Parent-Teacher Agreement on Children’s Behavior in Kindergarten

The perceptions of both teachers and parents are important in identifying challenging behavior of young children. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Cohort 2010–2011 (ECLS-K, 2011), we investigated parent-teacher agreement of 3,310 U.S. kindergarten students ( n = 460 [13.8%] identified as students with disabilities) that teachers rated as having moderate to severe challenging behavior. We found that parents rated their children’s behaviors as less severe than did teachers. The magnitude of parent-teacher rating discrepancies was not affected by the child’s gender or the child-teacher race match, however, the discrepancy between parent and teacher ratings was greater for Black students than for White, Hispanic or Asian students. Controlling for child’s gender, race, and the child-teacher race match, the interaction of rater and special education status was not statistically significant. Implications of the study are discussed in relation to identifying and addressing challenging behaviors in kindergarten and strengthening parent-teacher alignment in the special education process.