| The purpose of this study was to describe the results of an assessment tool of pre-kindergartners' ability in mathematics, the Child Math Assessment. The Child Math Assessment (Klein, Starkey & Wakely, 1998) was individually administered to 371 pre-kindergarten children, ages 3 to 5, who are enrolled in 50 public and private urban preschool programs in schools located in high-need areas. The five mathematical tasks of CMA correspond to NCTM's content areas; i.e. number tasks (Number and Operations), arithmetic tasks (Number and Operations), spatial and geometric tasks (Geometry), measurement tasks (Measurement), and pattern tasks (Algebra). The results were analyzed by content area and age of child.; When examining individual tasks, the content area with the highest percentage of correct responses was numbers (object counting to 3). Another number task (quantitative comparison, set 2 vs. 2) also had high percentage of correct responses by pre kindergarteners. Other content areas with high percentages of correct response were arithmetic (one set addition/subtraction, problem 3-1) and measurement (direct measurement: heavy object 1, heavy object 2, and big object 2). In two tasks, direct measurement (measurement tasks) and geometric reasoning (spatial and geometric tasks) at least 70% of the pre-kindergarteners responded correctly to all parts of the task.; Regarding age specific grouping, the results revealed that as the age of the child increased the percentage of correct responses usually increased. The highest percentages were from the 5-year-olds in number task (object counting to 3) and direct measurement task (heavy object 1 and heavy object 2) with at least 90% of the children responding correctly. |
