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15 Apr 2005
Report

Relationships Between Family Risks and Children’s Reading and Mathematics Growth from Kindergarten Through Third Grade

Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association 2005 Annual Conference Montreal, Canada April 11-15

Amy Rathbun, AIR
Jerry West, National Center for Education Statistics
Jill Walston, AIR

Perspective

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; Pallas, Natriello, McDill 1989; Rathbun and West 2004; Zill and West 2001). Previous studies have found associations among these family background characteristics and poor educational outcomes, including low achievement scores, grade repetition, and dropping out of high school. Many children with one risk factor have other family risks present. For instance, children in single parent households are likely to also live in poverty (Pallas, Natriello, and McDill 1989; Rathbun and West 2004). Given that family risks may occur alone or in combination, it is important to examine relationships between particular sets of risks and children’s early school achievement to explore whether children with certain types of risk factors begin school demonstrating fewer reading and mathematics skills than other kindergartners, and whether they fall further behind other children in reading and mathematics over the first four years of school.

Many of the studies that compare approaches to examining the relationship between risk factors and child outcomes have been based on relatively small sample sizes and have included large numbers of contextual risk factors as predictor variables. Furthermore, in many instances the samples were not representative of the U.S. population of children; rather, they tended to focus on minority children or those who had certain risk factors present (e.g., large proportion of families in poverty, overrepresentation of parental psychopathology). With such samples, researchers noted that the composite or cumulative risk index approach tended to provide the greater statistical power for examining the relationships between risk factors and child outcomes than the multiple predictor approach (Burchinal et al. 2000; Gutman, Sameroff, and Cole 2003). However, exploring the unique effects of risk factors allows for the isolation of qualitatively distinct sources of contextual risk (Ackerman et al. 1999).

Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–99 (ECLSK), this paper extends the findings from prior research. First, it explores whether kindergartners’ reading and mathematics gains over the first 4 years of school are more strongly associated with particular risk factors alone or in combination, as opposed to the cumulative number of family risk factors a child experiences. Second, the analysis makes use of the reading and mathematics data collected at 4 time points (i.e., fall kindergarten, spring kindergarten, spring first grade, and spring third grade) to describe achievement growth over time, rather than using scores from two time points (fall kindergarten and spring third grade) as a measure of academic gain.

PDF icon Relationships Between Family Risks and Children’s Reading and Mathematics Growth from Kindergarten Through Third Grade

Related Projects

Project

Early Childhood Longitudinal Studies (ECLS)

The Early Childhood Longitudinal Studies (ECLS) program offers the first nationally representative study of early childhood development and education in the United States. The ECLS program currently has three separate longitudinal studies fielded by the National Center for Education Statistics: The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–99; the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort; the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study of 2010–11.

Related Work

11 Apr 2005
News Release

More Than 100 AIR Experts Participate at the American Educational Research Association Conference

At-risk students show improved test scores when challenged by rigorous, engaging instruction, according to findings to be released by the American Institutes for Research (AIR) at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in Montreal April 11 - 15. More than 100 AIR experts will be participating in the conference, covering topics from full-day Kindergarten to adult literacy.

Further Reading

  • Teacher Qualifications, Instructional Practices, and Reading and Mathematics Gains of Kindergartners
  • Making the Most of Extra Time: Relationships Between Full-Day Kindergarten Instructional Environments and Reading Achievement
  • Eighth Grade: First Findings From the Final Round of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K)
  • Regional Differences in Kindergartners’ Early Education Experiences
  • More Than 100 AIR Experts Participate at the American Educational Research Association Conference
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Amy Rathbun

Managing Researcher
Jill Walston

Jill Walston

Principal Researcher

Topic

Education
Early Childhood and Child Development

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