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Using a nationally representative sample of 13,609 kindergarten children in 2,690 classrooms and 788 schools from the base year of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–1999, along with three-level hierarchical linear models, this study investigates the impact of early literacy instruction on kindergarten children’s learning, as measured by direct cognitive test scores, indirect teacher ratings of children’s achievement in language and literacy, and indirect teacher ratings of children’s approaches to learning. Two composite measures of phonics and integrated language arts are constructed from teachers’ reports of their instructional practices. Findings show that classroom mean outcomes were significantly higher when classroom teachers reported using both integrated language arts and phonics more often. However, children with low initial performance benefited less from integrated language arts instruction, as measured by direct measures of achievement; such differential effects of instruction were not observed for teacher ratings of children’s achievement and learning style. Policy implications of the findings are discussed.

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Do children learn more in full-day kindergartens than half-day programs? If full-day kindergarten increases learning, are kindergartners in some schools particularly advantaged by their full-day experience? We address these questions with a nationally representative sample of over 8,000 kindergartners and 500 U.S. public schools that participated in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort. More than half of kindergartners experience fullday programs, which are most commonly available to less-advantaged children. Using multilevel (HLM) methods, we show that children who attend schools that offer full-day programs learn more in literacy and mathematics than their half-day counterparts. We also explore differential effectiveness in some school settings.