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INCOME AND EARNINGS
EARLY CHILDHOOD LONGITUDINAL STUDY— KINDERGARTEN COHORT
Measure: Income and Earning Items from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study— Kindergarten Cohort Parent Interview
Source
The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K) is funded by the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics. Other sponsoring federal agencies that contributed to the ECLS-K are: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; U.S. Department of Agriculture; Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education; Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs, U.S. Department of Education; and, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Westat fields the ECLS-K.
The parent interview was developed by a panel of experts specifically for the ECLS-K.
Population Assessed
The ECLS-K consisted of a nationally representative sample of 22,625 kindergarteners enrolled in 1,277 programs across the country. The sample included a broad array of socioeconomic status and ethnicities. An oversampling of Asian children and those enrolled in private schools helped to meet the national averages for those populations.
Periodicity
The ECLS-K began in 1998 and will conclude in 2004. In 1998–1999 (the kindergarten year), data were collected in the fall from students, parents, and teachers and in the spring from students, parents, teachers, and schools. In 1999–2000 (the first-grade year), data were collected in the fall from students and parents and in the spring from students, parents, teachers, and schools. In 2001–2002 (the third-grade year), data were collected in the spring from students, parents, teachers, and schools. In 2003–2004 (the fifth-grade year), data will be collected in the spring from students, parents, teachers, and schools. The parent interview is given at each planned administration of the survey, which is scheduled to follow the children through fifth grade.
Components
The parent interview contains several questions pertaining to the income and earnings in a child’s household. In addition to household income, WIC and TANF are addressed in the questions. Expenditures and other reductions in income are not addressed, but the other questions are in reference to the past 12 months.
Procedures for Administration
The parent interview is administered to the most knowledgeable parent for each child. It is conducted either on the phone using a computer-assisted telephone interview or in person using a computer-assisted personal interview for those without a phone or reluctant to participate over the phone. Approximately 3 percent of the parent interviews completed were conducted in person. Translations of the survey were conducted with a hard copy and interviewers then entered the responses into the computer-assisted interview program. The interview is conducted one on one and is estimated to take about 65 minutes to complete.
Psychometrics/Data Quality
“Of the sampled children, 19,173 participated in the fall kindergarten child assessment for an 89.8 cooperation rate or a response rate of 66.4 percent (74% X 89.8%). There were no large differences in cooperation rates for subgroups of children: 89.5 percent of sampled boys participated, and 90.4 percent of sampled girls participated. Asians had the lowest cooperation rates at 88.6 percent while American Indians or Alaskan Natives had the highest response rate of 93.4 percent. There were 18,101 parent interviews completed during the fall of the school year for a cooperation rate of 85.3 percent or a 63 percent response rate (74% X 85.3%). About 91 percent of the children had child-specific data reported by their teacher in the fall of kindergarten (74% X 91.2 = 67.5%). These numbers are also comparable to the completion rates obtained in NELS:88. There, about 90 percent of the students participated in the eighth grade student tests, and 87.5 percent of the parents completed parent questionnaires. Teachers in NELS:88 completed individual student ratings for about 89.6 percent of the students. Thus overall, the ECLS-K child, parent, teacher and school cooperation rates are comparable to other school-based longitudinal studies conducted at NCES.” (West, Denton, & Germino-Hausken, 2000, p. 65).
Psychometric information specifically for the income and earnings items is not readily available, including how nonresponse is addressed.
Languages Available
The interviews are available in English and were translated into Spanish, Chinese, Lakota, and Hmong.
Items Included
Questionnaires are available on the ECLS-K Web site at http://nces.ed.gov/ecls/
During the past week, did [you/[NAME]] work at a job for pay?
Were you/Was [NAME]] on leave or vacation from a job?
How many jobs [do you/does [NAME]] have now?
About how many total hours per week [do you/does [NAME]] usually work for pay, counting all jobs?
[Have you/Has [NAME]] been actively looking for work in the past 4 weeks?
What [have you/has [NAME]] been doing in the past 4 weeks to find work?
Checked with public employment agency
Checked with private employment agency
Checked with employer directly/sent resume
Checked with friends or relatives
Placed or answered ads/sent resume
Read want-ads
Something else (specify)
What [were you/was [NAME]] doing most of last week? Would you say …
Keeping house or caring for children,
Going to school,
Retired,
Unable to work,
or
Something else? What was that? (SPECIFY)
Could [you/[NAME]] have taken a job last week if one had been offered?
Between [CHILD]’s birth and when [he/she] entered kindergarten, did [you/[CHILD]’s mother] work outside the home for pay?
Since [CHILD] was born, was there any time in which [his/her] family had serious financial problems or was unable to pay the monthly bills?
During how many years or months since [he/she] was born has [CHILD]’s family had serious financial problems?
Welfare and Other Public Transfers
When [you were/[CHILD]’s mother was] pregnant with [CHILD], did [you/she] receive any WIC benefits?
Did [CHILD] receive any WIC benefits as an infant or child?
In the past 12 months, have you or anyone in your household received Aid to Families with Dependent Children—sometimes called AFDC or ADC, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, sometimes called TANF [or [STATE AFDC PROGRAM NAME]]?
During those 12 months, how long did [someone in] your household receive AFDC [or [STATE AFDC PROGRAM NAME]]? Was it ...
One to two months,
Three to five months,
Six to eight months, or
Nine to twelve months?
Since [CHILD]was born, have you or anyone in your household ever received AFDC [or [STATE AFDC PROGRAM NAME]]?
In the past 12 months, have you or anyone in your household received food stamps?
During those 12 months, how long did [someone in] your household receive food stamps? Was it
One to two months
Three to five months,
Six to eight months, or
Nine to twelve months?
Since [CHILD] was born, have you or anyone in your household ever received food stamps?
References and Source Documents
The ECLS Web site is http://nces.ed.gov/ecls/. A number of reports, shorter publications, technical/methodological papers, and working papers are available at http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/getpubcats.asp?sid=024.
Data products include the following:
ECLS-K Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data Files and Electronic Code Book, NCES Number: 2002148 Release Date: April 30, 2002
CD-ROM: ECLS-K First Grade Public-Use Data Files and Electronic Code Book NCES Number: 2002134 Release Date: February 19, 2002
ECLS-K First Grade Restricted-Use Child File
NCES Number: 2002127 Release Date: December 12, 2001
ECLS-K Base Year Restricted-Use Salary and Benefits File NCES Number: 2001014 Release Date: April 24, 2001
ECLS-K Base Year Restricted-Use Student Record Abstract File NCES Number: 2001016 Release Date: April 24, 2001
ECLS-K Restricted-Use Base Year: Child File, Teacher File, and School File NCES Number: 2000097 Release Date: March 21, 2001
ECLS-K Base Year Restricted-Use: Special Education Child File NCES Number: 2001015 Release Date: March 21, 2001
ECLS-K Base Year Restricted-Use Head Start File NCES Number: 2001025 Release Date: March 15, 2001
ECLS-K, Base Year Public-Use Data File, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99: Data Files and Electronic Code Book; (Child, Teacher, School Files): User’s Manual NCES Number: 2001029 Release Date: December 1, 2000
Specific reports include the following:
Education Statistics Quarterly - Spring 2003 Issue NCES number: 2003607. Release date: July 11, 2003
Young Children’s Access to Computers in the Home and at School in 1999 and 2000 NCES number: 2003036. Release date: March 7, 2003
Children’s Reading and Mathematics Achievement in Kindergarten and First Grade NCES number: 2002125. Release date: March 7, 2002
Digest of Education Statistics, 2001
NCES number: 2002130. Release date: March 1, 2002
The Kindergarten Year
NCES number: 2001023. Release date: December 1, 2000
America’s Kindergartners
NCES number: 2000070. Release date: February 17, 2000
Specific shorter publications include the following: The Condition of Education 2003 in Brief NCES number: 2003068. Release date: June 17, 2003
Schools’ Use of Assessments for Kindergarten Entrance and Placement: 1998-99 NCES number: 2003004. Release date: March 24, 2003
Findings from the Condition of Education 2000: Entering Kindergarten NCES number: 2001035. Release date: January 22, 2001
Specific technical/methodological papers include the following:
User’s Manual for the ECLS-K Longitudinal Kindergarten-First Grade Public-Use Data Files and Electronic Codebook NCES number: 2002149. Release date: April 30, 2002
User’s Manual for the ECLS-K First Grade Public-Use Data Files and Electronic Codebook NCES number: 2002135. Release date: February 19, 2002
Specific working papers include the following:
Early Childhood Longitudinal Study - Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K), Psychometric Report for Kindergarten Through First Grade NCES number: 200205. Release date: September 10, 2002
Papers from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Studies Program Presented at the 2001 AERA and SRCD Meetings NCES number: 200106. Release date: July 30, 2001
Measuring Father Involvement in Young Children’s Lives: Recommendations for a Fatherhood Module for the ECLS-B NCES number: 200102. Release date: April 17, 2001
Measures of Socio-Emotional Development in Middle Childhood NCES number: 200103. Release date: April 17, 2001
Selected Papers on Education Surveys: Papers Presented at the 1998 and 1999 ASA and 1999 AAPOR Meetings NCES number: 200004. Release date: August 7, 2000
A Birth Cohort Study: Conceptual and Design Considerations and Rationale NCES number: 199901. Release date: February 16, 1999
Working Paper: Measuring the Quality of Program Environments in Head Start and Other Early Childhood Programs NCES number: 9736. Release date: November 7, 1997
Formulating a Design for the ECLS: A Review of Longitudinal Studies NCES number: 9724. Release date: September 11, 1997
Assessment of Social Competence, Adaptive Behaviors, and Approaches to Learning With Young Children NCES number: 9618. Release date: August 30, 1996
How Accurate Are Teacher Judgments of Students’ Academic Performance? NCES number: 9608. Release date: April 30, 1996
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