The Relation between Kindergarten Training and Success in the Elementary School

Abstract

The study here reported was made to determine how one year of kindergarten training affects subsequent success in the grades of the elementary school. It is based on marks in reading, writing, and arithmetic received by 293 pupils enrolled in the first five grades of the Monticello and Union Township public schools during the year 1925-26. These pupils were classified as follows: fifty-six in the first grade, forty-four in the second grade, seventy in the third grade, fifty-six in the fourth grade, and sixty-seven in the fifth grade. In each of these grades there were children with kindergarten training and children without kindergarten training. Thirty-two pupils in the first grade, twenty-one in the second grade, thirty-one in the third grade, nineteen in the fourth grade, and twenty-seven in the fifth grade had received one year of kindergarten training before entering on the work of the first grade in the elementary school. All the other pupils had been admitted to the first grade without any previous school training. In other words, of the 293 pupils, 130 had received kindergarten training and 163 had received their first school training after entering the elementary school. In order that comparisons may be made more readily, the literal marks given by the teachers have been assigned numerical values, as follows: A= 5, B =4, C=3, D = 2, E= i, and F =o. Thus, since each pupil received eight marks during the school year, the sum of a pupil's marks for the year in any one subject may be anywhere from o (eight F's) to 40 (eight A's). With the foregoing explanation of the marks in mind, the reader may compare the achievement of the kindergarten and the nonkindergarten groups in each grade by referring to Table I. This table shows that in each of the five grades the ability of the kinder-