Non-Cognitive skills and the growing achievement Gap⋆

Abstract

In this study, I apply a developmental perspective to examine the relationship between non-cognitive skills and the growing SES achievement gap over one’s early life course. Using data from Early Childhood Longitudinal Program (ECLS-K), I investigate whether and to what extent non-cognitive skills account for the growing achievement inequality by mediating SES’s effects on learning from kindergarten to fifth grade. Specifically, I guide my analyses by testing the following hypotheses: (1) children’s non-cognitive skills are stratified by family SES consistently from kindergarten to fifth grade; (2) children’s non-cognitive skills affect learning positively throughout early education years. The results support my hypotheses, suggesting that continuous SES differences in non-cognitive skills can magnify the SES achievement difference during kindergarten and fifth grade, and around 20% of the accumulated achievement difference between high- and low-SES students in reading and math ability is attributable to differences in their non-cognitive skills.