Abstract

Early executive function (EF) skills reliably predict school readiness and future academic success. While children’s skills undergo rapid development during the transition to formal schooling, it remains unclear the extent to which schooling exerts a unique influence on the accelerated development of EF and academic skills during the early years of schooling. In the present study, a quasi-experimental technique known as the school cutoff design was used to examine whether same-aged children who made vs. missed the age cutoff for school entry significantly differed on EF, reading, and math outcomes. Data from 166 pre-k, kindergarten, and first grade children (Range = 3.75–7.58 years, 92 girls) from a longitudinal study of literacy development were analyzed. Children were assessed on EF, reading, and math skills in fall and spring. Results revealed unique effects of kindergarten, but not first grade, on growth in EF and reading over and above the effect of age. Schooling was unrelated to growth in math. Because kindergarten represents the first year of elementary school and children’s first exposure to a formal schooling environment, kindergarten schooling may be uniquely positioned to produce greater gains in academic and behavioral outcomes compared to other grades.

Highlights

  • The transition to school is marked by dramatic changes at the individual and contextual levels

  • There was a significant main effect of group, χ2(1) = 9.00, p < 0.01 (f 2 = 0.08): Kindergarten children who made the cutoff for school entry have stronger HTKS20 scores than their same-aged pre-k peers who missed the cutoff

  • Kindergarten children who missed the cutoff for school entry the previous year show greater improvement in executive function (EF) skills from fall to spring compared to first grade children who made the cutoff for school entry the previous year

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Summary

Introduction

The transition to school is marked by dramatic changes at the individual and contextual levels. During the developmental period commonly known as the “5–7-year shift,” children across cultures develop increasingly sophisticated cognitive and social capacities (Sameroff and Haith, 1996). In addition to biological maturation, school-based intervention programs have been shown to improve domain-general cognitive skills such as executive functions (Weiland and Yoshikawa, 2013; Diamond et al, 2019) that are associated with academic outcomes (Ahmed et al, 2019). Effective interventions often require substantial training and resources, and can be difficult to scale. As a result, increasing attention has focused on whether typical, practice-as-usual schooling can influence the development of executive function (EF) and academic skills.

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