Kindergarten, Parents’ Education and Reading Literacy Achievement - a multiple regression model

Abstract: Student achievement in reading is a complex phenomenon that depends on many factors, but perhaps it can be predicted with a smaller model. Does attending kindergarten as well as parental education affect reading achievement at the end of the fourth grade? Can reading achievement be predicted by the combination of attending kindergarten and parental education? Results from the IEA PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Survey) were used for answering the research questions. Children’s reading achievement scores, represented with the Plausible Values methodology, were predicted with multiple regression models using variables about their kindergarten attendance and parents’ education. The best models were chosen based on their respective residual standard error, R² coefficient, adjusted R² coefficient, and AIC and BIC values, and assessed using 10-fold cross validation. The most important factor in a child’s reading achievement is their mother’s education. The second most important factor is their father’s education, and the least important factor is kindergarten attendance, which has a very small influence on the reading score and is not important for predicting results in practice.