Effects of Ability and Settings on Kindergartners' Reading Performance
- 1 January 1993
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in The Journal of Educational Research
- Vol. 86 (3), 142-160
- https://doi.org/10.1080/00220671.1993.9941153
Abstract
This report presents findings from the testing of approximately 650 children in two cohorts at the beginning and end of their kindergarten years and from 9 full days of observations of their classrooms. Data were collected in three school districts, of which two had half-day kindergarten programs and one had a full-day program. Descriptive findings and results from multiple regression analyses reveal strong relationships between the children's Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT) scores upon entering kindergarten and their spring scores on three measures of reading performance—the WRAT, the Chicago Reading Test, and the Woodcock Reading Comprehension paragraphs. There were also substantial and significant differences among districts on the end-of-year measures. No differences were identified for time of day (morning vs. afternoon class) or for the interaction of teacher and time of day. Among the process variables studied, “confirming feedback” was most frequently significant at the teacher level. Teachers in District A collectively accounted for 60% of the significant findings with respect to classroom instruction. The results suggest that what happens in kindergarten classrooms, rather than the length of the school day, determines children's reading ability at the end of kindergarten.Keywords
This publication has 9 references indexed in Scilit:
- Classroom research: A decade of progressEducational Psychologist, 1983
- The Relative Effects of Word-Analysis and Word-Supply Correction Procedures with Poor Readers during Word-Attack TrainingReading Research Quarterly, 1982
- The Missouri Mathematics Effectiveness Project: An experimental study in fourth-grade classrooms.Journal of Educational Psychology, 1979
- An Experimental Study of Effective Teaching in First-Grade Reading GroupsThe Elementary School Journal, 1979
- Teaching Mathematics in High and Low SES Classrooms: An Empirical ComparisonJournal of Teacher Education, 1978
- Curriculum Pacing: Some Empirical Data in MathematicsJournal of Curriculum Studies, 1978
- How Children Are Taught to Read: Grouping and PacingThe School Review, 1975
- Instructional Pace Differences and Their Effect on Reading AcquisitionReading Research Quarterly, 1973
- A Model of School LearningTeachers College Record: the Voice of Scholarship in Education, 1963