Percentage of children who demonstrate specific reading knowledge and skills, by child, family, and school characteristics: Spring 5th grade, 2004

Academic Outcomes

Table 16-1. Percentage of children who demonstrate specific reading knowledge and skills, by child, family, and school characteristics: Spring 5th grade, 2004

Characteristic	Understanding words in context	Making literal inference	Deriving meaning from text	Interpreting beyond text	Evaluating nonfiction

Total	97.1	86.5	70.5	44.4	7.3
Child’s sex
Male	96.6	85.1	68.3	42.9	7.1
Female	97.6	88.1	72.8	46.0	7.5

Child’s race/ethnicity¹
White	98.0	90.6	78.8	51.0	9.9
Black	95.0	78.1	53.5	31.1	2.2
Hispanic	96.1	81.7	59.8	35.5	3.6
Asian	97.7	89.7	77.1	49.1	8.2
Other	95.8	82.0	64.4	40.2	6.4

Mother’s highest level of education, spring 2004
Less than high school	92.7	70.7	42.5	24.0	0.7
High school diploma or equivalent	96.4	83.3	63.8	38.7	4.8
Some college or vocational technical degree	97.6	88.3	72.6	44.4	5.6
Bachelor’s degree or higher	99.2	95.4	89.1	61.4	15.9

Primary home language at kindergarten entry
English	97.3	87.7	73.0	46.4	8.0
Not English	95.4	79.4	55.1	32.3	3.2

School type, spring 2004
Public	96.9	85.8	69.0	43.0	6.6
Private	98.5	93.0	83.8	56.5	13.5

Poverty status,² kindergarten through spring 2004
Below, all rounds	93.1	70.9	40.8	23.3	0.7
In and out of poverty	95.9	81.4	59.8	35.1	3.4
At or above, all rounds	98.6	92.4	81.8	53.3	10.6

Family type, kindergarten through spring 2004
Two parents, all rounds	98.1	90.9	79.5	52.2	10.6
Single parent, all rounds	96.8	84.5	63.4	36.6	4.4
Other, all rounds³	92.9	75.4	56.5	33.6	1.2!
Change in family type	97.1	85.6	67.4	40.7	4.6

School type, kindergarten through spring 2004
Public school, all rounds	96.7	85.1	67.6	42.1	6.4
Private school, all rounds	99.1	95.1	87.6	58.3	11.8
Change in school type	98.0	90.8	79.1	50.7	10.0

Grade level of child, spring 2004
Below grade level	91.1	65.3	34.5	20.2	0.9!
Fifth grade	98.0	89.9	76.2	48.2	8.2
Above grade level	99.8	98.7	96.9	79.8	38.5!

! Interpret with caution (estimates are unstable).
¹Race categories exclude persons of Hispanic ethnicity. Other includes Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, American Indian, Alaska Native, and non-Hispanic children of more than one race.
²The federal poverty-level status composite variable is derived from household income and the total number of household members at each administration of the survey and is used to define households below the poverty level. For instance, in 1998, if a household contained four members and the annual household income was lower than $16,600, then the household was considered to be below poverty.
³Other refers to related and unrelated guardian(s).
NOTE: The reading skills presented are those which are associated with 5th grade. 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. Poverty status, kindergarten through spring 2004; family type, kindergarten through spring 2004; and school type, kindergarten through spring 2004, are composite variables that are derived from each round of the survey (fall 1998, spring 1999, spring 2000, spring 2002, and spring 2004). Estimates were weighted by C1_6FC0.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–99 (ECLS-K), Longitudinal Kindergarten–Third Grade Public-Use Data File, and Fifth-Grade Restricted-Use Data File.

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