Early Math Matters: Kindergarten Number Competence and Later Mathematics Outcomes

By Nancy C. Jordan, David Kaplan, Chaitanya Ramineni, Maria N. Locuniak. Developmental Psychology, 2009

1,132 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Children’s number competencies over 6 time points, from the beginning of kindergarten to the middle of 1st grade, were examined in relation to their mathematics achievement over 5 later time points, from the end of 1st grade to the end of 3rd grade. The relation between early number competence and mathematics achievement was strong and significant throughout the study period. A sequential process growth curve model showed that kindergarten number competence predicted rate of growth in mathematics achievement between 1st and 3rd grades as well as achievement level through 3rd grade. Further, rate of growth in early number competence predicted mathematics performance level in 3rd grade. Although low-income children performed more poorly than their middle-income counterparts in mathematics achievement and progressed at a slower rate, their performance and growth were mediated through relatively weak kindergarten number competence. Similarly, the better performance and faster growth of children who entered kindergarten at an older age were explained by kindergarten number competence. The findings show the importance of early number competence for setting children’s learning trajectories in elementary school mathematics.

Subfields: Education, Statistics and Probability

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/34fb621cf73b7bad25d77ff1229467a34f736474

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Citations in the corpus

Math talk during informal learning activities in Head Start families (2015, background): “This suggests that SES-related differences are specific to symbolic number skills, which are foundational for later mathematical concepts (Jordan et al., 2009), and are also highly dependent on input, instruction, and experiences (Jordan & Levine, 2009).”
How Important is Where you Start? Early Mathematics Knowledge and Later School Success (2013, background): “number sense and counting measured in preschool or kindergarten predict later elementary school math achievement test scores (Aunola, Leskinen, Lerkkanen, & nurmi, 2004; Bodovski & Farkas, 2007; Jordan et al., 2009; Jordan, Kaplan, Locuniak, & Ramineni, 2007).”
Core numerical skills for learning mathematics in children aged five to eight years – a working model for educators (2016, background): “…not been in focus in longitudinal studies aiming to predict math development (Aubrey et al. 2006; Aunola et al. 2003, 2004; Aunola, Leskinen, and Nurmi 2006; Huntsinger et al. 2000; Jordan et al. 2009, 2010; Kurdek and Sinclair 2001; Lachance and Mazzocco 2006; Ounatsu-Arviolommi and Nurmi 2000).”
Validating a Number Sense Screening Tool for Use in Kindergarten and First Grade: Prediction of Mathematics Proficiency in Third Grade (2010, background): “A logistical regression analysis (Jordan et al., 2009) revealed that although gender and age did not predict the odds of being absent from the study in third grade, low-income and minority children, respectively, were about 1.”
Assessing preschool number sense: skills demonstrated by children prior to school entry (2010, background): “…of number sense (Aunio, Hautamaki, & Van Luit, 2005; Fuchs et al., 2001; Gersten & Chard, 1999; Gersten et al., 2005; Ginsburg, 1997; Griffin, 2003; Jordan et al., 2009; Laski & Siegler, 2007; Malofeeva, Day, Saco, Young, & Cianco, 2004; Van Luit & Schopman, 2000), coupled with recognition of the…”
The development of early numeracy skills in kindergarten in low-, average- and high-performance groups (2015, background): “The reasons for low performance were not explained by family background, as is often reported in the United States (Jordan et al., 2009), as we found no differences relating to the parental education level.”
Informal Numeracy Skills (2013, background): “The same is true for most of the longitudinal work evaluating the predictive ability of these skills (Bryant et al., 2006; Chard et al., 2005; Griffin & Case, 1997; Jordan et al., 2009).”
Parents' Beliefs about Children's Math Development and Children's Participation in Math Activities (2012, background): “The important variability in ethnic/racial/income patterns of math development [7, 47, 48] highlights the need to examine group-specific family environments.”
An Exploratory Look at the Relationships Among Math Skills, Motivational Factors and Activity Choice (2013, background): “Findings indicate that mastery of numeracy is fundamental to the attainment of higher level math skills (Ee et al. 2006), and that early number competence predicts later math skills (Jordan et al. 2009).”