Do Preschool Peers Provide a Sustaining Environment in Kindergarten Classrooms? Data Access and Analysis Files

Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal
Study - Kindergarten Cohort 2011, we examine (i) whether more preschool attendees in a kindergarten classroom relate to
higher academic and social skills for children who did not go to preschool,
(ii) whether more preschool attendees in the classroom moderate the benefits of preschool
attendance (Child N = 11,360; Class N =
2,460; 67% White; 51% males; Mage =
5.6 years), and (iii) whether more preschool attendees in the classroom relate to teachers’
perceptions of children’s
skills and their instructional content. In
contrast to prior analyses using the 1998 cohort of the ECLS-K, we found no
evidence of an association between the classroom percentage of
preschool-attending peers and children’s academic, executive function,
behavioral, and prosocial skills. However, we found that the percentage of preschool peers was associated with teachers’ perceptions
of children’s reading skills and teachers’ instructional time spent on advanced reading content.