Hard Skills Count

01/08/2007

Life is like this: sometimes sun, sometimes rain.
Fiji proverb

What skills that children possess at school entry are predictors of later achievement? Northwestern University’s Greg Duncan sought to answer this question by analyzing data from six long-term studies. As reported in Preschool Matters (October 2006; www.nieer.org), Duncan’s research team found that the strongest predictor of later achievement to be children’s school entry math skills, followed by reading and the ability to pay attention.

According to Preschool Matters, “The big surprise was that math skills ranked as the most important predictor of school success. Adding to this surprise was the fact that soft skills, like social behavior turned out not to be significant predictors of later academic performance. Early behavior problems like aggression or moodiness didn’t prove to be a strong predictor of whether a child would do well in school.”

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