HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND FAMILY STUDIES
DISSERTATION DEFENSE FOR
JULIA E. MOORE
TITLE: SCHOOL READINESS AND GROWTH IN ACADEMIC ABILITIES
FROM SCHOOL ENTRY TO 5TH GRADE WITHIN A DISADVANTAGED SAMPLE
Dissertation Committee:
Mark Greenberg
Edna Peterson Bennett Endowed Chair
in Prevention Research Director
Director Prevention Research Center
Professor of Human Development and Psychology
Dissertation Advisor
Co-Chair of the Committee
Celene Domitrovich
Assistant Director, Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development
Research Assistant Professor of Health and Human Development, Penn State
Adjunct Faculty, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, College of Health and
Human Development, Penn State
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of
Public Health
Scott Gest
Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies
Eric Loken
Research Associate Professor
Daphne Hernandez
Assistant Professor of Human Development
Alysia Blandon
Assistant Professor of Psychology
DATE:
December 12, 2011
TIME:
9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
PLACE: S102 Henderson Building
Area of Specialization: Prevention and Intervention for children from low-income families
ABSTRACT
School readiness is a continuous, malleable, multi-faceted process that develops during early
childhood and results in how ready a child is to learn as they enter school. Components of
school readiness include children’s academic readiness, cognitive readiness, and social,
emotional, and behavioral readiness. Based on studies assessing the relation between school
readiness and academic achievement, specific aspects of children’s academic readiness,
including vocabulary, reading, and math abilities and components of cognitive readiness, such as
attention, are consistent predictors of later academic success. The findings for the social,
emotional, and behavioral aspects of school readiness have been mixed, with some studies
finding a relation to later academic outcomes, while others do not.
The current study uses multiple analytical approaches to examine the relation between
demographic characteristics, academic readiness, and school readiness, and children’s
vocabulary, reading, and math achievement in elementary school within a predominantly Black,
urban, low-income sample. The sample consisted of 306 children who attended an enhanced
preschool program and were followed from preschool to 5th grade. Children experienced a
considerable amount of growth in reading and math skills relative to national norms from
Kindergarten to 5th grade. Results revealed that predictors of children’s vocabulary skills in
Kindergarten and 5th grade included preschool vocabulary and reading abilities, and emotion
knowledge; emotion knowledge also predicted growth in elementary vocabulary skills.
Preschool reading and math were significantly related to Kindergarten and 5th grade reading;
emotion recognition was related to 5th grade reading ability. Preschool pre-reading skills were
associated with growth in elementary reading, with a narrowing of the gap by 5th grade between
those with lower and higher abilities in preschool. Kindergarten and 5th grade math skills were
predicted by preschool math and reading; sustained attention predicted Kindergarten math.
Preschool pre-math abilities predicted growth in math, with the gap between lower and higher
achieving students narrowing during elementary school. Even within a disadvantaged population,
variations in maternal education predicted Kindergarten academic abilities. After accounting for
preschool academic abilities, demographic factors did not predict growth in academic
achievement during elementary school.
Despite previous studies which have not found a relation between the social, emotional, and
behavioral aspects of school readiness on children’s later academic achievement, the current
study found that children’s with higher emotion knowledge in preschool had higher scores in
vocabulary and math in elementary school. Significant associations were found with direct child
assessments of emotion knowledge, but not with teacher-rated measures of social competence or
behavior problems.