors included living below the federal poverty level, primary home language was non-English, mother’s highest education

was less than a high school diploma/GED, and living in a single-parent household. Values range from 0 to 4.

3

The reference group for this comparison is children who attended public school for all years.

4

Effect size of estimate is greater than or equal to 0.05.

NOTE: Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. Although most of the children in the sample

were in third grade in the spring of 2002, 10 percent were in second grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled in other grades.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring

1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Unstandardized regression coefficients
A-16 From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

Selected child, family, and 1st 3rd 1st 3rd 1st 3rd 1st 3rd 1st 3rd

school characteristics grade grade grade grade grade grade grade grade grade grade

 Total 95 100 72 97 25 78 3 42 # 16

Child’s sex

Male 94 100 72 97 27 79 4 46 # 19

Female 95 100 73 97 22 77 2 38 # 12

Child’s race/ethnicity

White, non-Hispanic 96 100 78 98 30 84 4 50 # 19

Black, non-Hispanic 89 100 56 93 10 58 1 20 # 5

Hispanic 94 100 68 97 18 75 1 35 # 11

Asian/Pacific Islander 96 100 74 98 25 83 4 49 # 22

Other, non-Hispanic 92 100 64 95 18 70 2 34 # 11

Number of family risk factors1

No risks 97 100 79 98 30 85 4 50 # 20

One risk 92 100 65 96 18 72 2 34 # 11

Two or more risks 89 100 57 93 10 61 1 21 # 5

Kindergarten program type

Half-day program 95 100 73 97 25 80 3 44 # 16

Full-day program 95 100 72 97 24 77 3 41 # 15

School type across all waves of the study

Public school all years 94 100 70 97 23 77 3 41 # 14

Private school all years 99 100 84 99 35 87 5 52 # 20

Change in school type during study 97 100 79 98 31 84 5 48 # 22

# Rounds to zero.

1

Family risk factors included living below the federal poverty level, primary home language was non-English, mother’s highest education

was less than a high school diploma/GED, and living in a single-parent household. Values range from 0 to 4.

NOTE: Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. The ECLS-K assessment was not administered in

2001, when most of the children were in second grade. Although most of the children in the sample were in third grade in the spring of

2002, 10 percent were in second grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled in other grades.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring

1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Ordinality

and

sequence

Addition and

subtraction

Multiplication

and division

Place

value

 Rate and

measurement

Mathematics knowledge and skills

Table A-11. Percentage of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners demonstrating specific

mathematics knowledge and skills in spring of first and third grade, by

grade level and selected child, family, and early school experience

characteristics: Spring 2000 and spring 2002
Appendix A A-17

Selected child, family, and 1st 3rd 1st 3rd 1st 3rd 1st 3rd 1st 3rd

school characteristics grade grade grade grade grade grade grade grade grade grade

 Total 0.6 # 0.9 0.2 0.9 1.0 0.2 1.4 # 0.9

Child’s sex

 Male 0.9 # 1.3 0.5 1.1 1.5 0.3 1.7 # 1.1

 Female 0.4 # 0.8 0.3 0.8 1.0 0.2 1.3 # 0.8

Child’s race/ethnicity

 White, non-Hispanic 0.5 # 1.1 0.3 1.1 1.0 0.3 1.7 0.1 1.1

 Black, non-Hispanic 1.3 # 1.9 0.6 0.9 2.1 0.2 1.6 # 1.0

 Hispanic 1.0 # 1.9 0.3 1.3 1.8 0.3 2.5 # 1.3

 Asian/Pacific Islander 1.3 # 2.5 0.7 2.3 2.0 1.2 3.2 0.1 2.7

 Other, non-Hispanic 1.9 # 3.6 1.3 2.6 5.2 0.5 4.8 0.1 2.4

Number of family risk factors1

 No risks 0.4 # 0.9 0.3 1.0 0.9 0.3 1.6 # 1.0

 One risk 0.8 # 1.4 0.4 1.2 1.6 0.3 1.8 # 1.0

 Two or more risks 1.4 # 1.5 0.6 0.9 1.9 0.2 1.5 # 0.7

Kindergarten program type

 Half-day program 0.6 # 1.1 0.3 1.1 1.0 0.3 1.5 # 1.0

 Full-day program 0.7 # 1.3 0.4 1.2 1.5 0.3 1.7 # 1.0

School type across all waves of the study

Public school all years 0.7 # 1.0 0.3 1.1 1.2 0.2 1.6 # 1.0

 Private school all years 0.3 # 0.9 0.1 1.2 0.9 0.5 1.7 0.1 1.2

 Change in school type during study 0.5 # 1.7 0.4 2.1 1.7 0.9 2.6 0.2 2.2

# Rounds to zero.

1

Family risk factors included living below the federal poverty level, primary home language was non-English, mother’s highest education

was less than a high school diploma/GED, and living in a single-parent household. Values range from 0 to 4.

NOTE: Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. The ECLS-K assessment was not administered in

2001, when most of the children were in second grade. Although most of the children in the sample were in third grade in the spring of

2002, 10 percent were in second grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled in other grades.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring

1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Ordinality

and

sequence

Addition and

subtraction

Multiplication and

division

Mathematics knowledge and skills

Table A-11a. Standard errors of the percentage of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners

demonstrating specific mathematics knowledge and skills in spring of

first and third grade, by grade level and selected child, family, and early

school experience characteristics: Spring 2000 and spring 2002

Place

value

Rate and

measurement
A-18 From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

Table A-12. Regression of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners’ probability of

demonstrating specific mathematics knowledge and skills in spring of third

grade on selected child, family, and early school experience characteristics:

Spring 2002

Multiplication Rate and

Selected child, family, and school characteristics and division Place value measurement

Intercept 0.85 0.48 0.17

Male 0.03* 0.08*4 0.07*4

Race/ethnicity1

Black, non-Hispanic –0.20*4 –0.23*4 –0.11*4

Hispanic –0.03* –0.07*4 –0.05*4

Asian/Pacific Islander 0.02 0.03 0.04

Other, non-Hispanic –0.11*4 –0.13*4 –0.07*4

Number of family risk factors2 –0.08*4 –0.09*4 –0.05*4

Full-day kindergarten program # 0.01 0.01

School type across all waves of the study3

Private school all years 0.05*4 0.05*4 0.02

Change in school type during study 0.04* 0.03 0.05*4

# Estimate rounds to zero.

*p<0.05.

1

The reference group for this comparison is White, non-Hispanic.

2

Family risk factors included living below the federal poverty level, primary home language was non-English, mother’s highest education

was less than a high school diploma/GED, and living in a single-parent household. Values range from 0 to 4.

3

The reference group for this comparison is children who attended public school for all years.

4

Effect size of estimate is greater than or equal to 0.05.

NOTE: Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. Although most of the children in the sample

were in third grade in the spring of 2002, 10 percent were in second grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled in other grades.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring

1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Unstandardized regression coefficients
Appendix A A-19

Table A-13. Mean scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners’ perceptions about

their school experiences, peer relationships, and problem behaviors in spring

of third grade, by selected child, family, and early school experience

characteristics: Spring 2002

Externalizing Internalizing

Selected child, family, and All school Peer problem problem

school characteristics Reading Mathematics subjects relationships behaviors behaviors

 Total 3.3 3.2 2.9 3.0 2.0 2.2

Child’s sex

Male 3.2 3.2 2.9 3.0 2.1 2.2

Female 3.4 3.1 2.9 3.1 1.9 2.2

Child’s race/ethnicity

White, non-Hispanic 3.2 3.1 2.9 3.0 1.9 2.1

 Black, non-Hispanic 3.3 3.2 3.0 3.1 2.3 2.5

 Hispanic 3.3 3.2 3.0 3.1 2.0 2.3

 Asian/Pacific Islander 3.3 3.2 3.0 2.9 1.9 2.1

 Other, non-Hispanic 3.3 3.2 3.0 2.9 2.0 2.2

Number of family risk factors1

 No risks 3.3 3.1 2.9 3.0 1.9 2.0

 One risk 3.3 3.2 2.9 3.0 2.1 2.3

 Two or more risks 3.3 3.2 3.0 3.0 2.3 2.5

Kindergarten program type

 Half-day program 3.3 3.2 2.9 3.0 1.9 2.1

 Full-day program 3.3 3.1 2.9 3.0 2.0 2.2

School type across all waves of the study

 Public school all years 3.3 3.2 2.9 3.0 2.0 2.2

 Private school all years 3.2 3.0 2.8 3.0 1.9 2.0

 Change in school type during study 3.3 3.1 2.9 3.0 1.9 2.0

1

Family risk factors included living below the federal poverty level, primary home language was non-English, mother’s highest education

was less than a high school diploma/GED, and living in a single-parent household. Values range from 0 to 4.

NOTE: Scale scores on children’s perceptions come from a self-description questionnaire (SDQ). Scores on the SDQ scales ranged from 1

“not at all true” to 4 “very true”. Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. Although most of the

children in the sample were in third grade in the spring of 2002, 10 percent were in second grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled in

other grades.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring

1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Perceived competence and interest in...
A-20 From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

Table A-13a. Standard errors of the mean scale scores for fall 1998 first-time

kindergartners’ perceptions about their school experiences, peer

relationships, and problem behaviors in spring of third grade, by selected

child, family, and early school experience characteristics: Spring 2002

Externalizing Internalizing

Selected child, family, and All school Peer problem problem

school characteristics Reading Mathematics subjects relationships behaviors behaviors

 Total 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.03

Child’s sex 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.03 0.03

Male 0.01 0.02 0.02 0.01 0.02 0.03

Female

Child’s race/ethnicity

White, non-Hispanic 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.01 0.02 0.03

Black, non-Hispanic 0.03 0.04 0.03 0.04 0.04 0.05

Hispanic 0.04 0.03 0.02 0.03 0.03 0.05

Asian/Pacific Islander 0.05 0.05 0.05 0.05 0.06 0.05

Other, non-Hispanic 0.04 0.06 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07

Number of family risk factors1

No risks 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.03

One risk 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.03 0.03

Two or more risks 0.03 0.04 0.04 0.05 0.05 0.05

Kindergarten program type

Half-day program 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.01 0.02 0.02

Full-day program 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.03 0.04

School type across all waves of the study

Public school all years 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.02

Private school all years 0.02 0.03 0.03 0.02 0.03 0.03

Change in school type during study 0.04 0.04 0.04 0.03 0.04 0.04

1

Family risk factors included living below the federal poverty level, primary home language was non-English, mother’s highest education

was less than a high school diploma/GED, and living in a single-parent household. Values range from 0 to 4.

NOTE: Scale scores on children’s perceptions come from a self-description questionnaire (SDQ). Scores on the SDQ scales ranged from 1

“not at all true” to 4 “very true”. Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. Although most of

the children in the sample were in third grade in the spring of 2002, 10 percent were in second grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled

in other grades.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring

1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Perceived competence and interest in...
Appendix A A-21

Table A-14. Regression of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners’ perceptions about their

school experiences, peer relationships, and problem behaviors in spring of

third grade, on selected child, family, and early school experience

characteristics: Spring 2002

Externalizing Internalizing

Selected child, family, and All school Peer problem problem

school characteristics Reading Mathematics subjects relationships behaviors behaviors

Intercept 3.31 3.06 2.92 3.07 1.79 2.10

Male –0.17*4 0.17* –0.06* –0.09* 0.20*4 –0.01

Race/ethnicity1

Black, non-Hispanic 0.08* 0.08 0.10* 0.07* 0.23*4 0.26*4

Hispanic 0.08* 0.06 0.06* 0.03 –0.02 0.11*

Asian/Pacific Islander 0.06 0.02 0.07 –0.09* –0.07 #

Other, non-Hispanic 0.03 0.05 0.08 –0.08 0.06 0.08

Number of family risk factors2 # # # –0.02 0.14* 0.17*

Full-day kindergarten program –0.05 # –0.02 –0.02 0.03 0.11*

School type across all waves of the study3

Private school all years –0.03 –0.17* –0.11* –0.01 –0.04 –0.11*

Change in school type during study –0.01 –0.04 –0.06 –0.02 –0.05 –0.14*

# Rounds to zero.

*p<0.05.

1

The reference group for this comparison is White, non-Hispanic.

2

Family risk factors included living below the federal poverty level, primary home language was non-English, mother’s highest education

was less than a high school diploma/GED, and living in a single-parent household. Values range from 0 to 4.

3

The reference group for this comparison is children who attended public school for all years.

4

Effect size of estimate is greater than or equal to 0.25 standard deviations of the dependent variable (i.e., 0.17 for reading, 0.20 for

mathematics, 0.17 for all school subjects, 0.16 for peer relationships, 0.17 for externalizing behaviors, and 0.18 for internalizing

behaviors).

NOTE: Scale scores on children’s perceptions come from a self-description questionnaire (SDQ). Scores on the SDQ scales ranged from 1

“not at all true” to 4 “very true”. Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years. Although most of the

children in the sample were in third grade in the spring of 2002, 10 percent were in second grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled in

other grades.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring

1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Perceived competence and interest in...
A-22 From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

Table A-15. Mean scale scores for fall 1998 first-time kindergartners’ perceived

competence and interest in reading, mathematics, and all school subjects in

spring of third grade, by their spring third-grade reading, mathematics, and

science achievement scores: Spring 2002

Third-grade achievement status, by subject Reading Mathematics All school subjects

 Total 3.3 3.2 2.9

Reading achievement status

Lowest third 3.2 3.2 2.9

Middle third 3.2 3.1 2.9

Highest third 3.4 3.1 3.0

Mathematics achievement status

Lowest third 3.3 3.1 2.9

Middle third 3.2 3.1 2.9

Highest third 3.3 3.3 3.0

Science achievement status

Lowest third 3.3 3.2 3.0

Middle third 3.2 3.1 2.9

Highest third 3.3 3.1 2.9

NOTE: Perceived competence and interest scores are from a self-description questionnaire (SDQ). Scores on the SDQ scales ranged from 1

“not at all true” to 4 “very true”. Children were categorized for this report into 3 equally sized achievement groups (lowest third, middle

third, highest third) for reading, mathematics, and science, based on their scale scores for each subject area. Estimates reflect the sample

of children assessed in English in all assessment years. Although most of the children in the sample were in third grade in the spring of

2002, 10 percent were in second grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled in other grades.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring

1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Perceived competence and interest in...
Appendix A A-23

Table A-15a. Standard errors of the mean scale scores for fall 1998 first-time

kindergartners’ perceived competence and interest in reading, mathematics,

and all school subjects in spring of third grade, by their spring third-grade

reading, mathematics, and science achievement scores: Spring 2002

Third-grade achievement status, by subject Reading Mathematics All school subjects

 Total 0.01 0.01 0.01

Reading achievement status

Lowest third 0.02 0.02 0.02

Middle third 0.02 0.02 0.02

Highest third 0.02 0.02 0.02

Mathematics achievement status

Lowest third 0.02 0.03 0.02

Middle third 0.02 0.02 0.01

Highest third 0.02 0.02 0.02

Science achievement status

Lowest third 0.02 0.02 0.02

Middle third 0.02 0.02 0.02

Highest third 0.02 0.02 0.02

NOTE: Perceived competence and interest scores are from a self-description questionnaire (SDQ). Scores on the SDQ scales ranged from 1

“not at all true” to 4 “very true”. Children were categorized for this report into 3 equally sized achievement groups (lowest third, middle

third, highest third) for reading, mathematics, and science, based on their scale scores for each subject area. Estimates reflect the sample

of children assessed in English in all assessment years. Although most of the children in the sample were in third grade in the spring of

2002, 10 percent were in second grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled in other grades.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring

1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Perceived competence and interest in...
A-24 From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

Table A-16. Regression of fall 1998 first-time kindergartners’ reading and mathematics

perceptions in spring of third grade on their spring third-grade achievement

scores and selected child, family, and early school experience characteristics:

Spring 2002

Perceptions Perceptions

of competence and of competence and

Selected child, family, and school characteristics interest in reading interest in mathematics

Intercept 3.45 3.20

Male –0.15* 0.15*

Race/ethnicity1

Black, non-Hispanic 0.14* 0.14*

Hispanic 0.10* 0.08*

Asian/Pacific Islander 0.06 0.02

Other, non-Hispanic 0.08 0.08

Number of family risk factors2 0.04* 0.02

Full-day kindergarten program –0.05 –0.01

School type across all waves of the study3

Private school all years –0.06* –0.18*

Change in school type during study –0.03 –0.05

Reading achievement status

Lowest third –0.33*4 †

Middle third –0.22*4 †

Mathematics achievement status

Lowest third † –0.26*4

Middle third † –0.20*4

† Not applicable.

*p<0.05.

1

The reference group for this comparison is White, non-Hispanic.

2

Family risk factors included living below the federal poverty level, primary home language was non-English, mother’s highest education

was less than a high school diploma/GED, and living in a single-parent household. Values range from 0 to 4.

3

The reference group for this comparison is children who attended public school for all years.

4

Effect size of estimate is greater than or equal to 0.25 standard deviations of the dependent variable (i.e., 0.17 for reading and 0.20 for

mathematics).

NOTE: Perceived competence and interest scores are from a self-description questionnaire (SDQ). Scores on the SDQ scales ranged from 1

“not at all true” to 4 “very true”. Children were categorized for this report into 3 equally sized achievement groups (lowest third, middle

third, highest third) for reading and mathematics, based on their IRT-scale scores for each subject area. Estimates reflect the sample of

children assessed in English in all assessment years. Although most of the children in the sample were in third grade in the spring of

2002, 10 percent were in second grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled in other grades.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of

1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data File and Third Grade Restricted-Use Data File, fall 1998, spring

1999, spring 2000, and spring 2002.

Unstandardized regression coefficients
B-1

Appendix B:

Methodology and Technical Notes

Survey Methodology

The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–99 (ECLS-K), is being

conducted by Westat for the U.S. Department of

Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). It is designed to provide detailed information on children’s early school achievement

and experiences. The study began in the fall of the

1998–99 school year. The children participating

in the ECLS-K are being followed longitudinally

from kindergarten through the fifth grade. Estimates in this report are based on data collected from

and about children who entered kindergarten for

the first time in the fall of 1998 and who were assessed in English in the fall and spring of kindergarten, the spring of 2000 when most of the children were in first grade, and the spring of 2002

when most were third-graders.

Sample Design

A nationally representative sample of 22,782

children enrolled in 1,277 kindergarten programs

during the 1998–99 school year was selected to

participate in the ECLS-K. The children attended

both public and private kindergartens that offered

full-day and part-day programs. The sample includes children from different racial/ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, and includes oversamples

of Asian/Pacific Islander children, private kindergartens, and private kindergartners.

Sampling for the ECLS-K involved a dual-frame,

multistage sampling design. The first stage of sampling involved the selection of 100 primary sampling units (PSU) from a national sample of

PSUs. The PSUs were counties and county groups.

Public and private schools were then selected within

the PSUs, and children were sampled from the selected schools. Public schools were selected from

the NCES 1995–96 Common Core of Data (CCD)

Universe File, which is a public school frame, and

private schools were selected from a private school

frame developed from the 1995–96 Private School

Survey (PSS), another NCES survey.37 Approximately

23 kindergartners were selected in each of the

sampled schools. In the spring of first grade, the

sample was freshened to obtain a nationally representative sample of first-graders by bringing into the

study first-graders who were not enrolled in kindergarten during the 1998–99 school year and therefore did not have an opportunity for selection in the

base year.

While all students still enrolled in their baseyear schools were recontacted, a 50 percent

subsample of base-year students who had transferred

from their kindergarten school was followed. For information on freshening procedures and subsampling

of transfer children (i.e., movers), refer to the ECLS-K

First-grade Public-Use Data Files User’s Manual (NCES

2002). Fall kindergarten data were obtained from

September to December 1998, with 80 percent of

the assessments conducted between early October

and mid-November. The spring kindergarten data

were obtained from March to June 1999, with 80

percent of the assessments conducted between midApril and late May. Spring first-grade data were obtained from March to July 2000, and spring thirdgrade data were obtained from March to July 2002,

with 80 percent of the assessments at each round

conducted between early April and late May.

Response Rates

A total of 944 of the 1,277 originally sampled

schools participated during the base year of the

study. This translates into a weighted response rate

of 74 percent for the base year of the study. The

school response rate during the spring of the base

year (74.2 percent) was higher than during the fall

(69.4 percent); this was due to some of the schools

that originally declined to participate deciding to

participate in the spring. Nearly all (99.4 percent)

37 During the spring of 1998, Westat identified new schools

that were not found on either frame. A sample of these

schools was included in the ECLS-K school sample.
B-2 From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

38The approach used to develop weights for the ECLS-K is

described in the ECLS-K user’s manuals (NCES 2001,

NCES 2002, NCES 2003a).

39Children received a valid child assessment weight if they

participated in any part of the child assessment, such as the

height and weight measurements, at each time period.

Thus, children who were unable to take the cognitive

assessments because of their disability or language status

could still have a valid child assessment weight.

of the schools that participated in the fall of the

base year also participated in the spring.

The child base-year survey completion rate was

92 percent (i.e., 92 percent of the children were

assessed at least once during kindergarten). The parent base-year completion rate was 89 percent (i.e.,

a parent interview was completed at least once during kindergarten). Thus, the overall base-year response rate for children was 68.1 percent

(74 percent x 92 percent) and the base-year response

rate for the parent interview was 65.9 percent

(74 percent x 89 percent). About 95 percent of the

children and 94 percent of the parents who participated in the fall of kindergarten also participated

in the spring. About 88 percent of the children

and 85 percent of the parents who were eligible for

the spring first-grade collection participated. In the

spring of 2002, about 80 percent of the children

and 77 percent of the parents who were eligible

participated.

A nonresponse bias analysis was conducted to

determine if substantial bias was introduced as a

result of the base-year school nonresponse. For information on the nonresponse bias analysis, refer to

the ECLS-K Base Year Public-Use Data Files User’s

Manual (NCES 2001) and the ECLS-K First-grade

Public-Use Data Files User’s Manual (NCES 2002).

Findings from these analyses suggest that there is

not a bias due to nonresponse.

The item nonresponse rates for the variables

used in this report are low, ranging from 0 to about

1.5 percent for the analysis sample. A few of the

variables were fully imputed and have no missing

data (e.g., income, mother’s education). More information on item missing data can be found in

the ECLS-K Grade Three Electronic Codebook

(NCES 2004–002).

Data Reliability

Estimates produced using data from the

ECLS–K are subject to two types of error, sampling

and nonsampling errors. Nonsampling errors are

errors made in the collection and processing of data.

Sampling errors occur because the data are collected

from a sample rather than a census of the population. A detailed discussion of these types of errors

can be found in America’s Kindergartners (West,

Denton, and Germino Hausken 2000).

Standard Errors and Weights

In order to produce national estimates from the

ECLS-K data collected during the kindergarten and

first-grade year, the sample data were weighted.

Weighting the data adjusts for unequal selection

probabilities at both the school and the child levels, and also adjusts for school, child, teacher, and

parent nonresponse. The first stage of the weighting process assigns weights to the sampled primary

sampling units (PSUs) that are equal to the inverse

of the PSU probability of selection.38 The second

stage of the weighting process assigns weights to

the schools sampled within PSUs. The base weight

for each sampled school is the PSU weight multiplied by the inverse of the probability of selecting

the school. The base weights for eligible schools are

adjusted for nonresponse. These adjustments are

made separately for public and private schools.

The base weight for each child in the sample is

the school nonresponse adjusted weight for the

school the child attends, multiplied by a post-stratified within-school student weight (total number of

students in the school, divided by the number of

students sampled in the school). The child panel

weight (C1_5FC0), which is the weight used to

produce the estimates found in this report, is the

base-year child weight adjusted for nonresponse to

the child assessments at each round of data collection. Only those cases with child assessment data

in both fall and spring of kindergarten, spring of

first grade, and spring of third grade are included

in this weighting procedure.39 Again, these adjustments are made separately for public and private

schools. This weight sums to the population of all

children who attended kindergarten in the fall of

1998.

In addition to properly weighting the responses,

special procedures for estimating the statistical significance of the estimates were employed, because

the data were collected using a complex sample
B-3

t =

Appendix B

design. Complex sample designs, like that used in

the ECLS-K, result in data that violate the assumptions that are normally required to assess the statistical significance of the results. Frequently, the standard errors of the estimates in complex samples are

larger than would be expected if the sample was a

simple random sample and the observations were

independent and identically distributed random

variables. Replication methods of variance estimation were used to reflect multistage sample design

used in the ECLS-K. Using WesVar PC statistical

software,40 the jackknife replication method (JK2)

was used with 90 ECLS-K replicate weights to compute approximately unbiased estimates of the standard errors of the estimates in the report. The jackknife method was used to estimate the precision of

the estimates of the reported national percentages,

means, and regression coefficients.

Statistical Procedures

Comparisons made in the text were tested for

statistical significance to ensure that the differences

are larger than might be expected due to sampling

variation. When comparing estimates between categorical groups (e.g., sex, race/ethnicity), t statistics were calculated. The formula used to compute

the t statistic was:

Est1 – Est2

(SQRT[(se1)

2 + (se2

)

2

])

Where Est1 and Est2

 are the estimates being compared and se1 and se2 are their corresponding standard errors. For example, information from Tables 4

and 4a are used to compare children’s third-grade

mathematics IRT-scale scores by children’s race/

ethnicity. The formula used to compute the t statistic for the comparison of White and Black thirdgraders’ mathematics scores would be:

White estimate – Black estimate

(SQRT[(White se)2 + (Black se)2

])

89 – 73

SQRT[(0.8)2 + (1.0)2

]

t = 12.49

40WesVar PC statistical software is designed to calculate

estimates and appropriate standard errors for multistage,

stratified, and unequal probability sample designs.

Due to the large sample size, many differences

(no matter how substantively minor) are statistically significant. In this report, we define “substantive differences” as percentage differences of 5 points

or greater, or mean score differences of one-quarter

of a standard deviation or more.

In addition to t-test comparisons, ordinary least

squares (OLS) regression analyses were conducted

in many sections in order to describe the relationship of selected child, family, and school variables

to children’s scores, after controlling for these other

variables. Independent variables were entered simultaneously for each regression analysis. White

children served as the reference racial/ethnic group,

and children who attended public school for the

first 4 years served as the reference school-type

group. T-test comparisons for other groups (e.g.,

Hispanic vs. Black) were conducted using the

unstandardized coefficients produced in the regression analyses. The same significance criteria used in

the bivariate analyses (p-value of .05 or less and

effect size of 0.25 standard deviation or higher or

5 percentage points difference) was used for the regression coefficients.

When describing children’s gains in reading and

mathematics over the first 4 years of school, the

dependent variables in the regression analyses are

gain scores that represent the differences between

the IRT fall kindergarten and spring third-grade

scale scores for the reading and mathematics assessments. Using gain scores as the dependent variable

rather than spring scores as the dependent variable

with fall scores as a covariate allows results to be

presented in terms of progress made during the year

regardless of where along the continuum that

progress is made. There are longstanding concerns

about the unreliability of gain scores in the measurement literature, although these concerns have

more recently been shown to be unfounded and

based on faulty assumptions (e.g., Gottman and

Rushe 1993; Williams and Zimmerman 1996).

Rogosa and Willett (1983) show that gain score

reliabilities are strong when individual differences

between pre-test and post-test are substantial, as is

the case in most longitudinal assessment applications such as the ECLS-K assessments. Maris (1998)

argues that regression toward the mean is not a legitimate argument against using gain scores nor

is pretest measurement error a concern unless

t =

t =
B-4 From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

assignment into independent variable groups is determined from pre-test performance (which is not

the case in the ECLS-K). Additionally, the use of

IRT-scale scores and the adaptive testing approach

used in the ECLS-K limit the concern that gain

scores may be unreliable due to floor and ceiling

effects (Rock and Pollack 2002).

Direct Assessment Administration

Procedures

Reading, Mathematics, and Science Assessments

The ECLS-K cognitive assessment batteries were

developed with the goal of assessing children’s cognitive status in kindergarten, first grade, and third

grade, and to provide a means of measuring growth

since kindergarten entry. In deference to time and

efficiency, the cognitive assessment was developed

as a two-stage assessment. Separately for each domain, all children received the first-stage routing

test. The routing test was a set of items of varying

difficulty levels, in which all children received all

items. Depending on the number of items children

correctly answered in the routing test, they were

then “routed” into a second-stage form, which varied by level of difficulty. The two-stage design allowed for the maximum amount of information with

efficiency of time. The routing test provided a rough

estimate of each child’s achievement level, so that a

second-stage form with items of the appropriate difficulty for maximizing measurement accuracy could

be selected. Scores for each domain were developed

using Item Response Theory (IRT). The IRT scores

can be compared regardless of which second-stage

form a student was administered. In other words,

each child has a score that reflects how many items

they would have answered correctly if they had been

administered the entire battery of items.

During the ECLS-K cognitive test development, an initial review of commercial assessments

indicated that there were no “off-the-shelf” tests

that met the domain requirements of the ECLS-K,

were both individually administered and adaptive,

or provided items that could be used to measure

children’s cognitive achievement longitudinally. The

framework for the ECLS-K drew from the National

Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) fourthgrade test specifications. The NAEP assessment goals

are similar to those of the ECLS–K in that both

projects assess cognitive skills typically emphasized

in schools. For the grades in which the NAEP frameworks were inappropriate, the ECLS–K solicited

advice from early elementary school educators and

curriculum specialists to articulate more suitable

test specifications. The expertise of item writers from

Educational Testing Service (ETS), elementary

school curriculum specialists, and elementary school

teachers was also used to develop new assessment

items and select existing items to borrow or adapt,

with permission, from published tests, including

the Peabody Individual Achievement Test-Revised

(PIAT-R), Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised

(PPVT-R), the Primary Test of Cognitive Skills

(PTCS), the Test of Early Reading Ability (TERA-2),

the Test of Early Mathematics Ability (TEMA-2),

and the Woodcock- Johnson Tests of AchievementRevised (WJ-R) (Rock and Pollack 2002).

In kindergarten and first grade, the same set of

reading and mathematics items were used in all four

rounds of data collection. The kindergarten/firstgrade reading and mathematics assessments each

had three second-stage forms, with most children

routing into the easiest of the second-stage forms

in fall-kindergarten and most into the most difficult forms in the spring of first grade. For third

grade, a new set of items was developed since

children’s academic skills could be expected to have

advanced beyond the levels covered by the kindergarten/first-grade assessment. The third-grade reading, mathematics, and science assessment each had

three second-stage forms. Some of the kindergarten/first-grade items were retained in the third-grade

assessment to support the development of a longitudinal score scale (Pollack et al. forthcoming).

This report focuses on those children who were

assessed in English in fall of kindergarten, spring of

kindergarten, spring of first grade, and spring of third

grade. In the ECLS-K, the reading and science assessments, specifically designed for the ECLS-K, were

only administered in English. The mathematics assessment was administered in both English and

Spanish in the kindergarten and first-grade year, and

only in English in third grade. Prior to administering the English reading and mathematics assessment

in kindergarten and first grade, children’s English

language proficiency was evaluated. Children whose

home language was other than English (as determined by school records) were administered the Oral
Appendix B B-5

Language Development Scale (OLDS) (for more information, see the ECLS-K Base-Year User’s Manual,

National Center for Education Statistics 2001). If

children demonstrated sufficient proficiency in

English for the ECLS-K direct child assessment,

they received the English reading and mathematics

battery. Approximately 68 percent of Hispanic children and 78 percent of Asian/Pacific Islander children were assessed in English in the fall and spring

of kindergarten and in the spring of first grade

(Denton and West 2002).41 In the fall of kindergarten, 1,567 children were not administered the

English battery because of their performance on the

OLDS. By spring of first grade, this number was

down to 350.42 In the third-grade year, the OLDS

was not administered and all children were assessed

in English.

Self-Description Questionnaire (SDQ) Assessment

Since children’s reading abilities may vary greatly

in third grade, the SDQ was administered by having assessors read each item to the child and then

providing the child a few seconds after each statement to mark their response. Assessors were trained

not to look at children’s answers in an effort to avoid

making children feel tempted to answer more positively than they would have otherwise. The SDQ

was administered first to each child, followed by

the cognitive assessments.

Children responded to each of 42 behavioral

statements in relation to their perception of themselves on a scale from 1 to 4, including “not at all

true,” “a little bit true,” “mostly true,” and “very

true.” Children’s responses on the 42 items were

then used to calculate scores on six scales: (1) reading scale, (2) mathematics scale, (3) school scale,

41In an earlier ECLS-K report (Denton and West 2002),

analyses were conducted to explore how including children

who initially could not take the battery in English but were

screened in by spring of first grade would impact achievement estimates. Significant reading t-score differences

overall and by specific racial/ethnic group were not

detected between the analytic sample of children assessed

in English at all time points and the total sample, including

those who were screened into the English assessment over

time.

42This information is based on the ECLS-K Longitudinal

Kindergarten-First Grade Public Use Electronic Code Book

(NCES 2002–148) variable CPSOLDS (Round in which

child passed English OLDS).

(4) peer scale, (5) externalizing problem behavior

scale, and (6) internalizing problem behavior scale.

Children’s scale scores on each of the SDQ scales

represent the mean rating of the items included in

the scale. The first four scales were based on scales

from Marsh’s (1990) Self-Description Questionnaire I.

The last two scales were added to collect data on

children’s perceptions of behaviors that may interfere with learning. The six scales were field tested

in spring of 2000. Scale reliabilities in the spring

2002 data collection ranged from .77 to .90

(Pollack et al. forthcoming).

Derived Variables

A number of variables used in this report were

derived by combining information from one or

more questions in the ECLS-K study instruments.

The derivation of key variables is described in this

section. Unless otherwise noted, steps for deriving

variables were identical for kindergarten, first-grade,

and third-grade data. Variable names from the

ECLS-K database are included in the descriptions

using the kindergarten names and are indicated by

all capital letters.

Children’s race/ethnicity. The race/ethnicity

composite (R5RACE) on the ECLS-K Third Grade

restricted-use data file was constructed from two

parent-reported variables: ethnicity and race. Following new Office of Management and Budget

guidelines, a respondent could select more than one

race (OMB 1997). Each respondent was asked to

identify whether the child was Hispanic, and then

to select one or more races. The following are the

five composite race/ethnicity categories presented

in this report: White non-Hispanic, Black non-Hispanic, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander and Other

(which includes American Indians, Alaska Natives,

and non-Hispanic multiracial children). When race/

ethnicity differences are presented in this report,

White refers to White, non-Hispanic and Black refers to Black, non-Hispanic.

Number of family risk factors. This variable is

a composite based on family type (P2HFAMIL),

federal poverty status (WKPOV_R), primary home

language (WKLANGST), and mother’s highest education level (WKMOMED), as collected in the kindergarten year. The variables used to construct this

composite come from the ECLS-K Longitudinal
B-6 From Kindergarten Through Third Grade: Children’s Beginning School Experiences

Kindergarten-First Grade public-use data file. Children receive one point on the index for each of the

following risk factors: single-parent household, below federal poverty level,43 primary home language

other than English, and mother’s highest education level less than a high school diploma. Children’s

values for this composite variable were equal to the

total number of family risk factors, ranging from 0

to 4. For children without a mother in the household in the kindergarten year (n = 137), their risk

factor score was calculated based on the three variables with valid data (WKPOV_R, WKLANGST,

and P2HFAMIL).

43The federal poverty level status composite variable is

derived from household income and the total number of

household members. Federal poverty thresholds are used to

define households below the poverty level. For instance, in

1998 if a household contained 4 members, and the

household income was lower than $16,655, then the

household was considered to be in poverty.

Fall kindergarten program type. This variable

is a composite derived from A1CLASS (fall kindergarten classroom type based on teacher information) and F1CLASS (child kindergarten program

type data from the field management system) variables on the ECLS-K Longitudinal KindergartenFirst Grade public-use data file. If children had valid

data on A1CLASS and were designated as being in

an AM or PM kindergarten, their kindergarten program type was set to “half-day kindergarten.” If they

had valid data on A1CLASS and were designated as

being in an all-day kindergarten, their kindergarten program type was set to “full-day.” If a child

was missing data on A1CLASS, their values on

F1CLASS were used to designate fall kindergarten

program type.

School type across all waves of the study. This

variable is a composite based on S2KPUPRI and

S4PUPRI from the ECLS-K Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade public-use data file and S5PUPRI

from the ECLS-K Third Grade restricted-use data

file. They are indicators of whether a child attended

at public or private school in the spring of kindergarten, first grade, and third grade. Public schools

included Bureau of Indian Affairs and tribal schools,

schools of choice (e.g., charter schools), and public

schools with magnet programs. Private schools included Catholic schools, other religious private

schools, and non-religious private schools. Children

were categorized into “public school all years,” “private school all years,” or “public and private school

attendance between kindergarten and third grade”

based on their values on each of the three variables.