More Resources Children's Reading & Mathematics Achievement in Kindergarten & First Grade

All children benefit from kindergarten and first grade, but children who demonstrate early literacy skills and who come from an environment where literacy is actively encouraged do better in reading and mathematics after two years of formal schooling than children who do not have these resources, according to the third in a series of reports from a U.S. Department of Education study following children from kindergarten to the fifth grade.

Further, by the spring of the first grade, females are more likely to be reading and males are more likely to be proficient at multiplication and division. These new findings point to the beginnings of differences in children's reading and mathematics performance by their gender.

Children's Reading and Mathematics Achievement in Kindergarten and First Grade, now available through the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), shows that children begin kindergarten with different sets of knowledge and skills, depending on the child, family and school characteristics. The ones who know their letters, numbers, and shapes, are read to frequently, who demonstrate a positive approach to learning, and who are in very good to excellent health perform better in school.

"This latest in a series of reports continues to provide us with new, national data on kindergartners as we follow them to the fifth grade," said Russ Whitehurst, assistant secretary for the Office of Educational Research and Improvement. "The findings we will get about them, their families, and their classrooms will help us to better educate students in the future."

The first two reports laid the foundation for a basic understanding of children's achievement across the kindergarten year. This report continues the story by providing information about children's knowledge and skills in the first-grade year. It explores how children's literacy, approaches to learning, and general health status at kindergarten entry relate to their spring first grade reading and mathematics knowledge and skills.

According to the study, 67 percent of children begin kindergarten recognizing their letters. By the spring of kindergarten 95 percent know the letters of the alphabet, and after two years, nearly all children can recognize the letters. At kindergarten entry, about 31 percent understand the letter-sound relationship at the beginning of words and about 18 percent understand the letter-sound relationship at the end of words.

By the spring of kindergarten, about 74 percent of children make the letter-sound connection at the beginning of words and just over 54 percent make this connection at the ending of words. By the spring of first grade, almost all children have mastered these reading skills (98 and 94 percent, respectively). The study showed that about five in six children recognize common words by sight by the spring of the first grade, and about one-half understand words in context, compared to 14 and four percent, respectively, in the spring of kindergarten.

"The findings from this ongoing longitudinal study continue to show that the skills and resources that children have when they first begin school help to shape their chances for later school success," said Gary W. Phillips, deputy commissioner for NCES.

The study also found that differences in student achievement could be related to children's background, such as poverty, parent's education, race and ethnicity. These achievement gaps existed when children entered kindergarten and persisted through to the end of first grade.

Future reports will continue to follow the educational progress of this same sample of children through fifth grade, regularly reporting on their reading and math achievement, social skills, physical development, and school experiences. The study will reveal the extent to which differences that exist when children enter school persist or change over time and how schooling influences progress.

The full text of Children's Reading and Mathematics Achievement in Kindergarten and First Grade, is available on the NCES Web site nces.ed.gov. A copy of the report can be ordered by calling toll free 1-877-4ED-PUBS (1-877-433-7827) TTY/TDD 1-877576-7734; via e-mail at edpubs@inet.ed.gov or through the Internet at www.ed.gov/pubs/edpubs.html.

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