IES Blog

Institute of Education Sciences

Celebrating the ECLS-K:2024: Providing Key National Data on Our Country’s Youngest Learners

It’s time to celebrate!

This spring, the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2023–24 (ECLS-K:2024) is wrapping up its first school year of data collection with tens of thousands of children in hundreds of schools across the nation. You may not know this, but NCES is congressionally mandated to collect data on early childhood. We meet that charge by conducting ECLS program studies like the ECLS-K:2024 that follow children through the early elementary grades. Earlier studies looked at children in the kindergarten classes of 1998–99 and 2010–11. We also conducted a study, the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B), that followed children from birth through kindergarten entry.

As the newest ECLS program study, the ECLS-K:2024 will collect data from both students and adults in these students’ lives (e.g., parents, teachers, school administrators) to help us better understand how different factors at home and at school relate to children’s development and learning. In fact, the ECLS-K:2024 allows us to provide data not only on the children in the cohort but also on kindergarten teachers and the schools that educate kindergartners.

What we at NCES think is worthy of celebrating is that the ECLS-K:2024—like other ECLS program studies,

  • provides the statistics policymakers need to make data-driven decisions to improve education for all;
  • contributes data that researchers need to answer today’s most pressing questions related to early childhood and early childhood education; and
  • allows us to produce resources for parents, families, teachers, and schools to better inform the public at large about children’s education and development.

Although smaller-scale studies can answer numerous questions about education and development, the ECLS-K:2024 allows us to provide answers at a national level. For example, you may know that children arrive to kindergarten with different skills and abilities, but have you ever wondered how those skills and abilities vary for children who come from different areas of the country? How they vary for children who attended prekindergarten programs versus those who did not? How they vary for children who come from families of different income levels? The national data from the ECLS-K:2024 allow us to dive into these—and other—issues.

The ECLS-K:2024 is unique in that it’s the first of our early childhood studies to provide data on a cohort of students who experienced the coronavirus pandemic. How did the pandemic affect these children’s early development and how did it change the schooling they receive? By comparing the experiences of the ECLS-K:2024 cohort to those of children who were in kindergarten nearly 15 and 25 years ago, we’ll be able to answer these questions.

What’s more, the ECLS-K:2024 will provide information on a variety of topics not fully examined in previous national early childhood studies. The study is including new items on families’ kindergarten selection and choice; availability and use of home computers and other digital devices; parent-teacher association/organization contributions to classrooms; equitable school practices; and a myriad of other constructs.

Earlier ECLS program studies have had a huge impact on our understanding of child development and early education, with hundreds of research publications produced using their data (on topics such as academic skills and school performance; family activities that promote learning; and children’s socioemotional development, physical health, and well-being). ECLS data have also been referenced in media outlets and in federal and state congressional reports. With the launch of the ECLS-K:2024, we cannot wait to see the impact of research using the new data.

Want to learn more? 

Plus, be on the lookout late this spring for the next ECLS blog post celebrating the ECLS-K:2024, which will highlight children in the study. Future blog posts will focus on parents and families and on teachers and schools. Stay tuned!

 

By Jill McCarroll and Korrie Johnson, NCES

What Do NCES Data Tell Us About America’s Kindergartners?

Happy Get Ready for Kindergarten Month! 

For more than 20 years, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has been collecting information about kindergartners’ knowledge and skills as part of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Studies (ECLS) program.

The first ECLS, the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–99 (ECLS-K), focused on children in kindergarten in the 1998–99 school year. At the time the ECLS-K began, no large national study focused on education had followed a cohort of children from kindergarten entry through the elementary school years. Some of today’s commonly known information about young children, such as the information about kindergartners’ early social and academic skills shown in the infographics below, comes out of the ECLS-K. For example, we all know that children arrive at kindergarten with varied knowledge and skills; the ECLS-K was the first study to show at a national level that this was the case and to provide the statistics to highlight the differences in children’s knowledge and skills by various background factors.



The second ECLS kindergarten cohort study, the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010–11 (ECLS-K:2011), is the ECLS-K’s sister study. This study followed the students who were in kindergarten during the 2010–11 school year. The ECLS-K:2011, which began more than a decade after the inception of the ECLS-K, allows for comparisons of children in two nationally representative kindergarten classes experiencing different policy, educational, and demographic environments. For example, significant changes that occurred between the start of the ECLS-K and the start of the ECLS-K:2011 include the passage of No Child Left Behind legislation, a rise in school choice, and an increase in English language learners. 

From the parents of children in the ECLS-K:2011, we learned how much U.S. kindergartners like school, as shown in the following infographic.



The ECLS program studies also provide information on children’s home learning environments and experiences outside of school that may contribute to learning. For example, we learned from the ECLS-K:2011 what types of activities kindergartners were doing with their parents at least once a month (see the infographic below).


Infographic titled How do kindergarteners like school?


What’s next for ECLS data collections on kindergartners? NCES is excited to be getting ready to launch our next ECLS kindergarten cohort study, the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2023–24 (ECLS-K:2024)

Before the ECLS-K:2024 national data collections can occur, the ECLS will conduct a field test—a trial run of the study to test the study instruments and procedures—in the fall of 2022.

If you, your child, or your school are selected for the ECLS-K:2024 field test or national study, please participate! While participation is voluntary, it is important so that the study can provide information that can be used at the local, state, and national levels to guide practice and policies that increase every child’s chance of doing well in school. The ECLS-K:2024 will be particularly meaningful, as it will provide important information about the experiences of children whose early lives were shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Watch this video to learn more about participation in the ECLS-K:2024. For more information on the ECLS studies and the data available on our nation’s kindergartners, see the ECLS homepage, review our online training modules, or email the ECLS study team.

 

By Jill Carlivati McCarroll, NCES

Access an NCES Presentation on ECLS Reading Data From the IES Reading Summit

NCES staff presented information on reading data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Studies (ECLS) Program at the June 2021 Institute of Education Sciences (IES)/Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS) Reading Summit. The ECLS data cover a wide range of reading-related topics, such as children’s reading knowledge and skills, home literacy activities, and teachers’ instructional practices. The presentation included a brief overview of three ECLS program studies and the reading-related data collected by each. In addition, the presentation included a discussion of the resources available to either see what research has been conducted with the data or explore the data independently. As the focus of the presentation was on data available to the public for secondary analysis, its target audience was researchers and others with a data science focus.

Access the Reading Summit presentation—Reading Data Available from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Studies (ECLS)—and handout below to learn more about ECLS reading data.

Be sure to also check out this blog post to learn more about the work highlighted at the IES Reading Summit.

 

By Jill Carlivati McCarroll, NCES

Working Toward a Successful National Data Collection: The ECLS Field Test

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) conducts some of the most complex education surveys in the world, and we work hard to make these surveys as effective and efficient as possible. One way we make sure our surveys are successful is by conducting multiple tests before we fully launch a national data collection.

Even prior to a field test, NCES develops survey materials and procedures using much smaller-scale cognitive laboratory testing and focus-group processes. These initial development procedures help ensure that materials are clear and procedures are understood before we conduct field testing with larger and more representative groups of respondents. Then, we launch the field tests to test data-collection operations and survey processes and procedures. Field tests are small-scale surveys that include a range of respondents and are designed to test the survey questionnaires and survey administration procedures in a real-world situation prior to the launch of a major study. The field test results allow us to make any necessary adjustments before starting the national data collection. Field tests also allow us to test specific survey items and ensure that they are valid and reliable. Without a field test, we could risk spending the public’s time and money on large data-collection efforts that do not produce the intended information.

NCES is about to begin the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2022–23 (ECLS-K:2023) with a field test early this year. The ECLS-K:2023 will focus on children’s early school experiences, beginning with preschool and continuing through fifth grade. From the spring of 2022 through the spring of 2028, we will collect national study data from children and their parents, teachers, and school administrators to answer questions about children’s early learning and development, transition into kindergarten and beyond, and experiences in the elementary grades. 

Although the ECLS-K:2023 will be similar in many ways to prior ECLS kindergarten studies, we are adding a round of data collection prior to the children’s kindergarten year—the national spring 2022 preschool round. For this preschool survey, we’ll send an invitation to participate to a sample of residential addresses within selected areas of the United States. Potential participants will first be asked to fill out a brief screener questionnaire. If they report that an ECLS-eligible child is in the household, they will be asked additional important questions about early childhood topics, such as their child’s literacy, language, math, and social skills; activities done with the child in the home (e.g., singing songs, playing games, reading); and characteristics of any early care and education (i.e., child care) arrangements for the child.   

Because the ECLS-K:2023 preschool data need to be comprehensive and reliable so that they can inform public discussions and policies related to early elementary education, it’s crucial that we test our procedures and questions for this new preschool round by conducting a field test in early 2020.  

If you receive a letter about participating in the 2020 ECLS field test, you’re being selected to represent thousands of households like yours and provide NCES with the data we need to make decisions about how to best conduct the ECLS-K:2023. The participation of all the selected households who receive our mailings, even those without children, is essential for a successful field test and, ultimately, a successful ECLS-K:2023.

If you are selected for the ECLS field test and have any questions about participating, please visit the participant information page

For more information on the ECLS-K:2023 or its 2020 field test, please email the ECLS study team.

For information about other ECLS program studies, please visit https://nces.ed.gov/ecls/.

 

By Jill Carlivati McCarroll

From Data Collection to Data Release: What Happens?

In today’s world, much scientific data is collected automatically from sensors and processed by computers in real time to produce instant analytic results. People grow accustomed to instant data and expect to get things quickly.

At the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), we are frequently asked why, in a world of instant data, it takes so long to produce and publish data from surveys. Although improvements in the timeliness of federal data releases have been made, there are fundamental differences in the nature of data compiled by automated systems and specific data requested from federal survey respondents. Federal statistical surveys are designed to capture policy-related and research data from a range of targeted respondents across the country, who may not always be willing participants.

This blog is designed to provide a brief overview of the survey data processing framework, but it’s important to understand that the survey design phase is, in itself, a highly complex and technical process. In contrast to a management information system, in which an organization has complete control over data production processes, federal education surveys are designed to represent the entire country and require coordination with other federal, state, and local agencies. After the necessary coordination activities have been concluded, and the response periods for surveys have ended, much work remains to be done before the survey data can be released.

Survey Response

One of the first sources of potential delays is that some jurisdictions or individuals are unable to fill in their surveys on time. Unlike opinion polls and online quizzes, which use anyone who feels like responding to the survey (convenience samples), NCES surveys use rigorously formulated samples meant to properly represent specific populations, such as states or the nation as a whole. In order to ensure proper representation within the sample, NCES follows up with nonresponding sampled individuals, education institutions, school districts, and states to ensure the maximum possible survey participation within the sample. Some large jurisdictions, such as the New York City school district, also have their own extensive survey operations to conclude before they can provide information to NCES. Before the New York City school district, which is larger than about two-thirds of all state education systems, can respond to NCES surveys, it must first gather information from all its schools. Receipt of data from New York City and other large districts is essential to compiling nationally representative data.

Editing and Quality Reviews

Waiting for final survey responses does not mean that survey processing comes to a halt. One of the most important roles NCES plays in survey operations is editing and conducting quality reviews of incoming data, which take place on an ongoing basis. In these quality reviews, a variety of strategies are used to make cost-effective and time-sensitive edits to the incoming data. For example, in the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), individual higher education institutions upload their survey responses and receive real-time feedback on responses that are out of range compared to prior submissions or instances where survey responses do not align in a logical way. All NCES surveys use similar logic checks in addition to a range of other editing checks that are appropriate to the specific survey. These checks typically look for responses that are out of range for a certain type of respondent.

Although most checks are automated, some particularly complicated or large responses may require individual review. For IPEDS, the real-time feedback described above is followed by quality review checks that are done after collection of the full dataset. This can result in individualized follow up and review with institutions whose data still raise substantive questions. 

Sample Weighting

In order to lessen the burden on the public and reduce costs, NCES collects data from selected samples of the population rather than taking a full census of the entire population for every study. In all sample surveys, a range of additional analytic tasks must be completed before data can be released. One of the more complicated tasks is constructing weights based on the original sample design and survey responses so that the collected data can properly represent the nation and/or states, depending on the survey. These sample weights are designed so that analyses can be conducted across a range of demographic or geographic characteristics and properly reflect the experiences of individuals with those characteristics in the population.

If the survey response rate is too low, a “survey bias analysis” must be completed to ensure that the results will be sufficiently reliable for public use. For longitudinal surveys, such as the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, multiple sets of weights must be constructed so that researchers using the data will be able to appropriately account for respondents who answered some but not all of the survey waves.

NCES surveys also include “constructed variables” to facilitate more convenient and systematic use of the survey data. Examples of constructed variables include socioeconomic status or family type. Other types of survey data also require special analytic considerations before they can be released. Student assessment data, such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), require that a number of highly complex processes be completed to ensure proper estimations for the various populations being represented in the results. For example, just the standardized scoring of multiple choice and open-ended items can take thousands of hours of design and analysis work.

Privacy Protection

Release of data by NCES carries a legal requirement to protect the privacy of our nation’s children. Each NCES public-use dataset undergoes a thorough evaluation to ensure that it cannot be used to identify responses of individuals, whether they are students, parents, teachers, or principals. The datasets must be protected through item suppression, statistical swapping, or other techniques to ensure that multiple datasets cannot be combined in such a way as to identify any individual. This is a time-consuming process, but it is incredibly important to protect the privacy of respondents.

Data and Report Release

When the final data have been received and edited, the necessary variables have been constructed, and the privacy protections have been implemented, there is still more that must be done to release the data. The data must be put in appropriate formats with the necessary documentation for data users. NCES reports with basic analyses or tabulations of the data must be prepared. These products are independently reviewed within the NCES Chief Statistician’s office.

Depending on the nature of the report, the Institute of Education Sciences Standards and Review Office may conduct an additional review. After all internal reviews have been conducted, revisions have been made, and the final survey products have been approved, the U.S. Secretary of Education’s office is notified 2 weeks in advance of the pending release. During this notification period, appropriate press release materials and social media announcements are finalized.

Although NCES can expedite some product releases, the work of preparing survey data for release often takes a year or more. NCES strives to maintain a balance between timeliness and providing the reliable high-quality information that is expected of a federal statistical agency while also protecting the privacy of our respondents.  

 

By Thomas Snyder