| Katerina Bodovski
Pennsylvania State University
Students' mathematics achievement and course-taking in 8th grade: The role of school readiness?
The proposed study aims to investigate how school readiness (measured at the beginning of kindergarten) affects students' mathematics learning through the end of 8th grade. Specifically, the study has two main objectives: a) to estimate a growth of students' mathematics achievement from the spring of kindergarten through the spring of 8th grade; and b) to examine mathematics courses taken in the 8th grade as a function of school readiness, net of other student- and school-related factors. Furthermore, for both outcomes--mathematics growth trajectory and the likelihood of taking an advanced mathematics course in 8th grade--the interaction effects will be estimated to examine the differential effects of school readiness on the outcomes of various groups of students, defined by their gender, race/ethnicity, and family socio-economic status. To address these objectives, the study will employ a large nationally representative data set of elementary school students, the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K), including the most recently available 8th grade wave of data.
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