Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Cohort of 1998 (ECLS-K, 98), a nationally representative sample of kindergarteners in the United States, we investigated the relationship between approaches to learning and spring reading achievement with particular emphasis on classroom and school-level differences. We employed…

Many kindergarten teachers use ability groups to differentiate instruction in reading and math. Ability group placement should depend primarily on student achievement, but critics charge that placement is biased by socioeconomic status (SES), gender, and race/ethnicity. We predict group placement in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study of the…

Self-regulation is a critical component of school readiness and success. Practices for supporting self-regulation may be advanced by a better understanding of factors characterizing children at risk for challenges and contextual mechanisms associated with desirable developmental trajectories. The current study leverages a large national data set…

We examined to what extent subgroups of students identified with learning disabilities (LDs; N = 630) in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998 to 1999 (ECLS-K): 1998 national longitudinal study displayed heterogeneity in longitudinal profiles of reading and mathematics achievement from first to eighth grades.…

This report is intended to provide a snapshot of the children in the ECLS-K:2011 cohort who were in kindergarten for the first time in the 2010-11 school year and in fourth grade 4 years later during the spring of 2015. About 88 percent of children enrolled in kindergarten in 2010-11 were in kindergarten for the first time that school year and…

Studies using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study--Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999 (ECLS-K:1999) revealed gender gaps in mathematics achievement and teacher perceptions. However, recent evidence suggests that gender gaps have closed on state tests, raising the question of whether such gaps are absent in the ECLS-K:2011 cohort.…

Studies using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999 (ECLS-K:1999) revealed gender gaps in mathematics achievement and teacher perceptions. However, recent evidence suggests that gender gaps have closed on state tests, raising the question of whether such gaps are absent in the ECLS-K:2011 cohort.…

We investigated whether minority children attending U.S. elementary and middle schools are disproportionately represented in special education. We did so using hazard modeling of multiyear longitudinal data and extensive covariate adjustment for potential child-, family-, and state-level confounds. Minority children were consistently less likely…