It Takes a Whole Child to Achieve? Effects of Holistic Measures of School Readiness on Grade-3 Test Scores

• In Event: Roundtable Session 25
  In Roundtable Session: Family and School Influences on Children’s Achievement

Abstract

Most research on “school readiness” examines only its cognitive dimensions. We investigate the effects of both cognitive and non-cognitive dimensions on grade three achievement for 45,000 children in Ontario, Canada. We measure kindergarten students’ readiness in physical, social, emotional, communication and cognitive domains and report 3 sets of findings. First, each domain, including social, emotional and physical, consistently and significantly predicts grade 3 achievement in multi-level regression models. Second, we combine readiness and grade 3 results and estimate that 10% of students are continually at-risk. Third, multi-level multinomial logits show that younger, male and students who switch schools are likeliest to be continually at risk. These results demonstrate the value of holistic conceptions of school readiness for early achievement.

Authors

• Scott Davies, McMaster University

• Magdalena Janus, McMaster University

• Eric Duku, McMaster University