Unpacking Students’ Language, Literacy, Math, and Executive Functioning Growth Across 2 Years of Prekindergarten

Increasingly children spend the period of rapid development between ages of 3 and 5 years in group-based learning settings. To unpack the timing and sequence of skill growth during this period, we use piecewise growth modeling with longitudinal data on 154 children participating in 2 years of public prekindergarten. We consider whether growth patterns differ across four learning domains as well as between children who are dual language learners versus monolingual English speakers and children beginning prekindergarten scoring lower versus higher at baseline. We generally observed positive growth in all domains across all time points, with the exception of spring of the second year, when we observed limited growth. Although there were few differences in growth patterns by children’s language status, children who scored lower at baseline grew faster than those with higher baseline scores. The implications of these findings for prekindergarten programs looking to consistently promote all children’s learning are discussed.