Population-Level Associations between Preschool Vulnerability and Grade-Four Basic Skills

BACKGROUND: This is a predictive validity study examining the extent to which developmental vulnerability at kindergarten entry (as measured by the Early Development Instrument, EDI) is associated with children's basic skills in 4th grade (as measured by the Foundation Skills Assessment, FSA). METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Relative risk analysis was performed on a large database linking individual-level EDI ratings to the scores the same children obtained on a provincial assessment of academic skills (FSA – Foundation Skills Assessment) four years later. We found that early vulnerability in kindergarten is associated with the basic skills that underlie populations of children's academic achievement in reading, writing and math, indicating that the Early Development Instrument permits to predict achievement-related skills four years in advance. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The EDI can be used to predict children's educational trends at the population level and can help select early prevention and intervention programs targeting pre-school populations at minimum cost.