Measurement of Kindergarteners' Understanding of Early Mathematical Concepts

Abstract: Early measures of mathematics skill and development have focused on early numeracy skills like counting, number identification, and sequencing of numbers. This study attempted to expand early mathematics assessment. Six new measures of early mathematics skill competence were developed and evaluated. Four existing measures also were examined. Measures were developed to directly assess kindergarten children’s understanding of concepts including number sense (ordinality, subitivity, cardinality), shape recognition, and patterning. Technical adequacy estimates were examined including test–retest reliability, concurrent and longitudinal correlation with criterion measures, and sensitivity. The Pattern Completion, Set Comparison with Unequal-Sized Items, and Subitivity measures performed best. Existing early numeracy measures performed comparably to or better than the new measures.