Primary Early Care and Education Arrangements and Achievement at Kindergarten Entry. NCES 2016-070
Author: Rathbun, Amy
Date: 2016-06-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Kindergarten,Young Children,Correlation,School Readiness,Family Characteristics,Student Characteristics,Child Care Centers,Preschool Education,Early Childhood Education,Family Environment,Educational Attainment,National Surveys,Children,Longitudinal Studies,Surveys,Trend Analysis,Participation,Racial Differences,Statistical Analysis

Young children experience various types of early care and education environments the year before they enter kindergarten. Some children attend center-based arrangements such as preschools, childcare centers, or Head Start programs, while others are cared for in relatives' or nonrelatives' homes or are normally cared for only by their parents. Prior research indicates that children's participation rates in specific types of primary care arrangements and their knowledge and skills at kindergarten entry differ in relation to certain characteristics of children and their families, including age at kindergarten entry, race/ethnicity, primary home language, and mother's educational attainment. This Statistical Analysis Report builds upon prior work by using the most recently available data to explore relationships between children's primary care and education arrangements the year before kindergarten and their academic skills and learning behaviors at kindergarten entry, after accounting for child and family background characteristics. In the report, ECE arrangements are classified into five groups: (1) center-based care (including day care centers, Head Start programs, preschools, prekindergartens, and other early childhood programs); (2) home-based relative care; (3) home-based nonrelative care; (4) multiple arrangements (i.e., children who spent an equal amount of time in each of two or more types of arrangements); and (5) no ECE arrangement on a regular basis (i.e., children who had no regularly scheduled care arrangement and mainly received care only from their parents). Information for this report comes from the nationally representative National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES) and the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11 (ECLS-K:2011) data collections. Data from the NHES cross-sectional sample survey are used to describe trends in participation in ECE arrangements that children experience prior to kindergarten entry. The NHES Early Childhood Program Participation (ECPP) surveys gather information on children's participation in ECE programs and the characteristics of these arrangements. Parents reported information on their child's participation in different types of ECE arrangements in 1995, 2001, 2005, and 2012. This report compares estimates of 4- and 5-year-old children's primary ECE arrangements prior to kindergarten entry in 1995 and 2012. Estimates are presented overall and by children's race/ethnicity, their family's poverty status, and their mother's educational attainment. Data from the ECLS-K:2011 longitudinal sample survey are used to explore relationships between primary ECE arrangements the year before kindergarten and academic skills and learning behaviors at kindergarten entry. The ECLS-K:2011 collects detailed information on the school achievement and experiences of students from the 2010-11 kindergarten school year through the spring of 2016, when most of them are expected to be in fifth grade. In the fall of 2010 and spring of 2011, parents reported information on child and family characteristics and their child's participation in ECE settings the year before kindergarten; children were assessed in reading, mathematics, and cognitive flexibility; and kindergarten teachers reported on children's approaches to learning. The report describes the distribution of primary ECE arrangements that first-time kindergartners attended in the year before entering kindergarten in the fall of 2010, including differences in primary ECE arrangements by characteristics of children and their families. The report also describes differences in first-time kindergartners' academic knowledge, skills, and learning behaviors at kindergarten entry relative to their primary ECE arrangement, after accounting for children's sex, age at kindergarten entry, race/ethnicity, family type, primary home language, and socioeconomic status (SES). The following are appended: (1) Reference tables; and (2) Technical Notes and Methodology: (a) National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES); (b) Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11 (ECLS-K:2011); and (c) Statistical Procedures.