Racial and socioeconomic gaps in children's school readiness

The first goal adopted by the National Education Goals Panel (NEGP) is that all children in America will start school ready to learn. This acknowledges that education is not an “event” that happens once children begin school; rather, it is a process that begins at birth. Although recent NEGP evaluations indicate that progress has been made toward this goal, significant racial and socioeconomic gaps still persist in children's readiness. My dissertation focused on factors that may explain these racial and socioeconomic gaps in children's school readiness.; The specific goal of this dissertation was to identify the mechanisms through which SES and race affect readiness, so that policy makers may be better informed about where to focus their efforts to improve school readiness. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class (ECLS-K), I tested four explanatory models through multiple regression to determine which models offered the most explanatory strength. The models/hypotheses included: child health (birthweight and overall child health), family/home environment, academic redshirting/age of school entry, and preschool experience. Before testing the explanatory models, I determined the amount of explanation due to SES (physical and human capital).; The results showed that significant racial gaps in math, reading, and general knowledge exist. Several interesting patterns emerged. The reading racial gap that remained after controlling for SES was small for both African American and Hispanic children, but it was larger for Hispanic children. This was perhaps the most important finding of the research, given the importance of reading in early child education. Despite the existence of racial gaps on other test domains, the Black-White gap in reading was not only very small, but the entire Black-White gap was fully explained when all variables were entered together (the gap became insignificant). The family/home model provided considerable explanation for the BW reading gap.; The racial gap was more accounted for by SES than the SES gap was accounted for by race. The most powerful home/family explanations included parents reading to children at home, number of books in the home, and teaching children about nature.