Early Childhood Longitudinal Study [United States]: Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999, Fifth Grade

The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten
Class of 1998-1999 (ECLS-K) focuses on children's early school
experiences beginning with kindergarten through fifth grade. It is a
nationally representative sample that collects information from
children, their families, their teachers, and their schools. ECLS-K
provides data about the effects of a wide range of family, school,
community, and individual variables on children's cognitive, social,
emotional, and physical development, their early learning and early
performance in school, as well as their home environment, home
educational practices, school environment, classroom environment,
classroom curriculum, and teacher qualifications.
With a few exceptions, the fifth grade data file contains all data
collected from parents, children, teachers, or schools in the base
year (fall and spring), first grade (fall and spring), third grade
(spring), and fifth grade (spring) data collections. To streamline the
file, however, the data from the household rosters that listed all
household members, their relationship to the sampled child, and
selected other characteristics are not included in the file. The
composite variables describing critical household roster-based
information, such as the children's family structure and selected
characteristics of the family members, have been retained on the
file.
Specific subjects covered by the variables in this data file
include parent/child gender, parent/child race, family background,
socioeconomic status, household income, parents' education level, and
parents' employment and marital status. Other variables include type
of childcare and childcare arrangements, the child's math, science,
and reading scores, the child's learning problems and autism, as well
as the child's diet issues, food security, and school food service.
Variables about teachers include age, race, background,
qualifications, job satisfaction, their level of impact on curriculum
and policy, and time spent on classroom activities and specific
subjects. Other variables include diversity of classroom students,
parent-teacher discussions, family participation in school events and
fundraising, whether the child's school has bars on the windows and
doors, fire alarms, sprinklers, and fire extinguishers, the presence
of school graffiti, as well as bus/transportation issues.