Kindergarten Experience: Cognitive Effects or Socialization?

Abstract

This paper employs a large representative sample of Baltimore first graders to examine effects of the amount of children’s kindergarten experience on their first-grade performance. More kindergarten leads to some early positive effects on cognitive status (fall California Achievement Test [CAT] scores, first marks in reading and math), more noticeably for black children than for white. There are some year-end effects of more kindergarten on boys’ reading marks, but no lasting effects on CAT scores. More kindergarten also leads to fewer days’ absence in first grade. More kindergarten experience does not affect children’s deportment, their personal maturity as estimated by their teachers, their expectations for their own performance, or their parents’ expectations for them. It therefore appears that effects of more kindergarten are attributable not to “socializing” children for first grade but to improving their cognitive status.