Arya Ansari

School readiness among low-income, Latino children attending family childcare versus centre-based care

Latino children often struggle in school. Early childhood education programmes are seen as critical for fostering childrens school readiness. Latino families often choose family childcare (FCC) over centre-based childcare (CBC), yet little is known about the school readiness of Latino children attending FCC. We compared school readiness over the pre-kindergarten year for low-income Latino children who attended either FCC or CBC with childcare subsidies. Teachers and parents rated childrens social skills and behaviour with the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment. Cognitive, motor, and language development were assessed with the Learning Accomplishment Profile Diagnostic. Although there were no family demographic differences between children who attended FCC versus CBC, children in CBC improved over time in cognitive, language, and social skills, whereas children in FCC stayed the same or lost ground in these areas over time, especially boys. The school readiness of Latino children, especially boys, may be better served by attending CBC.

The Selection of Children from Low-Income Families into Preschool.

Because children from low-income families benefit from preschool but are less likely than other children to enroll, identifying factors that promote their enrollment can support research and policy aiming to reduce socioeconomic disparities in education. In this study, we tested an accommodations model with data on 6,250 children in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort. In general, parental necessity (e.g., maternal employment) and human capital considerations (e.g., maternal education) most consistently predicted preschool enrollment among children from low-income families. Supply side factors (e.g., local child care options) and more necessity and human capital factors (e.g., having fewer children, desiring preparation for school) selected such children into preschool over parental care or other care arrangements, and several necessity factors (e.g., being less concerned about costs) selected them into non-Head Start preschools over Head Start programs. Systemic connections and child elicitation did not consistently predict preschool enrollment in this population.

Classroom Age Composition and the School Readiness of 3- and 4-Year-Olds in the Head Start Program

The federal Head Start program, designed to improve the school readiness of children from low-income families, often serves 3- and 4-year-olds in the same classrooms. Given the developmental differences between 3- and 4-year-olds, it is unknown whether educating them together in the same classrooms benefits one group, both, or neither. Using data from the Family and Child Experiences Survey 2009 cohort, this study used a peer-effects framework to examine the associations between mixed-age classrooms and the school readiness of a nationally representative sample of newly enrolled 3-year-olds (n = 1,644) and 4-year-olds (n = 1,185) in the Head Start program. Results revealed that 4-year-olds displayed fewer gains in academic skills during the preschool year when they were enrolled in classrooms with more 3-year-olds; effect sizes corresponded to 4 to 5 months of academic development. In contrast, classroom age composition was not consistently associated with 3-year-olds’ school readiness.

Combating obesity in head start: Outdoor play and change in children's body mass index

Objective: To determine whether increased outdoor play time at Head Start was associated with greater changes in body mass index (BMI) over the course of a preschool year. Method: The authors used data from 2810 children from the Family and Child Experiences Survey 2006 cohort. With childrens spring BMI as the outcome (both continuously measured and dichotomized to measure the risk of obesity), the authors conducted weighted regression analyses, controlling for child-level, family-level, and school-level covariates, including preschool entry BMI. Results: Children played outdoors at school for roughly 37 minutes per day, with little variation across half-day and full-day programs. The more children played outdoors, the more their BMI decreased over the preschool year (&bgr; = −.05, 95% confidence interval (CI) [−0.08 to −0.01]) and the less likely they were to be obese (odds ratio = 0.99, 95% CI [0.98–0.99]). The difference between high levels and low levels of outdoor play corresponded to 0.18 BMI points and a 42% reduction in childrens risk of obesity. Sixty minutes was the “tipping point” for the association between outdoor play time and improvements in childrens BMI. These associations were also stronger among children who were obese at the start of the year, less active at home, and living in unsafe neighborhoods. Conclusion: Outdoor play time at Head Start is associated with decreases in childrens BMI scores and, thus, may serve as an important means of preventing obesity. Head Start programs should consider establishing clear guidelines encouraging more outdoor time.

Strengthening Causal Estimates for Links Between Spanking and Children’s Externalizing Behavior Problems:

Establishing causal links when experiments are not feasible is an important challenge for psychology researchers. The question of whether parents’ spanking causes children’s externalizing behavior problems poses such a challenge because randomized experiments of spanking are unethical, and correlational studies cannot rule out potential selection factors. This study used propensity score matching based on the lifetime prevalence and recent incidence of spanking in a large and nationally representative sample (N = 12,112) as well as lagged dependent variables to get as close to causal estimates outside an experiment as possible. Whether children were spanked at the age of 5 years predicted increases in externalizing behavior problems by ages 6 and 8, even after the groups based on spanking prevalence or incidence were matched on a range of sociodemographic, family, and cultural characteristics and children’s initial behavior problems. These statistically rigorous methods yield the conclusion that spanking predicts a deterioration of children’s externalizing behavior over time.

The persistence of preschool effects from early childhood through adolescence.

Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Cohort of 1998 (n = 15,070), this study used propensity scores to examine the short- and long-term academic and psychosocial benefits of preschool education for a diverse sample of middle-class children. Compared with children who attended informal care at age 4, preschool attendees consistently performed better on achievement tests from age 5 through early adolescence, but exhibited less optimal psychosocial skills. These negative behavioral effects of preschool were concentrated among children who attended preschool for 20 or more hours per week, but otherwise, there was little evidence of heterogeneity as a function of program type or child- and family characteristics. The long-term academic advantages of preschool were, however, largely explained by their positive effects on academic skills early in formal schooling and there was evidence for convergence in children’s academic test scores, which was partially attributed to the differences in children’s social skills during the early elementary school years.

Multigrade kindergarten classrooms and children's academic achievement, executive function, and socioemotional development

Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Class of 2010-2011 (ECLS-K: 2011; n = 11,000), this study examined the developmental outcomes of 5-year-old children in multi-grade classrooms (combined pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classrooms serving 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds) compared with 5-year-olds attending kindergarten-only classrooms serving primarily 5-year-olds. Results from regression and propensity score analyses revealed that 5-year-old children who attended multi-grade classrooms with pre-kindergarteners made smaller gains in math and literacy skills and demonstrated less optimal executive function at the end of the school year as compared with children who attended kindergarten-only classrooms. Classroom-level factors largely explained the differences in childrens academic achievement but did not consistently explain differences in their executive functioning. No consistent differences emerged for childrens social-behavioral development.

Teacher–child interaction quality as a function of classroom age diversity and teachers’ beliefs and qualifications

ABSTRACT Data from 332 teachers who participated in the National Center for Research on Early Childhood Education study were used to examine the implications of classroom age diversity in preschool programs for teacher interactions with students in areas of instructional and emotional support, and classroom organization. Teachers in early childhood classrooms with greater age diversity within a school year and who experienced an increase in age diversity across years exhibited less optimal teacher–child interactions. The negative effects of age diversity for teacher–child interactions were only noticeable among teachers with fewer years of education and experience, and among teachers whose views of children were less child-centered. When taken together, results indicate that closer attention should be paid to the consequences of classroom age diversity in preschool and that a multi-year perspective on teachers’ classroom experiences would allow for a more nuanced understanding of the quality of teacher–child interactions.

Classroom Age Composition and Preschoolers’ School Readiness: The Implications of Classroom Quality and Teacher Qualifications:

Recent research has shown that the age composition of preschool classrooms influences children’s early learning. Building on prior research, this study examines whether the association between classroom age composition and children’s learning and development vary based on classroom quality and teacher characteristics using a subset of the Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES), a nationally representative sample of 3- and 4-year-old children attending Head Start (n = 2,829). Results revealed that the association between age composition and children’s academic skills was dependent on classroom quality and that classroom quality was less predictive of children’s skills in mixed-age classrooms. Teacher education but not experience also moderated the influence of age composition such that mixed-age classrooms taught by a teacher with higher education were not associated with decreased literacy gains among older children.

School Absenteeism through the Transition to Kindergarten

ABSTRACT Using nationally representative data from the Family and Child Experiences Survey 2009 Cohort (n = 2,798), this study examined patterns of absenteeism and their consequences through the transition to kindergarten. Overall, children were less likely to be absent in kindergarten than from Head Start at ages 3 and 4. Absenteeism was fairly stable across these early years, but children who experienced two years of Head Start were less likely to be absent in kindergarten than their classmates who only attended the program for one year. Ultimately, absenteeism at both ages 3 and 4 was associated with lower math and literacy achievement. However, children who experienced two years of Head Start and were more frequently absent demonstrated greater language development through the end of kindergarten as compared with children who only attended the program for one year. Policy implications are discussed in light of the complexity of early childhood education attendance in the United States.