Publicly funded center-based preschool programs were designed to enhance low-income children's early cognitive and social-emotional skills in preparation for kindergarten. In the U.S., the federal Head Start program and state-funded public school-based pre-kindergarten (pre-k) programs are the two primary center-based settings in which low-income…

The increased utilization of non-parental pre-kindergarten care has spurred interest by both researchers and policy makers as to what types of care might be effective at boosting school readiness. Under-developed in the research has been an assessment of the influence of pre-kindergarten care on school readiness for English Language Learners…

School moves are common during elementary school in the United States. The authors address whether changing schools and residences affects the academic and behavioral development of young students. Utilizing data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, the regression analyses show that, after controlling for prior achievement and behavior,…

Determining the effectiveness of many special education interventions is most difficult because of the practical and ethical limitations associated with assigning participants to a control or non-treated group. Using Longitudinal Study of Australian Children data, this article utilised eight different propensity score analysis methods to determine…

Research Findings: Children from immigrant families are more likely than children of native parents to start school with fewer of the academic skills that are important for long-term success, although evidence on behavioral skills is mixed. Center-based early education and care (EEC) programs, which have been linked to improvements in academic…

The study examined the relative effectiveness of four early elementary school math curricula: Investigations in Number, Data, and Space; Math Expressions; Saxon Math; and Scott Foresman-Addison Wesley Mathematics. The study analyzed data on more than 8,000 first- and second-grade students in 110 schools in 12 districts in 10 states. In each of the…

This paper aims at investigating the causal effects of social behaviors on subsequent reading growth in elementary school, using the "Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten" ("ECLS-K") data. The sample was 8,869 subjects who provided longitudinal measures of reading IRT scores from kindergarten (1998-1999) to fifth…

Research Findings: Children's early academic achievement is supported by positive social and behavioral skills, and difficulties with these skills frequently gives way to underachievement. Social and behavioral problems often arise as a product of parent-child interactional patterns and environmental influences. Few studies have examined the role…

This study examined the measurement and interpretation of self-concept among the growing population of children who are English Language Learners (ELLs). More specifically, a 3-group analysis was conducted comparing native English-speaking children, Spanish-speaking ELLs, and ELLs from Asian language backgrounds. Data were drawn from the Early…

We investigated whether being poorly skilled in reading contributes to children's reported feelings of anger, distractibility, anxiety, sadness, loneliness, and social isolation. Data were analyzed from a longitudinal subsample of children (N = 3,308) participating in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort. Multilevel logistic…

In this study, the authors examined the racial and gender gap in the academic development of African American and White children from kindergarten to 5th grade. Their main goal was to determine the extent to which social and behavioral factors, including learning-related skills, problem behaviors, and interpersonal skills, explain these gaps and…

This report confirms the detrimental effects of low family income on children by examining the well-being of children across all incomes and race-ethnicity groups in a nationally representative sample of children attending kindergarten and participating in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99. The sample included…

The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K), selected a nationally representative sample of approximately 22,000 kindergartners in the fall of 1998 and is following these children through the end of the fifth grade. Baseline data about these children, their families, and their kindergarten programs were collected…