Behavior Problems and Student Engagement as Determinants of Kindergarten Learning.

Analyzing data from the newly available Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K), this study examines the effects of three dimensions of children?s behavior (externalizing problems, internalizing problems and school engagement) on mathematics test scores in the spring of kindergarten, controlling test scores from the fall of kindergarten. The model combines the concerns of two research traditions?the sociology of education and child development. The findings regarding student engagement are consistent with the previous literature. Net of other variables, including prior achievement, student engagement has a strong positive effect on end-of ?year mathematics achievement. The findings with respect to externalized and internalized behavior problems are somewhat more surprising. As expected, in the model predicting mathematics achievement that did not include student engagement, we found negative significant effects of both externalized and internalized behaviors on math scores. However, once student engagement is added to the equation, the effect of internalized behavior problems becomes insignificant, while the effect of externalized behavior problems becomes positive and significant. That is, net of prior tests scores and student engagement with instruction, students that have a higher rate of externalizing behavior problems are found to learn more mathematics than other children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]