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Thursday, August 8, 2013

New Data Links Preschool Attendance to Kindergarten Reading and Math Skills |

New Data Links Preschool Attendance to Kindergarten Reading and Math Skills |:

New Data Links Preschool Attendance to Kindergarten Reading and Math Skills

Photo: Micaela Bedell for Strategies for Children
Photo: Micaela Bedell for Strategies for Children
Earlier this month, the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics released “America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2013.”
Drawing on “our most reliable statistics,” according to the foreword, the report “presents 41 key indicators on important aspects of children’s lives.”  The report covers seven domains, including family and social environment, economic situation, health and health care, education, behavior, and physical environment and safety.
Among the key findings that Education Week points out, “Children who experienced at least some early child care beyond their parents or relatives performed better in reading and math in kindergarten than those who were cared for only by relatives.”
A special feature in the report focuses on kindergarten “using data from a longitudinal study of a 2010–2011 kindergarten cohort.” In the fall of 2010, some three and a half million children entered kindergarten for the first time.
The story of kindergarten is a story of laughter and glue and building with