Exploring Relationships Between Full-Day Kindergarten Classroom Environments and Early Academic Engagement

• In Event: Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: Environments: Indoors and Outdoors

Abstract

As full-day kindergarten programs grow in prevalence in the United States, empirical research is needed on the classroom factors that are conducive to enhancing children’s academic engagement. This paper uses hierarchical linear modeling to examine relationships between full-day kindergarten classroom resources, teachers’ instructional practices, family socioeconomic status, and changes in children’s academic engagement. Results indicate that full-day kindergartners in schools with instructional aides who work with children at least one hour per day have greater gains in their academic engagement, and that full-day kindergartners who spend most of their academic time on reading instruction and spend more than average time on comprehension skills instruction tend to have smaller engagement gains than children who spend less time in these activities.

Author

• Amy H. Rathbun, American Institutes for Research