the long reach of early math skills greg j. duncan school of education university of california,...
TRANSCRIPT
The Long Reach of Early Math
Skills
Greg J. Duncan
School of Education
University of California, Irvine
How important are school-entry and K-5 mathematics skills for:
School achievement High school completion and
college enrollment Crime in early adulthood
Bottom/to
p SES quintile
Hispanics
/White
s
-1.50
-1.25
-1.00
-0.75
-0.50
-0.25
0.00
0.25
-1.34
-0.62
-0.77
-0.03
-1.38
-0.85
-0.50
0.18
Figure 1: Math gaps in kindergarten and fifth grade (Duncan and Mag-
nuson, 2011)
First grade Fifth grade
Gap
in
sta
nd
ard
devia
tion
un
its
Early Skills and Behaviors
Achievement Attention Problem Behaviors
Description:
Concrete math and reading
skills
Ability to control
impulses and focus on tasks
i) Ability to get along with others
ii) Sound mental health
Example test areas or question wording:
Knowing letters and numbers;
beginning word sounds, word
problems
Can’t sit still; can’t
concentrate; score from a
computer test of impulse
control
i) Cheats or tells lies, bullies, is disobedient at school
ii) Is sad, moody
Simple associations with later achievement
0 10 20 30 40 50 600
Duncan et al., Developmental Psychology, 2007
Simple associations with later achievement
0 10 20 30 40 50 600
ReadingMath
At-ten-tion
Anti-social/ Sad,
anxious
Effects on later achievement
0 10 20 30 40 50 600
Effects on later achievement
0 10 20 30 40 50 600
Anti-social/Sad,
anxious
Reading MathAt-ten-tion
Effects of persistent K-5 problems on high school dropout
0 10 20 30 400
Effects of persistent K-5 problems on high school dropout
0 10 20 30 400
AnxietyReading
Anti-social
At-ten-tion Math
Effects of persistent K-5 problems on never attending college
0 10 20 30 400
Anxiety
ReadingAnti-social
At-ten-tion Math
Summary Early math skills (controlling IQ)
correlated most strongly with future school achievement
Children with persistently low K-5 math skills:
– More likely to drop out of high school
– Considerably less likely to attend college
