This study examines how home learning activities and preschool attendance affects achievement in kindergarten. Past research has shown that young children who experience enriched home and preschool environments are much more likely to have improved academic performance in formal schooling. These results are particularly robust for children who live in low-income or poverty settings. Approximately 23,000 data sets from the 1998 kindergarten cohort of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS) were examined for this study. These data sets report assessment details on children's cognitive, language, socio-emotional, and physical development. In addition, there are a variety of parent and teacher reports that reveal information on family demographics, health status, classroom environments, and educational program goals, to name a few. The home activities analysis group included 14,880 kindergarten children, while the preschool analysis group consisted of 10,307 kindergarten children. The author employed a stratified
cluster sampling process in order to examine subjects from a variety of regions and metropolitan areas, social class and racial backgrounds, and school types and sizes. The data were examined to determine risk status, level of home learning activities, preschool attendance,
reading and mathematics achievement, and parent and teachers' perceptions of children's level of persistence, motivation, and interest in learning activities. The math and reading assessment scores, along with the approaches to learning assessment, served as the dependent variables in a series of two-way multiple analyses of variance procedures. The results from this study revealed that parents who engage in learning activities at home have kindergartners who have higher mathematics and reading scores when compared to children who experience no
home learning activities. Unfortunately, children who experience one or more risk factors score lower on math and reading assessment. When preschool attendance and risk factors are examined, similar findings emerge. Students who attend preschool have higher math and reading scores than children who have not attended preschool. Sadly, children who experience one or more risk factors demonstrate lower approaches toward learning and poorer math and reading scores than children without risk factors. Since home learning activities were the only factor that affected higher scores on assessments of how children approach learning, the author recommends increased funding and support for helping parents to provide stimulating home learning activities. Reducing risks in families that negatively impact children may be one of the best investments we can make. Finally, the author recommends greater advocacy in promoting the value of universal preschool for all children.
