Kindergarten

Children Entering Kindergarten In The US

Last Updated Nov 20, 2008 10:34 AM

Kindergarten is a critical period in children's early school careers. It sets them on a path that influences their subsequent learning and school achievement. For most children, kindergarten represents the first step in a journey through the world of formal schooling. However, children entering kindergarten in the United States in the 1990s are different from those who entered kindergarten in prior decades. They come from increasingly diverse racial, ethnic, cultural, social, economic and language backgrounds. Many kindergartners now come from single-parent families and from step-parent families. They also differ in the level and types of early care and educational experiences that they have had prior to kindergarten (Zill et al. 1995).

Our nation’s schools face new opportunities and new challenges. Schools are expected to meet the educational needs of each child regardless of their background and experience. Services, such as meals and before- and after-school child care, that were provided by other institutions in the past are now being provided by schools. Teachers are faced with classrooms of children with increasingly diverse needs. In addition, growing pressure to raise academic standards and to assess all students’ progress towards meeting those standards places even more burden on schools and teachers. Much of the literature on the status of children in our nation's schools is focused on elementary (e.g., fourth-graders in the National Assessment of Educational Progress) and secondary school children (e.g., twelfth-graders in the National Assessment of Educational Progress and eighth-, tenth- and twelfthgraders in the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988).


Little information is available on kindergarten programs in the United States and on the nation’s children as they enter kindergarten and move through the primary grades. Information about the entry status of the nation's kindergartners can inform educational policy and practice, and especially those policies and practices that are targeted to meeting the needs of a diverse population of children entering kindergarten for the first time.


In the fall of 1998, about 4 million children were attending kindergarten in the United States, approximately 95 percent of them for the first time. Of the children attending kindergarten, 85 percent were in public school, 15 percent in private school, 55 percent were in full day programs and 45 percent were in part day program. Whether or not children succeed in school is in part related to events and experiences that occur prior to their entering kindergarten for the first time. Children’s preparedness for school and their later school success are related to multiple aspects of their development. Children’s physical well-being, social development, cognitive skills and knowledge and how they approach learning are all factors that contribute to their chance for success in school (Kagan et al. 1995). Additionally, the differences we see in children’s knowledge and skill as they enter kindergarten can be contributed to a variation in family characteristics (e.g., maternal education, family type) and home experiences (home educational activities, nonparental care). A complex and continuous collaboration exists between the child and the family; and, the family can provide the resources and support that children require to increase their chances of succeeding in school (Maccoby 1992). For some children, the absence of resources and support place them at increased risk for school failure. This report presents the first findings from a new national study of kindergartners, their schools, classrooms, teachers and families.

The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998- 99 (ECLS-K), sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), began following a nationally representative sample of some 22,000 kindergartners in the fall of 1998. The ECLS-K will follow the same cohort of children from their entry to kindergarten through their fifth grade year.

Data will be collected not only in the fall of kindergarten but also spring kindergarten, fall first grade, spring first grade, spring third grade and spring fifth grade. In the fall of kindergarten, data were collected from children, their parents and their teachers. Information from children was gathered during an individualized in-person assessment with the child in the child’s school, parents were interviewed over the phone and teachers were given self-administered questionnaires.

See also Kindergarten 559 1 - 6