There is growing evidence that school starting age impacts children's likelihood of receiving special education services, but less is known about variations in this effect. Using a regression discontinuity design, I found that the youngest students in a kindergarten cohort are 40% more likely (p < 0.001) to be placed in special education than…

The qualitative Early Childhood research project analyzes how children, aged five to six years, talk about the dimensions of diversity they recognize in their kindergarten and how two kindergartens in Austria deal with diversity. The children talk about age, gender, size, language, religion, different countries of origin, and skin colors. With…

Objectives: The importance of breastfeeding exposure and children's development of self-regulation, independently, are well established. Each of these domains also has been linked to better cognitive development and academic achievement in children. However, little is known about how breastfeeding affects development of early self-regulation…

Do your peers in the classroom have an effect on your vocabulary learning? The purpose of this study was to determine if group-level peer characteristics and group-level peer achievement account for individual-level differences in vocabulary achievement using a large sample of students in kindergarten through second grade (n = 389,917). We applied…

Although there is evidence to suggest that parent involvement (PI) in children's education positively impacts their academic success, the mechanisms of this effect are less well studied. One potential mechanism is a set of student-level motivational and behavioral factors labeled approaches to learning (ATL). The purpose of the current study was…

We used structural equation modeling in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study--Kindergarten Cohort (N = 17,020) to explore the influence of having an older sibling on kindergarten-age focal children's cognitive self-regulation. In model 1, we tested how having a sibling who is generally older than the focal child contributes to the focal child's…

The Baccalaureate and Beyond (B&B) series of data collections allows researchers to address questions regarding bachelor's degree recipients' undergraduate experiences, including their participation in various financial aid programs, student loan debt and repayment of that debt; entrance into and progress through postbaccalaureate education;…

Ability grouping is a common educational practice utilized by elementary teachers during reading instruction. This study examines whether ability grouping operates as a form of educational stratification by examining the following research question: To what extent do student literacy skills, background characteristics, and prior group placement…

The aim of this study is to determine the perceptions of preschool teachers regarding critical multicultural education competencies. The study is based on "Critical Multicultural Education Competency Model." The sample of this descriptive research consists of 120 teachers employed at 56 kindergartens and 24 independent nursery classes in…

Although children's early language skills have been found to predict literacy outcomes, little is known about the role of preschool oral narrative skills in the pathway between language and emergent literacy or how these associations differ by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. The current study uses the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study to…

There are conflicting findings regarding the development of essentialist beliefs about social categories. The present studies address these findings by differentiating between the developments of the relative versus absolute essentialist status of categories. Participants were Israeli Secular Jewish and Muslim Arab kindergarteners, second graders,…

This study reports the importance 244 parents of six-year-old children living in Singapore placed on cognitive (problem-solving and creativity) and non-cognitive (practical school skills and conforming) behaviours. Our research team hypothesised that, as the age of the parent increased, the importance placed on each covariant skill (problem…

There is a virtual consensus regarding the types of language processes, interactions, and material supports that are central for young children to become proficient readers and writers (Shanahan et al., 2008). In this study, we examine these supports in both home and school contexts during children's critical transitional kindergarten year.…

During a regular free writing time in class, children in Kindergarten through sixth grade in various areas of the city were given the writing prompt,"My dreams for the world". Writing samples were collected from an elementary school in an affluent area of the city, an elementary and a middle school in a low socio-economic area, and an…

California's Kindergarten Readiness Act of 2010 established transitional kindergarten (TK), the first year of a two-year kindergarten program for students affected by the change in the birthdate cutoff for entry into kindergarten from December 2 to September 1. This final report from the program's evaluation focuses on results from a five-year…