| Kirsten Kainz
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Reading Development Trajectories from Kindergarten to Third Grade: Untangling Effects from Child, Family, Classroom, and School Literacy Systems for Children Living in Poverty
FIINAL REPORT:
This research examined reading development from kindergarten to third for a subpopulation of children from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study - Kindergarten Cohort. The analytic sample contained 1893 children who 1) lived in families with low incomes defined as less than 200% of the U.S. Census poverty threshold in 1998, 2) began public kindergarten in 1998 and transitioned to third grade in the same school by 2002, 3) did not have a disability on record at kindergarten, and 4) performed their assessments in English.
Children's reading performance over four years was modeled as a function of an underlying reading development trajectory, defined by initial status at kindergarten entry and reading growth through the end of third grade. Characteristics of the child and family were used to explain variation in children's reading trajectories. Characteristics of classrooms and schools were used to explain children's deviations from their anticipated trajectories. It was possible to examine the characteristics of classrooms and schools that constrained or enhanced children's reading performance at the end of a grade relative to children's anticipated reading development trajectories. Key findings from the analyses indicated that characteristics of children, families, classrooms, and schools contributed to children's reading development. Considerations for reading policy are discussed, including high-quality early childhood programs, income support for low-income families, research-based classroom literacy instruction, reduced concentrations of low-performing students, and attenuation of the negative neighborhood and/or school processes associated with minority segregation.
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