Fifth-grade children living below the poverty threshold were less likely to demonstrate proficiency in specific reading and mathematics knowledge and skills than children living at or above the poverty threshold.

The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–99 (ECLS-K) has followed a nationally representative cohort of children from kindergarten into the later grades. This indicator presents findings on children’s achievement in reading and mathematics from the spring 2004 data collection, when most of the children were in 5th grade,¹ by child, family, and school characteristics.

In the spring of 5th grade, the percentage of children demonstrating proficiency in specific skills varied. In reading, 97 percent of children were proficient in understanding words in context, 87 percent in making literal inferences, 70 percent in deriving meaning from text, 44 percent in making interpretations beyond the text, and 7 percent in evaluating nonfiction (see table 16-1). In mathematics, 92 percent of children demonstrated proficiency in multiplication and division, 74 percent in place value, 43 percent in rate and measurement, 13 percent in fractions, and 2 percent in area and volume (see table 16-2).

The percentage of children with proficiency in certain reading and mathematics skills varied by child, family, and school characteristics. Students who lived in households below the poverty threshold for all rounds of the survey were less likely to demonstrate proficiency in reading and mathematics skills than students who lived in households at or above the poverty threshold for all survey rounds. For example, in mathematics, 84 percent of students who lived at or above the poverty threshold for all survey rounds demonstrated proficiency in place value compared with 45 percent of students who lived in poverty for all survey rounds. Generally, students whose mothers had higher levels of education were more likely to master each reading and mathematics skill than students whose mothers had less education.

Female students were more likely than male students to show mastery in four of the five reading skills (no measurable difference was found for evaluating nonfiction); however, male students were more likely than female students to demonstrate mastery in each of the mathematics skills. Children who attended private schools for all rounds of the survey were more likely than students who attended public schools for all rounds of the survey to be proficient in nearly all of the reading and mathematics skills.

¹ Findings are based on all students who participated in the ECLS-K, not just those at grade level. Although most of the children in the sample were in 5th grade in spring 2004, some 14 percent were in a lower grade, and 1 percent were in a higher grade. Findings are representative of the 3.8 million students in school in spring 2004 who were in kindergarten in fall 1998. (back to text)