Developmental Appropriateness of Kindergarten Programs and Academic Outcomes in First Grade

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Abstract
This study explored the relationship between the developmental appropriateness of kindergarten classroom instruction and first-grade report card grade overall averages and averages in reading, language, spelling, math, science, and social studies. The interactive roles that gender, SES, and kindergarten classroom type play in children's later achievement were also examined. The sample consisted of 166 first-grade children who had attended kindergarten classrooms with teaching practices identified as predominately developmentally appropriate or developmentally inappropriate. Findings indicated that first-graders from more appropriate kindergarten classrooms had higher reading averages than children from less appropriate kindergarten classrooms. Females had higher overall and subject area averages than males. Significant interaction effects indicated that high SES children from less appropriate kindergarten classrooms had higher overall averages and higher averages in all subjects except reading, when compared with low SES children from less appropriate classrooms. Low SES children from more appropriate kindergarten classrooms had higher overall averages and higher averages in all subjects except reading when compared with low SES children from less appropriate kindergarten classrooms. No significant differences were found between high and low SES children from more appropriate kindergarten classrooms.