Early Math Matters

Kindergarten Number Competence and Later Mathematics Outcomes

Jordan, Nancy C.
Kaplan, David
Ramineni, Chaitanya
Locuniak, Maria N.

¹School of Education, University of Delaware
²Department of Educational Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison

This work is supported by National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Grant R01HD036672. We wish to thank the participating children and teachers for their extremely generous cooperation over the course of this 4-year project.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Nancy C. Jordan, School of Education, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716. E-mail: [email protected]

Received December 13, 2007

Revision received October 6, 2008

Accepted November 12, 2008

Developmental Psychology 45(3):p 850-867, May 2009. | DOI: 10.1037/a0014939

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.