A Study of the Differences in the Prediction of Reading Success of Kindergarten and Non-Kindergarten Children

Abstract

In predicting the reading success of beginning first grade children, it has been customary to apply the same predictive measure to all children, those wrho have attended kindergarten, those who come to school for the first time and those who are repeating the grade. Advocates of the kinder garten, on the other hand, claim that effective kindergarten experiences, in addition to helping the child become oriented to school and adjusting to group living, enhance the child's readiness to read. If this assumption be true, then children who have had kindergarten experience should reveal higher predictive scores on reading readiness tests and consequent greater success in reading at the end of the first year of school. It is the purpose of this study to reveal two new principles in the pre diction of reading success with children in the first grade: (1) Kindergarten children do have more success in reading at the end of the first grade than children who did not attend kindergarten, and (2) For most accurate pre diction of reading success, separate scales for predicting success of kinder garten and non-kindergarten children must be used. In carrying out this study, results obtained by children who were repeating the first grade were also analyzed for possible differences revealed by this group. In conducting this study, a sampling of 226 of the 1000 children in the schools of Erie County, Pennsylvania were used. Of these, 72 had attended kindergarten, 128 had had no previous school experience, and 26 were repeating the first grade. Pertinent data were obtained in the construction of the American School Reading Readiness Tests,1 the first of such measures