The ECLS–K provides some of the first nationally representative findings on young children's reading achievement and experiences during the first 6 years of elementary school. This special analysis has reported on the reading skills of children across kindergarten and 1st grade and the kindergarten classroom experiences of beginning readers. Findings from the analysis reveal:

• The differences in children's reading skills and knowledge usually seen in later grades appear to be present as children begin school and persist after 1 and 2 years of school. For example, White children outperform Black and Hispanic children in reading, and children from poor families tend to have lower reading assessment scores than children from nonpoor families.



• The resources children possess when they start kindergarten, such as their early literacy skills and the richness of their home literacy environment, are related to their reading proficiency across kindergarten and 1st grade.



• Attendance in a full-day or half-day kindergarten is related to where the children live, their race/ethnicity, and the poverty level of their families. Attendance in full-day kindergarten is highest in the South, in urban areas, and among Black and poor children.



• The reading instructional activities of full- and half-day public school kindergarten classes seem alike in some ways and different in others. Both types of classes spend about the same percentage of time on whole-class, small group, and individual activities. Both types of classes spend time each day on reading. The most commonly taught skills in both types of classes are recognizing the letters of the alphabet and matching letters to sounds. However, full-day classes are more likely to spend time each day on certain skills, including letter recognition, matching letters to sounds, the conventions of print, and vocabulary.



• Public school children who attend kindergarten for a full day make greater gains in reading over the kindergarten year than public school children who attend kindergarten for half of a day.

The findings in this special analysis scratch the surface of the potential of the ECLS–K to provide information about children's reading achievement and the school, classroom, and home factors that affect their chances of becoming good readers. More study is required to test the relationships between kindergarten and 1st-grade reading curricula and practices and children's reading gains during kindergarten and 1st grade. As data on 3rd- and 5th-graders become available, it will be important to study the effects of children's beginning school resources and experiences on their reading achievement.