Early Care Arrangements and Achievement at Kindergarten Entry

Children who primarily attended center-based care the year before kindergarten demonstrated higher academic and behavior skills upon entering kindergarten than children who had no early care arrangements, according to a new report. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), in the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), released Primary Early Care and Education Arrangements and Achievement at Kindergarten Entry, today (June 30, 2016). The report explores the relationship between children’s primary early care and education (ECE) arrangements the year before kindergarten and their academic skills and learning behaviors at kindergarten entry, after accounting for child and family background characteristics. Information for this report comes from the nationally representative National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES) and the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010–11 (ECLS-K:2011) data collections.

Among the findings in the report::

•    The percentage of children ages 4 and 5 years old who attended center-based care as their primary ECE arrangement before kindergarten entry was higher in 2012 (58 percent) than in 1995 (55 percent), while the percentage who primarily received home-based nonrelative care was lower in 2012 (7 percent) than in 1995 ( 11 percent). The overall percentages of children receiving home-based relative care as their primary ECE arrangement (13 percent) and those with no ECE arrangement on a regular basis (19 percent) in 2012 were not measurably different from the percentages in 1995.

•    The percentage of fall 2010 first-time kindergartners who received center-based care as their primary ECE arrangement the year before kindergarten was lower for children who were Hispanic (48 percent) and Pacific Islander (28 percent) than for those who were White (58 percent), Black (56 percent), Asian (62 percent), American Indians/Alaska Native (57 percent), and Two or more races (61 percent).

•    Fall 2010 kindergarten reading, mathematics, and cognitive flexibility scores were lower, on average, for children who had no regular ECE arrangements the year before kindergarten and for those whose primary arrangements were home-based relative care than for children who primarily attended center-based care arrangements.