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Numerous studies have documented persistent gaps between the educational attainment of White males and that of Black, Hispanic, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander males. This report examines differences between males and females overall and within racial/ethnic groups. The racial/ethnic groups of interest include Blacks, Hispanics, Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders, and American Indians/Alaska Natives. The secondary focus of the report is to examine overall sex and racial/ethnic differences. In addition to the indicators, this report also includes descriptive multivariate analyses of variables that may influence male and female postsecondary attendance and attainment in different ways.

Numerous studies have documented persistent gaps between the educational attainment of White males and that of Black, Hispanic, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander males. This report examines differences between males and females overall and within racial/ethnic groups. The racial/ethnic groups of interest include Blacks, Hispanics, Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders, and American Indians/Alaska Natives. The secondary focus of the report is to examine overall sex and racial/ethnic differences. In addition to the indicators, this report also includes descriptive multivariate analyses of variables that may influence male and female postsecondary attendance and attainment in different ways.

This dissertation used nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K) to explore relationships between full-day kindergarten classroom factors, family socioeconomic status (SES), and public school children's gains in reading achievement and academic engagement over their first formal year of schooling. Specifically, the study focused on two aspects of kindergarten classroom factors that could maximize the additional time provided by full-day programs: instructional resources (i.e., class size and instructional aides) and instructional practices (i.e., time allocation across subject areas, grouping strategies, and instructional skills and activities). Two-level hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analyses (i.e., full-day kindergartners nested within public schools) were conducted to investigate the effects of school-averaged classroom factors on children's reading and academic engagement gains over the kindergarten year, as well as possible effects of school- averaged classroom factors on the relationship between children's SES and the aforementioned outcomes. The study identified multiple classroom factors associated with overall differences in full-day kindergartners' average reading gains. Specifically, results suggested that increases in reading instructional time, decreases in class size, and a balance in the frequency of discrete literacy skills and comprehension-based skills could help to accelerate reading gains during the kindergarten year. This study did not find evidence to support concerns that full-day kindergarten programs might harm children's academic engagement because of an overemphasis on academics. Instead, full-day kindergartners' academic engagement tended to remain constant across the kindergarten year and did not vary in relation to most instructional practices. Results indicated that full-day kindergartners demonstrated increased academic engagement in schools that had instruc