Kindergarten, in theory, is supposed to set up all children for success in later elementary grades—laying the foundation for reading and math skills that support their growth.
But that’s not always the case. Across the country, kids who enter kindergarten with lower reading and math abilities tend to stay behind their peers through 3rd grade, new data show.
The research, from assessment provider NWEA, tracked the math and reading achievement of a nationally representative sample of more than 400,000 students who started kindergarten in the 2021-22 school year, using data from the organization’s MAP Growth tests.
Kindergartners who started school scoring in the bottom 20% had only a 1 in 10 chance of reading proficiency by 3rd grade. Those odds worsened if students were still struggling in 1st grade—only 1 in 50 who remained in the bottom quintile were proficient by the end of 3rd grade.
“The most striking thing was just how quickly the door closed for the students who were at the bottom of the achievement distribution,” said Megan Kuhfeld, NWEA’s director of growth modeling and data analytics and the lead author of the report.
These data follow a long-standing pattern: For decades, research studies have shown that kindergartners’ and 1st graders’ early reading difficulties can lead to persistent challenges in literacy.
But in recent years, most states have passed legislation aimed, in part, at tackling this exact problem. These “science of reading” laws require that schools align their approach to teaching early reading with evidence-based practice, and most mandate screening young children for reading difficulties and providing appropriate interventions.
At least 10 states have passed similar legislation in math, requiring schools to find and support elementary schoolers struggling in the subject.
“My hope was that we had improved access to evidence-based core instruction and supplemental reading interventions during the last decades, across the nation,” said Colby Hall, an associate professor of education at the University of Virginia. Hall, who studies effective literacy instruction for students with reading difficulties, was not involved with the NWEA study.
“These findings are dispiriting,” she said, “even if they are tremendously important.”
Early intervention is key, researchers say
Despite these results, a kindergartner’s future academic trajectory is not necessarily set in stone on day one, said Kuhfeld.
“The earlier that students are identified as being off track for literacy, the larger the window for intervening,” she said.
There’s ample research evidence to show that early intervention can work, said Hall.
So why do the NWEA data show so many students struggling, even as more states require schools to provide support in the earliest grades?
It’s possible that timing played a role, said Kuhfeld. Many states rolled out science of reading legislation during the 2021-22 school year, but it may not have been in effect long enough by that point for that year’s kindergarten class to see an impact, she said.
Nuances of implementation could also affect outcomes, said Hall.
“Even though we’ve made a lot of progress, we are still not seeing great universal screening across the nation right now,” she said.
Early reading difficulties can come in different forms, she said, and a district that only screens for problems with word-reading might miss students who need help with listening comprehension, for example.
Not all screeners are effective at all grade levels, she added, and finding a test that can flag a struggling kindergartner can be more challenging than finding one that works in grades 3 and up. (Hall recommended the National Center on Intensive Intervention’s tools charts, which break down evidence of effectiveness by grade level.)
In future research, Kuhfeld hopes to analyze the reading-achievement trajectories of students by state, to see if the timing of reading-legislation implementation explains any variability.
It’s too soon to say the laws aren’t working, she said, “but it’s sobering to see these data, given how much effort has been put into literacy.”
