| Nikki Aikens
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Out-of-school and within-school influences on socioeconomic differences in reading trajectories
FINAL REPORT:
The present study sought to examine the ways in which socioeconomic disadvantage impacts children not only through the family, but also through what happens to them in the school and the neighborhood by using nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K). In addition, the study assessed whether the family, neighborhood, or school context was more predictive of socioeconomic differences in reading achievement and how the salience of these contexts changed during the first four years of schooling. Through the use of hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) techniques, growth models captured the differential impact of these settings to children's reading achievement from the kindergarten to third grade year.
The results indicated that socioeconomic differences in reading performance existed at the entry to kindergarten, with low-SES children scoring lower in reading and learning at slower rates during the kindergarten to third grade period than their more affluent counterparts. By the end of third grade, the achievement gap widened. Moreover, although all three contexts (families, neighborhoods, and schools) contributed to the achievement gap, family characteristics made the largest contribution to the prediction of disparities. The influence of the family context was strongest when children began kindergarten, and it was reduced by the end of the first grade year. Notably, the family context was the only setting that contributed to SES gaps in learning rates. Neighborhoods and schools both contributed to the achievement gap, but the impact of schools was greater than that of neighborhoods. Furthermore, the influence of the school and neighborhood on achievement disparities increased in the year following kindergarten. Finally, descriptive analyses indicated that the relative deprivation low-SES children experienced in familial income and social resources were reinforced by the lower quality neighborhoods they lived in and schools they attended.
The findings imply that multiple adverse contexts combine to influence young children's development and academic achievement. Accordingly, efforts to ameliorate the achievement gap must address all three contexts. Nevertheless, given the salience of the family context, policy and intervention may be best served by improving non-school aspects of children's lives, including the multitude of forces occurring outside of the home that shape parents' behaviors, beliefs, and resources.
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