Which Preschool Mathematics Competencies Are Most Predictive Of
Early Childhood Research Quarterly 36 (2016) 550–560 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Early Childhood Research Quarterly Which preschool mathematics competencies are most predictive of fifth grade achievement? a,∗ a a b Tutrang Nguyen , Tyler W. Watts , Greg J. Duncan , Douglas H. Clements , b c b Julie S. Sarama , Christopher Wolfe , Mary Elaine Spitler a University of California, Irvine, 3200 Education Building, Irvine, CA 92697, United States b University of Denver, 1999 East Evans Avenue, Denver, CO 80208, United States c Saint Leo University, 33701 State Road 52, Saint Leo, FL 33574, United States a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: In an effort to promote best practices regarding mathematics teaching and learning at the preschool Received 30 April 2015 level, national advisory panels and organizations have emphasized the importance of children’s emer- Received in revised form 17 February 2016 gent counting and related competencies, such as the ability to verbally count, maintain one-to-one Accepted 20 February 2016 correspondence, count with cardinality, subitize, and count forward or backward from a given num- ber. However, little research has investigated whether the kind of mathematical knowledge promoted Keywords: by the various standards documents actually predict later mathematics achievement. The present study Mathematics achievement uses longitudinal data from a primarily low-income and minority sample of children to examine the Early childhood extent to which preschool mathematical competencies, specifically basic and advanced counting, pre- At-risk students dict fifth grade mathematics achievement. Using regression analyses, we find early numeracy abilities to be the strongest predictors of later mathematics achievement, with advanced counting competencies more predictive than basic counting competencies.
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