Facts In Action. Associated Early Care & Education.In Brief. Kindergarten Achievement Gap Suggests New Directions for Early Childhood Education

Findings from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey indicate that the achievement gap identified as students move through school could be observed as early as the fall of the kindergarten year. Understanding that a gap in skills and general knowledge exists among some groups of children at the beginning of kindergarten provides state policymakers with useful information to design pre-kindergarten initiatives.

NCES conducted the study using a set of measures developed by the National Education Goals Panel (NEGP), covering the five dimensions of development: physical well-being and motor development; social and emotional development; approaches toward learning; language usage; and cognition and general knowledge. The study found that kindergartners' levels of achievement vary depending on the students' age, family type, parents' education, primary language spoken in the home, and race/ethnicity. The study did not find a significant difference between boys' and girls' developmental status at school entry. This is an interesting finding in that previous studies have shown relatively large differences in the academic success of boys and girls at the fourth grade level. The new data suggests, then, that this gender gap is the result of something, which begins during the elementary school years.

Source:
"Achievement Gap Evident at Kindergarten According to Study that Builds on Goals Panel Work in Early Childhood", National Educational Goals Panel, NEGP Monthly, Volume 2, July 2001.

For more information:
go on-line at www.negp.gov/issues/issu/monthly/0701.pdf. Editor's Note: this url is no longer active.

Source:
Beginning School: U.S. Kindergarteners' Developmental Status-Variation by Entry Age and Gender, L. Reaney, K. Denton, and J. West, poster presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Researchers Association, April 26, 2000.

For more information:
go on-line at nces.ed.gov/ecls/pdf/essaysmisc/entryposter.pdf. Editor's Note: this url is no longer active.