October 1995
Statistics in Brief
For a free single copy of this report, contact The National Data Resource Center either at nedrc@pcci.com or by phone at (703) 245-7562. Refer to publication number: NCES 93-257
Today, nearly all children attend a public or private kindergarten
before first grade (West et al., 1991). As kindergarten
enrollments have grown, so too has the range of backgrounds and
experience that children bring to these programs. Kindergarten
programs have also changed and often stress academic skills that
were previously reserved for older children (Freeman and Hatch,
1989; Hitz and Wright, 1988; Karweit, 1988; Shepard and Smith,
1988). On the other hand, a leading professional association in
early childhood education--the National Association for the
Education of Young Children (NAEYC)--has adopted the position that
kindergartens should have programs and practices that are more age
appropriate and that better accommodate individual differences in
background, learning, and experience (Bredekamp, 1987). This view
seems to have gained wide acceptance among early childhood
educators (Hitz and Wright, 1988).
As kindergarten has grown in popularity and as the nature of these
programs changes, there has been discussion about the attributes
and attitudes children need at entry to reach their full potential.
Opinions about what young children should know or be capable of
doing to be ready for kindergarten vary widely. 1 This paper
looks at the beliefs held by two groups who play critical roles in
the early education of children--parents of preschoolers and
kindergarten teachers.
Parents hold a range of beliefs about what attributes and attitudes
their children will need to succeed in kindergarten. Parent
beliefs influence the activities they engage in with their children
and the programs and experiences they arrange for the children
(Graue, 1992). Parents may evaluate their child's readiness to
start kindergarten on the basis of these beliefs and rely on these
beliefs to decide when to enroll their child in kindergarten.
Kindergarten teachers, who are responsible for guiding the
school-related development of children once they enter school, also
hold beliefs about the attributes and attitudes children will need
in kindergarten. A teacher's beliefs can influence his or her
early evaluations of a child's abilities and expectations for the
child's chances of succeeding in the program. These early
evaluations may be used in determining the child's placement and in
making decisions about his or her promotion (Shepard and Smith,
1986).
The extent to which parents of preschoolers and kindergarten
teachers share a common understanding of the attributes and
attitudes children need as they enter school is important. If
parents and teachers hold similar beliefs, then there is a greater
opportunity for congruence between the skills parents encourage in
their children prior to school entry and the skills teachers look
for as children enter kindergarten. Such congruence may contribute
to a teacher's positive evaluation of the child early in his or her
school life and to the child having a successful early school
experience.
NATIONAL DATA ON PARENTS AND TEACHERS
Two surveys sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education's
National Center for Education Statistics and conducted in the
spring of 1993 collected information on parent and teacher beliefs
about characteristics important to a child's readiness for
kindergarten. The 1993 National Household Education Survey
(NHES: 93) asked the parents of preschoolers 2 to rate several
attributes and attitudes in terms of how important they were for
any child to be ready for kindergarten. 3 The Fast Response
Survey System (FRSS) Kindergarten Teacher Survey on Student
Readiness asked public school kindergarten teachers similar
questions. 4
The questionnaire items that were common to the two surveys
represent a small set of the attributes that have traditionally
been viewed as related to children's readiness for school. These
questionnaire items were clustered into two groups--behavioral
items and school-related items. The specific behavioral items
were:
This report compares the beliefs expressed by parents of
preschoolers and by public school kindergarten teachers about the
importance of these two sets of items. The reported beliefs held
by parents with different levels of educational attainment are also
compared.
PARENT AND TEACHER BELIEFS
Parents of preschoolers and kindergarten teachers were asked to
rate each of these characteristics in terms of how important it is
for a child to know or do each in order to be ready for
kindergarten. 5 Both were asked whether each characteristic is
not at all important, not very important, somewhat important, very
important, or essential for any child to be ready for kindergarten.
PARENTS OF PRESCHOOLERS AND THE KINDERGARTEN TEACHERS ARE
SIMILAR IN THEIR BELIEFS ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF SOME
CHARACTERISTICS AND DISSIMILAR IN THEIR BELIEFS ABOUT
OTHERS. 6
Parents and kindergarten teachers shared similar opinions on the
importance of some characteristics. Parents and teachers agreed
that it is very important or essential for the child to communicate
his or her needs, wants, and thoughts verbally, and that the child
be enthusiastic and curious in approaching new activities (see
table 1).
TABLE 1.--PERCENTAGE OF PRESCHOOLERS' PARENTS AND PUBLIC SCHOOL KINDERGARTEN
TEACHERS WHO RATE SELECTED CHILD CHARACTERISTICS AS "ESSENTIAL" OR
"VERY IMPORTANT" TO BEING READY TO START KINDERGARTEN: 1993
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Preschoolers' | Kindergarten
| parents | teachers
Child characteristic |----------------------------------------------
| Estimate | Standard | Estimate | Standard
| | error | | error
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Estimated number (thousands)....| 8,441 | 44 | 119 | 19
Communicates needs, wants, and | | | |
thoughts verbally.............| 92% | 0.5% | 84% | 1.1%
Takes turns and shares..........| 92 | 0.5 | 56 | 1.4
Is enthusiastic and curious in | | | |
approaching new activities....| 84 | 0.7 | 76 | 1.7
Sits still and pays attention...| 80 | 0.9 | 42 | 1.1
Is able to use pencils or paint | | | |
brushes.......................| 65 | 1.0 | 21 | 1.3
Can count to 20 or more.........| 59 | 0.9 | 7 | 0.8
Knows the letters of the | | | |
alphabet......................| 58 | 0.8 | 10 | 0.8
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: The unit of analysis in the NHES: 93 is the child. The base for the
percentages is the number of preschoolers, not the number of parents. The FRSS
is based on an independent sample of public school kindergarten teachers.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education
Statistics, FRSS Kindergarten Teacher Survey of Student Readiness and National
Household Education Survey (parents), spring 1993.
While large percentages of both groups also believed it is very
important or essential that a child be able to take turns and
share, and to sit still and pay attention, there was a far greater
disparity in the responses between parents and teachers for these
characteristics. In fact, less than half (42 percent) of the
kindergarten teachers believed that sitting still and paying
attention are very important or essential, while 80 percent of the
parents believed these are important characteristics for children
to have as they entered kindergarten.
PARENTS OF A MAJORITY OF PRESCHOOLERS BELIEVE THAT KNOWING
THE LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET, BEING ABLE TO COUNT TO 20 OR
MORE, AND USING PENCILS AND PAINT BRUSHES ARE VERY IMPORTANT
OR ESSENTIAL FOR A CHILD TO BE READY FOR KINDERGARTEN,
WHILE FEW KINDERGARTEN TEACHERS SHARE THESE BELIEFS.
The greatest disparity between parent and teacher beliefs centered
on the importance of children being able to count to 20 or more,
knowing the letters of the alphabet, and using pencils or paint
brushes. The percentages of parents who rated counting and knowing
the alphabet as very important or essential were about six to eight
times greater than those of teachers. Parents were three times
more likely than teachers to rate the ability to use pencils and
paint brushes as very important or essential for kindergarten
readiness.
Table 2 presents the percentage of parents and teachers who rated
ALL of the behavioral items and ALL of the school-related skill
items as very important or essential. Examining parent and teacher
beliefs in this way helps to focus on the intensity of their
beliefs about these attributes.
PARENTS ARE FAR MORE LIKELY THAN TEACHERS TO RATE ALL OF THE
BEHAVIORAL ITEMS AS VERY IMPORTANT OR ESSENTIAL. PARENTS
RATED THE SCHOOL-RELATED SKILL ITEMS SIMILARLY.
TABLE 2.--PERCENTAGE OF PRESCHOOLERS' PARENTS AND PUBLIC SCHOOL KINDERGARTEN
TEACHERS WHO RATE ALL BEHAVIORAL CHARACTERISTICS OR ALL BASIC SKILLS
AS "ESSENTIAL" OR "VERY IMPORTANT" TO BEING READY TO START
KINDERGARTEN: 1993
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Preschoolers' | Kindergarten
| parents | teachers
Child characteristic |-------------------------------------------------
| Estimate | Standard | Estimate| Standard
| | Error | | Error
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Estimated number (thousands).| 8,441 | 44 | 119 | 19
All 4 behavioral | | | |
characteristics............| 65% | 1.0% | 29% | 1.1%
All 3 school-related skills..| 41 | 0.9 | 4 | 0.6
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: The unit of analysis in the NHES: 93 is the child. The base for the
percentages is the number of preschoolers, not the number of parents. The FRSS
is based on an independent sample of public school kindergarten teachers.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education
Statistics, FRSS Kindergarten Teacher Survey on Student Readiness and National
Household Education Survey (parents), spring 1993.
Nearly two-thirds of preschoolers' parents rated all four of the
behavioral items as very important or essential for a child
entering kindergarten as compared with less than one-third of
public school kindergarten teachers. Differences between parents
and teachers are also large for the school-related skill items. A
higher percentage of parents of preschoolers (41 percent) rated all
three of these items as very important or essential, compared with
only 4 percent of the teachers.
PARENT EDUCATION AND PARENT BELIEFS
THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE THAT PARENTS AS A WHOLE ATTRIBUTED TO
SOME CHARACTERISTICS VERSUS OTHERS FOR A CHILD'S KINDERGARTEN
READINESS HOLDS FOR PARENTS WITH DIFFERENT LEVELS OF
EDUCATION.
Research has found that parents' educational attainment levels
influence the types of activities and programs in which children
participate (West et al., 1992, 1993). Parents with less than a
high school education, high school educated parents, and college
educated parents alike were more likely to rate behaviors that
pertain to children's social and emotional behaviors (taking turns,
sharing, sitting still and being attentive), their verbal skills,
and their curiosity and enthusiasm for learning as very important
or essential than they were school-related skills (see table 3). 7
With the lone exception of college completers, a majority of
parents continue to rate a child's school-related skills as very
important or essential for kindergarten entry.
THERE ARE LARGE DIFFERENCES IN THE PERCENTAGES OF PARENTS
WITH HIGHER AND LOWER LEVELS OF EDUCATION WHO BELIEVE THAT
SPECIFIC SCHOOL-RELATED SKILLS AND BEHAVIORS ARE VERY
IMPORTANT OR ESSENTIAL TO A CHILD'S READINESS FOR
KINDERGARTEN.
TABLE 3.--PERCENTAGE OF PRESCHOOLERS WHOSE PARENTS RATE SELECTED CHILD CHARACTERISTICS AS "ESSENTIAL" OR "VERY IMPORTANT" TO BEING READY TO START KINDERGARTEN BY PARENT EDUCATION LEVEL: 1993
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| |High school/|Vocational/|College graduate or
|Less than high| high school|technical | graduate/
| school | equivalent | or some | professional
| | | college |
Child |-----------------------------------------------------------
characteristic |Esti- | Stan- |Esti-|Stan- |Esti-|Stan-|Estimate|Standard
|mate | dard |mate |dard |mate |dard | | error
| | error | |error | |error| |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Estimated number | | | | | | | |
(thousands)......| 1,026| 50 |3,191| 74 |2,644| 63 | 1,579| 55
Communicates needs,| | | | | | | |
wants, and | | | | | | | |
thoughts ver- | | | | | | | |
bally............| 96% | 1.0% | 94% | 0.7% | 91% | 0.9%| 88% | 1.3%
Takes turns and | | | | | | | |
shares...........| 92 | 1.5 | 94 | 0.7 | 92 | 0.7 | 85 | 1.3
Is enthusiastic and| | | | | | | |
curious in | | | | | | | |
approaching new | | | | | | | |
activities.......| 86 | 2.3 | 86 | 1.0 | 82 | 1.4 | 81 | 1.3
Sits still and pays| | | | | | | |
attention........| 95 | 1.2 | 84 | 1.1 | 76 | 1.4 | 69 | 1.8
Is able to use | | | | | | | |
pencils or paint | | | | | | | |
brushes..........| 78 | 2.5 | 68 | 1.7 | 64 | 1.7 | 54 | 1.5
Can count to 20 or | | | | | | | |
more.............| 70 | 2.6 | 62 | 1.6 | 57 | 1.5 | 50 | 1.8
Knows the letters | | | | | | | |
of the alphabet..| 73 | 2.9 | 63 | 1.4 | 55 | 1.4 | 41 | 1.7
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: The unit of analysis in the NHES: 93 is the child. The base for the
percentages is the number of preschoolers, not the number of parents. Because
of rounding, details may not sum to the totals in tables 1 and 2.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education
Statistics, National Household Education Survey, spring 1993.
Parents with less formal education are more likely than parents
with higher levels of education to rate sitting still and paying
attention, counting, knowing the alphabet, and using pencils or
paint brushes as very important or essential for a child about to
enter kindergarten. The majority of parents at each education
level rated a child's ability to share and take turns, communicate
his/her needs, wants, and thoughts verbally, and approach new
activities with enthusiasm and curiosity as very important or
essential. Furthermore, parents at each level of education
continue to give more weight to these skills and behaviors than
kindergarten teachers.
In addition to the relationship of each individual measure to
parent education, the chances that parents rate ALL of the
characteristics as very important or essential is associated with
their level of education (see table 4). The percentages of parents
who rated all three of the school-related skill items as very
important or essential declined steadily from a high of 55 percent
of parents with less than a high school education to a low of 29
percent of parents with at least a bachelor's degree. A similar
pattern is found for the behavioral items, with 77 percent of
parents with less than a high school education rating all four
behaviors as very important or essential compared with 54 percent
of college completers.
TABLE 4.--PERCENTAGE OF PRESCHOOLERS WHOSE PARENTS RATE ALL BEHAVIORAL
CHARACTERISTICS OR ALL BASIC SKILLS AS "ESSENTIAL" OR "VERY
IMPORTANT" TO BEING READY TO START KINDERGARTEN BY PARENT
EDUCATION: 1993
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| |High school/|Vocational/|College graduate or
|Less than high| high school|technical | graduate/
| school | equivalent | or some | professional
| | | college |
Child |-----------------------------------------------------------
characteristic |Esti- | Stan- |Esti-|Stan- |Esti-|Stan-|Estimate|Standard
|mate | dard |mate |dard |mate |dard | | error
| | error | |error | |error| |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Estimated number | | | | | | | |
(thousands)......| 1,026| 50 |3,191| 74 |2,644| 63 | 1,579| 55
All 4 behavioral | | | | | | | |
characteristics..| 77% | 2.5% | 70% | 1.3% | 61% | 1.5%| 54% | 1.9%
All 3 school- | | | | | | | |
related skills...| 55 | 2.9 | 44 | 1.4 | 38 | 1.6 | 29 | 1.6
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: The unit of analysis in the NHES: 93 is the child. The base for the
percentages is the number of preschoolers, not the number of parents. Because
of rounding, details may not sum to the total in tables 1 and 2.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education
Statistics, National Household Education Survey, spring 1993.
DISCUSSION
The patterns in parent and teacher beliefs that were identified by
comparing the responses from the NHES: 93 and FRSS Kindergarten
Teacher Survey are consistent with earlier research that has
examined the emphasis parents and teachers place on different
skills and attributes and their attitudes and opinions about
kindergarten. Earlier research has found that parents place a
greater emphasis on the child's social and emotional maturity than
on school-related academic skills when deciding whether the child
is ready for kindergarten (Eisenhart and Graue, 1990). However,
compared with teachers, parents place greater importance on
academic skills (e.g., counting, writing, and reading) and prefer
classroom practices that are more academically oriented
(Knudsen-Lindauer and Harris, 1989). One reason for this may be
that parents perceive that there are specific activities they can
do to teach their children school-related basic skills, whereas
ways of changing the social maturity or temperamental
characteristics of their children are less apparent.
The analyses reported here suggest that parental beliefs about what
attributes and behaviors their children will need to succeed in
kindergarten are influenced by their educational attainment. One
possible explanation for this is that parents with higher education
levels are more apt to have been exposed to a perspective on early
childhood education that reflects the position that kindergarten
programs and practices should be age appropriate and accommodate
individual differences in background, learning, and experience,
either in their formal schooling or through outside reading.
Similar findings were reported by Harris and Knudsen-Lindauer
(1988) in their study on parental and teacher priorities for
kindergarten preparation. These authors found that parents in the
lower socioeconomic groups were more likely to place a greater
value upon the observable and concrete skills of self-sufficiency
and independence than upon the more abstract development in the
emotional and receptive language domains. They surmise that this
may be due to the less formal education and limited access to
educational material within lower SES groups.
While it is reasonable to believe that some of the disparity
between parent and teacher responses in the NHES: 93 and FRSS
Kindergarten Teacher Survey on Student Readiness may be related to
mode of administration (telephone versus mail) or other
methodological factors or respondent characteristics, the magnitude
of the differences on some measures suggest that there are real
differences between parent and teacher beliefs. Knudsen-Lindauer
and Harris (1989) have suggested that the disparity between parent
and teacher beliefs illustrates the need for greater parent and
teacher dialogue as well as parent education programs to assist
parents and teachers in defining similar goals. They go on to
state that continuity and clarity of goals are imperative to
children's successful transition into kindergarten, the higher the
degree of similarity that parents and teachers achieve in their
goals and expectations, the stronger the effect these expectations
will have on children's performance.
While it is assumed that personal beliefs affect behaviors,
correspondence between verbally expressed beliefs and actual
behaviors has always been one of the classic and most troublesome
research issues (Kochanska et al., 1989). What parents and
teachers SAY is important may differ from what is practiced in the
home or the classroom (Amos-Hatch and Freeman, 1988; Spidell-Rusher
et al., 1992). If we are to understand more fully how beliefs
about children's readiness influence practices, researchers need to
examine the relationship between beliefs and actions.
SURVEY METHODOLOGY AND DATA RELIABILITY
This report presents data from two surveys sponsored by the
National Center for Education Statistics. These are the 1993
National Household Education Survey (NHES: 93) and the Fast
Response Survey System (FRSS) Survey of Kindergarten Teachers on
Student Readiness.
1993 NATIONAL HOUSEHOLD EDUCATION SURVEY
The NHES: 93 is a random-digit-dial (RDD) telephone survey
conducted for the U.S. Department of Education's National Center
for Education Statistics (NCES) by Westat, Incorporated. The
survey was conducted with a sample drawn from the civilian,
noninstitutionalized population in households with telephones in
the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Data collection took
place from January through April of 1993, using computer assisted
telephone interviewing (CATI) technology.
The School Readiness component of the NHES: 93 sampled 3- to 7-
year-olds and 8- and 9-year-olds enrolled in second grade or below.
Two interviews were used to collect information on children's
preparation for school. A Screener interview was conducted with an
adult member of the household, and was used 1) to determine whether
any children of the appropriate ages lived in the household, 2) to
collect information on each household member, and 3) to identify
the appropriate parent/guardian to respond for the sampled child.
If one or two eligible children resided in the household,
interviews were conducted about each child. If more than two
eligible children resided in the household, two children were
randomly sampled as interview subjects. An extended School
Readiness (SR) interview was conducted with the parent/guardian
most knowledgeable about the care and education of each sampled
child. This interview was used to collect more detailed
information on children and their families.
Screener interviews were completed with 63,844 households, of
which 9,936 contained at least one child eligible for the SR
interview. A sample of 12,905 children was selected for the SR
interview from these households. The response rate for the
Screener was 82 percent. The completion rate for the SR interview,
or the percentage of eligible sampled children for whom interviews
were completed, was 90 percent, or 10,888 interviews. Thus, the
overall response rate for the SR interview was 74 percent (the
product of the Screener response rate and the SR completion rate).
This report is based on a subset of the total SR sample:
preschoolers (that is, children age 3 to 5 years not yet enrolled
in kindergarten) whose parents plan for them to attend
kindergarten. The unweighted number of cases included in this
analysis is 4,344.
Item nonresponse (the failure to complete some items in an
otherwise completed interview) was less than 2 percent for the
variables used in this report. Responses that were missing were
imputed using a hot-deck procedure.
FRSS KINDERGARTEN TEACHER SURVEY ON STUDENT READINESS
The FRSS Kindergarten Teacher Survey on Student Readiness was also
conducted in the spring of 1993. A sample of 860 public schools
was selected from the 1990-91 list of public schools, compiled by
NCES, which is part of the Common Core of Data (CCD). Regular
public schools with kindergartens in the 50 states and the District
of Columbia were eligible for selection; special education and
alternative schools were excluded prior to sampling. Of the
initial sample of 860 schools, 17 were found to be ineligible,
resulting in a final sample of 843 schools. Lists of kindergarten
teachers were collected from these schools, and a sample of
kindergarten teachers was selected. Survey questionnaires were
mailed to the teachers, and nonresponse followup was conducted by
telephone.
Of the 843 schools found to be eligible, 825 provided complete
lists of kindergarten teachers, a 98 percent completion rate. Of
the 1,448 teachers, 32 were found to be out of scope (e.g., no
longer at the school or otherwise ineligible), resulting in a final
sample of 1,416. The teacher-level completion rate was 95 percent.
The overall study response rate for the teachers (the product of
the school- and teacher-level completion rates) was 92 percent.
Item nonresponse was also very low in the FRSS Kindergarten Teacher
Survey on Student Readiness, ranging from 0.0 percent to 0.9
percent. Item nonresponse was treated as missing data when
preparing estimates for this report. This is equivalent to
assuming equal distributions for both respondents and
nonrespondents.
DATA RELIABILITY
Estimates produced using data from these surveys are subject to two
types of error, sampling and nonsampling errors. Nonsampling
errors are errors made in the collection and processing of data.
Sampling errors occur because the data are collected from a sample
rather than a census of the population.
NONSAMPLING ERRORS
Nonsampling error is the term used to describe variations in the
estimates that may be caused by population coverage limitations and
data collection, processing, and reporting procedures. The sources
of nonsampling errors are typically problems like unit and item
nonresponse, the differences in respondents' interpretations of the
meaning of the questions, response differences related to the
particular time the survey was conducted, and mistakes in data
preparation.
In general, it is difficult to identify and estimate either the
amount of nonsampling error or the bias caused by this error. In
the NHES: 93, efforts were made to prevent such errors from
occurring, and to compensate for them where possible. These
efforts included the use of focus groups and cognitive laboratory
interviews in the survey design, extensive testing of the CATI
system, and a pretest in which over 275 interviews were conducted.
In the FRSS Kindergarten Teacher Survey, quality control efforts
included pretesting and post-data collection editing.
An important nonsampling error for a telephone survey is the
failure to include persons who do not live in households with
telephones. About 90 percent of all 3- to 7-year-olds live in
households with telephones.
Estimation procedures were used to help reduce the bias in the
estimates associated with children who do not live in telephone
households. 8
SAMPLING ERRORS
The sample of telephone households selected for the NHES: 93 is
just one of many possible samples that could have been selected.
Similarly, the sample of teachers selected for the FRSS
Kindergarten Teacher Survey is only one of many possible teacher
samples. Therefore, estimates produced from these samples may
differ from estimates that would have been produced from other
samples. This type of variability is called sampling error because
it arises from using a sample of households with telephones, rather
than all households with telephones.
The standard error is a measure of the variability due to sampling
when estimating a statistic. Standard errors for estimates
presented in this report were computed using a jackknife
replication method. Standard errors can be used as a measure of
the precision expected from a particular sample. The probability
that a complete census count would differ from the sample estimate
by less than 1 standard error is about 68 percent. The chance that
the difference would be less than 1.65 standard errors is about 90
percent; and that the difference would be less than 1.96 standard
errors, about 95 percent.
Standard errors for all of the estimates are presented in the
tables. These standard errors can be used to produce confidence
intervals. For example, an estimated 56 percent of kindergarten
teachers rated taking turns and sharing as very important or
essential. This figure has an estimated standard error of 1.4.
Therefore, the estimated 95 percent confidence interval for this
statistic is approximately 53 to 59 percent.
The significance of differences between the overall percentage of
parents rating skills and abilities as very important or essential
and the percentage of teachers rating these same skills and
abilities as very important or essential were tested using
Student's "t" statistic. A Bonferroni adjustment procedure was
used to correct the significance tests for multiple comparisons.
A Chi-square test of independence was used to test differences
in parent beliefs by parent education. The Chi-square statistics
were adjusted for the design effects of the cells of the
contingency tables.
All the differences cited in this report are significant at the
0.05 level of significance.
ENDNOTES
1. The National Education Goals Panel's Goal One Technical
Subgroup is working to achieve consensus on a definition and model
of readiness.
2. Preschoolers are children 3 to 5 years old who are not yet
enrolled in kindergarten.
3. In the NHES: 93, items concerning beliefs about kindergarten
readiness were asked of the parents of preschoolers who intended
for their children to attend kindergarten. If a parent indicated
that he or she did not intend for the child to attend kindergarten,
the items concerning beliefs about kindergarten readiness were
not asked. About 99 percent of preschool children's parents
planned on enrolling them in kindergarten.
4. The FRSS sampled only public school kindergarten teachers. The
NHES: 93 collected information from parents who expect their
preschoolers to attend private kindergartens and public
kindergartens. About 13 percent of kindergartners attend private
programs and 87 percent attend public programs.
5. An examination of the percentages of 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old
preschool children whose parents indicated that each characteristic
is very improtant or essential showed no substantial or consistent
differences by age. Therefore, the responses of the parents of
these children are analyzed in this report as a group.
6. The unit of analysis in the NHES: 93 School Readiness
interview is the child and not the parent. Thus, when
parent-reported data are presented in this report, they are
referenced to the children (e.g., "The percentage of preschoolers
whose parents..."). For ease of presentation, the text refers to
the percent of parents.
7. Parent's education was determined as follows: if the
respondent was the child's mother, the mother's education was used;
if the respondent was the father, the father's education was used.
If the respondent was a nonparent guardian in the absence of the
parent, his or her education was used. Finally, if the respondent
was someone other than the parent or guardian in a household where
there was a parent or guardian present (n=56), the highest in
household parent education level was used.
8. For additional information on telephone coverage issues and
estimation procedures to correct for coverage biases, see J. M.
Brick and J. Burke, TELEPHONE COVERAGE BIAS OF 14- TO 21-YEAR-OLDS
AND 3- TO 5-YEAR-OLDS. U.S. Department of Education, National
Center for Education Statistics, report number NCES 92-101.
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Author:
Jerry West Elvie Germino Hausken Mary Collins
For more information about the substantitive content of this report,
click here to contact: Elvira Hausken
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