title: Children's classroom engagement and school readiness gains in prekindergarten.
abstract: Child engagement in prekindergarten classrooms was examined using 2,751 children (mean age=4.62) enrolled in public prekindergarten programs that were part of the Multi-State Study of Pre-Kindergarten and the State-Wide Early Education Programs Study. Latent class analysis was used to classify children into 4 profiles of classroom engagement: free play, individual instruction, group instruction, and scaffolded learning. Free play children exhibited smaller gains across the prekindergarten year on indicators of language/literacy and mathematics compared to other children. Individual instruction children made greater gains than other children on the Woodcock Johnson Applied Problems. Poor children in the individual instruction profile fared better than nonpoor children in that profile; in all other snapshot profiles, poor children fared worse than nonpoor children.
authors.affiliation: University of California-San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive #0927, La Jolla, CA 92093-0927, USA. nchien@ucsd.edu
authors.forename: Nina C
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Chien
authors.forename: Carollee
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Howes
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Burchinal
authors.forename: Robert C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Pianta
authors.forename: Sharon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ritchie
authors.forename: Donna M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Bryant
authors.forename: Richard M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Clifford
authors.forename: Diane M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Early
authors.forename: Oscar A
authors.initials: OA
authors.lastname: Barbarin
mesh_terms: D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D018479:Early Intervention, Educational; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D011203:Poverty; D014481:United States; D035862:Vulnerable Populations