Childcare Type, Stability, School Readiness, Kindergarten Retention, English Proficiency, and the Early School Trajectories for Low-Income, Immigrant,

and/or Dual Language Learners (DLLs)

The Miami School Readiness Project (2002-2007)

Dr. Adam Winsler George Mason University, CREDITS, LC

Presentation given to ELCMDM Board Meeting April 2, 2012, Miami Florida

Partners

Roni Bader-Tables, Mike Conte, Dr. Juanita De La Cruz, Betty Key, Dr. Clarence Jones, Dr. Jerome Levitt, Nancy Musselwhite, Judith Parker, Dolores Mendoza

Evelio Torres, Blythe Robinson, Bethany Sands, Bruce Carrick, Paula Bender, Phyllis Ditlow, Warren Eldridge, Chuck Hood, Ana Pizano, Jonah Pruitt, Steve Rios, Ivette Torres, Mary Williams

Dr. Chuck Bleiker, Evelyn Borrell, Dr. Wendy Cheyney, Dr. Gail Gregg, Beatriz Hernandez, Dr. Louis Manfra, Walkiria Oliver, Linda Soden, Kathy Suarez-Espinosa, Dr. Sue Hartman, Dr. Laura Dinehart

Dr. Adam Winsler, Elif Bor, Kristin Cooper, Jennifer Crane, Mike Feder, Sue Hartman, Lindsey Hutchison, Jessica De Feyter, Yoon Kim, Amy Madigan, Amy Mattingly, Dr. Henry Tran, Danielle Mead, Arya Ansari, Carolina Loyola, Abby Carlson, Dr. Tim Curby, Deepti Gupta, Erin Richard

Partners (Continued)

Douglas Blomberg, Laurie Citraro, Nikki Giroux, Kathy Snyder

Ann de las Pozas, Karen Kluger, Lisa Fowler, Rosalyn Laney, Olivia Moya, Diane Simmons

Child Development Services - Iliana Acosta, Maria Binelo, Daisy Hensley, Edith Humes-Newbold, Theo Jackson, Porta Thompson

Modesto E. Abety-Gutierez, Dr. Lisa Pittman, Dr. Lori Hanson, Countess Chapman-Balogun

Miami School Readiness Project

The Miami School Readiness Project (2002-2007) was a county-wide, university-community collaborative program evaluation in which essentially the entire county population of children receiving subsidies to attend childcare and those attending public school pre-k programs were assessed for school readiness and followed into school. Goals: 1) Early identification of children/families in need of assistance who could benefit from additional school readiness interventions/support 2) Use of child assessment information to inform early childhood program planning, curricula, and quality enhancement initiatives

Miami School Readiness Project

FIU provided coordination and processing of assessments, training/professional development of providers/teachers/assessors, technical assistance

GMU provided: - Database organization and management - Data analyses - Secure web-based assessment reports distributed at child, classroom, center, agency, and zipcode levels) - Summary reports for stakeholder agencies ELCMDM funded initial (2002-2007) assessments and quality enhancement efforts The Children’s Trust funded 3 years (2007-2010) of longitudinal follow-up data

collection from MDCPS and analysis through FIU

Overview of MSRP

• Cohort-Sequential Longitudinal Design • Five cohorts (Total N ≈ 49,155)

ACADEMIC YEAR

COHORT 2002 2003

2003 2004

2004 2005

2005 2006

2006 2007

2007 2008

2008 2009

2009 2010

2010 2011

2011 2012

A Pre-K (n=6,892)

K (n=6,102)

1st (n=4,921)

2nd (n=4,918)

3rd (n=4,426)

4th (n=3,685)

5th (n=3,845) 6th 7th 8th

B Pre-K (n=8,549)

K (n=6,992)

1st (n=6,482)

2nd (n=5,817)

3rd (n=5,328)

4th (n=4,900) 5th 6th 7th

C Pre-K (n=11,000)

K (n=8,515)

1st (n=7,622)

2nd (n=6,970)

3rd (n=6,667) 4th 5th 6th

D Pre-K (n=10,939)

K (n=5,130)

1st (n=7,532)

2nd (n=7,132) 3rd 4th 5th

E Pre-K (n=8,850)

K (n=6,570)

1st (n=6,537) 2nd 3rd 4th

Cohort F+ (n ≈ 2,925 with child assessments ≤ age 3)

Preschool/Child Care Experiences at Age 3-4

• Community Child Care via Childcare Subsidies (n ≈ 21,500) (≈ 41% of total MSRP sample) - Center-Based Care (CBC) n ≈ 20,000 (≈ 90% of childcare sample) - Family Child Care (FCC) n ≈ 620 (≈ 3% of childcare sample) - Informal Care n ≈ 1,000 (≈ 7% of childcare sample) ≈24% Centers Accredited - Average ECERS Quality ≈ 4.92, k ≈ 288 • MDCPS Pre-Kindergarten Programs (pre-VPK) n ≈ 25,000 (≈ 51% of total MSRP sample) - Title-1 Public School (70% of MDCPS sample) - Fee-Supported (Non-Title 1 school) (30% of MDCPS sample) • MDCPS Pre-K program for Children with Disabilities (≈ 8% of total MSRP sample) - Children with disabilities (n ≈ 3,882) - Typically developing ‘Role Model’ children (n ≈ 353)

Demographic Description of Sample

52% Male 58% Latino/Hispanic (including ≈1% Hispanic/Mixed and ≈1% Hispanic Black) 36% Black/African American/Caribbean (including ≈1% Black/Mixed/ Hispanic) 7% White/Other/Asian/Mixed ≈ 78% Free or reduced lunch status in kindergarten ≈ $16,000 Family income (childcare subsidy recipients) ≈ 92% Single/unmarried parents (childcare subsidy recipients) 17% <High school education, 79% high school, 4% beyond high school 48% Immigrant Family (6% 1st generation [child], 42% 2nd generation [parent]) 52% Non-immigrant ≈ 52% English Language Learner (ELL) (Parent reports non English language at home at K registration AND child assessed by MDCPS for English proficiency)

Overview of Child Assessments

Age / Grade Domain Assessment

Pre School - Age 3 or 4 T1 (Aug/Sept) & T2 (April/May)

Cognitive, Language, Fine Motor, Gross Motor

LAP-D (Nehring et al., 1992) LAP-D Screen (Kaplan, 1997)

Pre School - Age 3 or 4 T1 (Aug/Sept) & T2 (April/May)

Socio-Emotional Skills Behavior Concerns

DECA (Lebuffe & Naglieri, 1999) Parent and Teacher Report

Early Kindergarten School Readiness

(Visual-Motor, Cognitive, Language, math, science, social studies, literacy, physical

fitness, creative arts, interpersonal)

ESI-R (Meisels et al., 1997) ECHOS/FLKRS (FL DOE, 2010)

Early Kindergarten Emergent (English) Literacy DIBELS (Good & Kaminski, 2002)

Kindergarten, 1st. 2nd. 3rd, 4th, 5th Grade+ Academic Performance End-of-Year Grades

2nd. 3rd Grade Standardized Math Standardized Reading SAT-10 (Pearson, 2003)

3rd, 4th, 5th Grade+ Standardized Math Standardized Reading

F-CAT (Human Resources Research Organization & Harcourt Assessment, 2007)

Kindergarten, 1st. 2nd. 3rd, 4th, 5th Grade+

Oral English Proficiency Oral Language Proficiency

Scale-Revised (OLPS-R, 1978)

Other Child Progress/Outcome Data from MDCPS

Available for all grades (K - 5+) Attendance (number days absent/tardy)

Delayed Entrance to Kindergarten

Retention in Grade

Number of School Suspensions

ELL status

Special education and gifted status (primary exceptionality)

Free/reduced lunch status

Publications to Date Winsler, A., Tran, H., Hartman, S., Madigan, A.L., Manfra, L., & Bleiker, C. (2008). School readiness

gains made by ethnically-diverse children in poverty attending center-based childcare and public school pre-kindergarten programs. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 23, 314-329.

De Feyter, J.J., & Winsler, A. (2009). The early developmental competencies and school readiness of low-income, immigrant children: Influences of generation, race/ethnicity, and national origins. Early Childhood Research Quarterly. 24, 411-431. De Feyter, J.J., & Winsler, A. (2009). Disentangling nativity status, race/ethnicity, and country of origin in predicting the school readiness of young immigrant children. In E. Grigorenko & R. Takanishi (Eds.), Immigration, diversity, and education (pp. 48-66). New York, NY: Routledge.

Crane, J., Mincic, M., & Winsler, A. (2011). Parent-teacher agreement and reliability on the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment (DECA) in English and Spanish for ethnically diverse children in poverty. Early Education and Development, 22 520-547.

Tran, H., & Winsler, A. (2011). Teacher and center stability and school readiness among low-income, ethnically diverse children in subsidized, center-based child care. Children and Youth Services Review. 33, 2241-2252.

Ansari, A., & Winsler, A. (in press). School readiness among low-income, Latino children attending family daycare versus center-based care. Early Child Development and Care.

Loyola, A-C., De Feyter, J.J., & Winsler, A. (in press). The school readiness of children born to low-income adolescent Latinas in Miami. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry.

Winsler, A., Hutchison, L., De Feyter, J.J. Manfra, L., Bleiker, C., Hartman, S., & Levitt, J. (in press). Child, family, and childcare predictors of delayed school entry and kindergarten retention among linguistically- and ethnically-diverse children. Developmental Psychology.

Manuscripts Submitted for Publication Morrissey, T., Hutchison, L., & Winsler, A. (in review). Family poverty, school attendance, and

academic achievement in early elementary school. Developmental Psychology.

Crane, J., Winsler, A., & Sands, B. (in review). Predictors of referral recommendations by teachers and clinicians for ethnically diverse, low-income children receiving childcare subsidies. Exceptional Children.

Kim, Y. K., Richard, E., & Winsler, A. (in review). Socio-emotional skills, behavior problems, and L1 competence predict the acquisition of English for English language learners in poverty. Developmental Psychology.

Carlson, A. G., Winsler, A., & Curby, T. W. (in review). Early fine motor skills predict third grade achievement among low-income, ethnically diverse children. Journal of Educational Psychology.

Manuscripts About to Submit for Publication Kim, Y.K., & Winsler, A. (in preparation). Child, family, and school characteristics related to English

proficiency development among low-income dual language learners (DLLs) in Miami. Child Development.

De Feyter, J.J., Hutchison, L., Hartman, S., & Winsler, A. (in preparation). The early elementary school achievement of immigrant children from low-income, urban families. Child Development.

De Feyter, J., Winsler, A., & Curby, T. (in preparation). School readiness, early achievement, and the role of English language proficiency for children in low-income immigrant families. Child Development.

Mead, D.L., Hutchison, L.A., Levitt, J., & Winsler, A. (in preparation). Effects of kindergarten retention on children’s academic performance through third grade for ethnically diverse, low-income children. Developmental Psychology.

Ansari, A., & Winsler, A. (in preparation). School readiness gains for children in poverty associated with child care type and quality.

Hartman, S.C., & Winsler, A. (in preparation). Behavioral concerns among low-income children in child care: Importance for school readiness and kindergarten achievement.

Winsler, A., Gupta, D., Kim, Y., & Levitt, J. (by invitation). Being black, male, and gifted in Miami: Prevalence and predictors of placement and long-term retention in elementary school gifted education programs. Urban Review. (Special Issue)

Other Related Papers Dinehart, L.H., Manfra, L., Katz, L.F., & Hartman, S.C. (2012). Associations between center-based

care accreditation status and the early educational outcomes of children in the child welfare system. Children and Youth Services Review, 34, 1072-1080.

Dinehart, L.H., & Manfra, L. (2012). Associations between low-income children’s fine motor skills in

preschool and academic performance in 2nd grade. Early Education and Development.

How are low-income children receiving subsidies to attend childcare doing at age 4, and how do their school readiness gains made in the pre-k year compare to those of children attending public school pre-k programs?

Question # 1

Winsler, A., Tran, H., Hartman, S., Madigan, A.L., Manfra, L., & Bleiker, C. (2008). School readiness gains made by ethnically-diverse children in poverty attending center-based childcare and public school pre-kindergarten programs. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 23, 314-329.

LAP-D Cognitive Total (2003-2004)

(Same significant pattern for language, and for other years)

Nat

iona

l Per

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ile

DECA Teacher - Total Socio-Emotional Protective Factors (2003-2004)

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l Per

cent

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DECA Teacher - Behavioral Concerns (2003-2004)

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l Per

cent

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DECA Parent - Total Protective Factors (2003-2004)

Nat

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DECA Parent - Behavioral Concerns (2003-2004)

Nat

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ile

• Children in poverty attending center-based childcare programs with the assistance of subsidies show school readiness challenges in the areas of cognitive and language skills and behavior problems, however, they do make impressive gains during their pre-kindergarten year. • Children in public school pre-K programs, with typically greater structural features of quality, show stronger school readiness gains than those in center-based childcare in the community. • Attending center-based childcare is not associated with increases in child behavior problems over time.

Q1 - Summary / Implications

• The LAP-D and DECA assessments showed high reliability and validity within this population of children. • Language of assessment (English, Spanish, Creole) did not matter much – same pattern of findings, and similar reliability regardless of language. • Parent-teacher agreement on child social skills and behavior (DECA) was similar to that found in other studies with other measures. • Slightly greater agreement between parents and teachers occurs when both complete the DECA in the same language.

Additional Findings from: Winsler, A., Tran, H., Hartman, S., Madigan, A.L., Manfra, L., & Bleiker, C. (2008). School readiness gains made by

ethnically-diverse children in poverty attending center-based childcare and public school pre-kindergarten programs. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 23, 314-329. Crane, J., Mincic, M., & Winsler, A. (2011). Parent-teacher agreement and reliability on the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment (DECA) in English and Spanish for ethnically diverse children in poverty. Early Education and Development, 22 520-547.

Do children who experience child care instability (change of teacher and/or center) across the pre-k year show poorer school readiness outcomes compared to those who do not experience such changes?

Question # 2

Tran, H., & Winsler, A. (2011). Teacher and center stability and school readiness among low-income, ethnically diverse children in subsidized, center-based child care. Children and Youth Services Review. 33, 2241-2252

Teacher Change • 41% of children had a new primary teacher/caregiver by T2 • Those who experienced a change of teacher had: - Lower cognitive, language, and fine motor skills overall - Lower teacher-reported initiative, self-control, and attachment, and higher behavior problems overall - Lower parent-reported initiative and self control overall - Slower gains over time in teacher-reported initiative and attachment Center Change • 8% of children (with T2 assessments) had changed centers from the beginning to the end of the school year • Those who experienced a change of center had: - Lower teacher-reported initiative and attachment overall - Higher language skills overall - Similar gains over time as those who stayed at the same center

Stability of Care Findings

Center Change by Ethnicity Interaction

Initiative declined specifically for African American children who experienced a change of center from T1 to T2

Teacher Change by Gender Interaction

Cognitive skills grew over time at a slower rate for boys who experienced a change in primary caregiver at their center

• Children receiving subsidies to attend child care in Miami-Dade (and elsewhere) experience considerable instability in teacher/center. • Experiencing a change of teacher or center was generally associated with poorer child school readiness, especially for boys, and for black children. • Efforts should be made to reduce teacher turnover and minimize childcare disruptions for children and families. • Although there are sometimes good reasons for families to change teachers/centers (goodness of fit for child, move to a better center, affordability), all other things being equal, it is likely best to avoid changing one’s child care arrangements.

Q2 Summary / Implications

Is the school readiness of Latino children different depending on whether they attend center-based care (CBC) or family child care (FCC)?

Ansari, A., & Winsler, A. (in press). School readiness among low-income, Latino children attending family daycare versus center-based care. Early Child Development and Care.

Question # 3

• Center-Based Care (CBC) is generally associated with higher quality and greater child cognitive and language development compared to Family Child Care (FCC), especially among low-income families. (Loeb et al., 2004)

• Nationwide (ie., among Mexican-origin Latinos in the Southwest and Puerto Ricans in NY), Latinos often show a preference for family childcare, which could be due to access/availability or to familial preference for Spanish-speaking caregivers. (Calderon, 2007; Fuller & Garcia Coll, 2010)

• So, in Miami, where Spanish-speaking caregivers are widely available, how different are those with subsidies who chose FCC vs. CBC, both on family background variables and child outcomes?

Why FDC and CBC Among Latinos?

Children Make Greater School Readiness Gains in CBC Compared to FCC

Cognitive Language

Fine Motor

Gender Differences are Larger in Family Child Care

CBC

Parent Report of Child Social Skills (DECA TPF)

Social Skills for Boys in Family Child Care Decline

• Family child care is an important, flexible, and necessary option for meeting the childcare needs of low-income Latino families, and when high in quality, children can thrive in this setting. •The school readiness of Latino children in Miami receiving childcare subsidies, however, appears to benefit more from attending center-based childcare programs, especially for boys. • Parent education is critical for families to make informed decisions about the type of childcare that is best for them. • Increased support, networking and coordination, and quality improvement programs for family childcare providers are known to be effective and lead to enhanced child outcomes.

Q3 Summary / Implications

How are low-income immigrant children doing at school entry, and how does their early school trajectory compare to native-born children?

De Feyter, J.J., & Winsler, A. (2009). The early developmental competencies and school readiness of low-income, immigrant children: Influences of generation, race/ethnicity, and national origins. Early Childhood Research Quarterly. 24, 411-431. De Feyter, J.J., & Winsler, A. (2009). Disentangling nativity status, race/ethnicity, and country of origin in predicting the school readiness of young immigrant children. In E. Grigorenko & R. Takanishi (Eds.), Immigration, diversity, and education (pp. 48-66). New York, NY: Routledge. De Feyter, J.J., Hutchison, L., Hartman, S., & Winsler, A. (in preparation). The early elementary school achievement of immigrant children from low-income, urban families. Child Development.

Question # 4

• “Immigrant advantage” = Immigrant children doing better than similar native-born children, perhaps due to greater social/family capital and strong motivation in immigrant families • “Immigrant paradox” = immigrant advantage weakens over time both within-child and across generations

Immigrant Families Three groups: • Non immigrant (child and parents born in US) n = 1,059 • 2nd generation (child born in US, parent born elsewhere) n = 982 • 1st generation (child and parent born outside US) n = 153

• Immigrant families were more likely to be married, have more parental education, have older parents and smaller families, more likely to be Latino/Hispanic, have less English proficiency, and are less likely to be in public school pre-k programs, compared to native families. • 2nd generation immigrant families have slightly more income, more likely to be Black, less likely to be married, and have less education, and higher English proficiency than 1st gen.

Language Skills by Generation/Nativity Status

• Immigrant children are behind native-born children in language skills

• 1st generation immigrant children are in better shape than 2nd generation immigrant children

• All are making good gains over time

Cognitive Skills by Generation/Nativity Status

• Immigrant children are behind native-born children in cognitive skills

• All are making good gains over time

Socio-Emotional Skills by Generation/Nativity Status

• Immigrant children (especially 1st generation) have especially strong social and emotional skills in the early childhood classroom

• All are making good gains over time

Behavior Problems by Generation/Nativity Status

• Immigrant children (especially 1st generation) have especially strong behavioral skills in the early childhood classroom

Grades in K and G1 by Immigrant Status

Immigrant children (especially 1st generation) are doing better in the early grades of school than native children

Attendance in K, G1, and G2, by Immigrant Status

Immigrant children are rarely absent or tardy for school compared to native children

SAT-10 Standardized Math and Reading Scores in Grade 2, by Immigrant Status

• Young immigrant children in Miami arrive to school with relative weaknesses in cognitive and language skills but strong strengths in social skills and good behavior. •Immigrant children outperform native-born children on most measures of academic performance from kindergarten through 3rd grade, including standardized tests (in English). “Immigrant advantage” • The longer immigrants children/families are in the US., the worse they do. “Immigrant paradox” • We need to find the positive things that are working well in recent immigrant families and young immigrant children and preserve them to help, both as children go through adolescence and as families progress across generations.

Q4 Summary / Implications

Age 4 School Readiness Skills

3rd Grade Achievement

Question # 5 Do age-four school readiness skills predict 3rd grade academic achievement for low-income children in immigrant and non-immigrant families in the same way?

Immigrant Status

Preschool Cognitive, Language, Fine Motor Skills, and Behavior Problems Do Predict Achievement in 3rd Grade

(and in the Same way for Immigrants and Non-Immigrants)

Preschool Social-Emotional Skills

Preschool Pre-Academic Skills

3rd Grade GPA

F-CAT Reading

F-CAT Math

Preschool Behavior Concerns

-.13*

-.08*

.31* .43*

.42*

ethnicity

maternal education

gender

income

family size

marital status

center type

X2(1, N = 2657) = 3086.85 p =.000 RMSEA = .06 NFI = .94 CFI = .94

Control Variables

Age 4 School Readiness Skills

3rd Grade Achievement

Timing of English Proficiency

Ethnicity (Black/Latino)

For children in immigrant families, is timing of English proficiency involved in the link between age-four school readiness and 3rd-grade achievement? Is this the same for Latino and Black families?

Question # 6

Age 4 Social-Emotional Skills

Age 4 Pre Academic Skills

3rd Grade GPA

F-CAT Reading

F-CAT Math

Age 4 Behavior Concerns

Timing of English Proficiency

-.12*

.31*

.39*

.42* -.24* -.17

-.11*

-.10* ethnicity

maternal education

gender

income

family size

marital status

center type

X2(88, N = 1328) = 788.33 p =.000 RMSEA = .08 NFI = .94 CFI = .94

B = .02*

B = .03*

B = .04*

Control Variables

Early Pre-Academic Skills Help Immigrant Children Acquire English Proficiency Earlier, Which Goes On To Help Them

Do Better in 3rd Grade (and in the Same Way for Black and Latino Children)

Q5-6 Summary / Implications School readiness assessments at age 4 are effective at identifying

children likely to have trouble or do well up to 5 years later, and they are valid for immigrant children as well.

Children’s early cognitive, language, and fine motor skills are important and relate to children’s 3rd grade performance directly, but also indirectly, by helping children to learn English more quickly.

Access to quality early education programs and child school readiness are crucial for low-income immigrant children who may not speak English well at kindergarten entry.

Behavior problems in preschool are particularly damaging to children’s later academic achievement - interventions are needed for children identified at age 4 by teachers as having behavior problems.

How quickly are low-income Dual Language Learners (DLLS) learning English, and what child, family, and school factors are associated with early English language proficiency?

Question # 7

Kim, Y. K., Richard, E., & Winsler, A. (in review). Socio-emotional skills, behavior problems, and L1 competence predict the acquisition of English for English language learners in poverty. Developmental Psychology.

Kim, Y.K., & Winsler, A. (in preparation). Child, family, and school characteristics related to English proficiency development among low-income dual language learners (DLLs) in Miami. Child Development.

English Acquisition Among DLLs

• Research is very clear that fully balanced bilinguals show strong cognitive and other advantages compared to monolinguals.

• But the research is largely based on older children/adults, and economically advantaged samples who already speak the valued L1 (English) and are learning an additional L2.

• Less is known about low-income Spanish-speaking young children tasked with both learning L2 (English) and doing well in early school.

Percentage of DLL Children Who Reach Full Oral English Proficiency, By Grade

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

100

Per

cent

age

Factors Associated with English Language Acquisition

• Being a girl (but this advantage in due to girls’ enhanced social and behavioral skills)

• English proficiency at kindergarten entry

• L1 (Spanish) competence

• Parental education, two parents present, and income

• Bigger elementary schools and those with fewer DLL students

• School readiness in preschool (Cognitive, Language, Motor, Socio-Emotional)

Children who go on to be bilingual in kindergarten are those with stronger socio-emotional and pre-

academic skills in preschool

36.7

26.2

58.97

65.51

52.33 56.95

29.74

20.5

48.22

66.97

50.97

55.17

41.06

31.08

60.95

73.49

58.05

45.66

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Cognitive Language Initiative Self-Control Attachment Behavior Concerns

Monolingual English

Monolingual Spanish

Emergent Bilingual Per

cent

ile

Q7 Summary / Implications

• DLL children are learning English just fine, as fast if not faster than in other communities (Cummins, 1996; Hakuta et al, 2000; Thomas & Collier, 1997)

• Greater L1 competence is associated with success in L2 – so fostering Spanish competence is good

• DLLs are diverse - Some children (those in poverty and with family risk factors) will take longer to reach full English Proficiency and we need to support them.

• Early exposure to English is good in preschool but maintaining Spanish is also key

What child, family, and preschool factors are associated with delayed kindergarten entry and kindergarten retention among low-income, ethnically diverse children in Miami?

Question # 8

Winsler, A., Hutchison, L., De Feyter, J.J. Manfra, L., Bleiker, C., Hartman, S., & Levitt, J. (in press). Child, family, and childcare predictors of delayed school entry and kindergarten retention among linguistically- and ethnically-diverse children. Developmental Psychology.

Delayed Entry into Kindergarten • Only 0.5% of low-income children delayed their entry into kindergarten , suggesting that holding children back a year is more of an issue for families with greater financial means. • Those who delayed entry into K : - Tended NOT to be in poverty - Were more likely to be native speakers of English - Were more often boys - Were in center-based childcare (as opposed to MDCPS pre-K) - Scored lower on all school readiness assessments

Kindergarten Retention Overall, 4.4% were retained (lower than many communities)

Q8 Summary / Implications

• Children retained in K were those who had the lowest school readiness assessments at age 4, suggesting that assessments in preschool are useful for predicting children likely to have trouble in kindergarten.

• Language and social skills uniquely predicted kindergarten retention after all other variables, including kindergarten performance, were included, suggesting the importance of these variables for kindergarten retention decisions.

• Boys, children in poverty, and children attending community childcare were more likely to be retained in K only because of children’s actual school readiness or performance in kindergarten.

What does the school readiness of children born to low-income teenage mothers in Miami look like?

Question # 9

Loyola, A-C., De Feyter, J.J., & Winsler, A. (in press). The school readiness of children born to low-income adolescent Latinas in Miami. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry.

Teen Parenting Findings

• 15% of subsidy receiving parents were teen parents ( age <= 19) when their care-receiving child was born. (Higher than national estimates including higher-income families, but lower than national rates for adolescent Latinas, and lower than that observed for Black and Caucasian parents in this study).

• Nonimmigrant (or 3rd+ generation) Latina parents were more likely to be pregnant as a teen than first-generation immigrant parents. “Immigrant advantage’

• Children of teen parents showed poorer school readiness (cog, lag) than those not of teen parents.

Teen Parenting Findings

• Completion of a HS diploma was associated with better child outcomes for both teen and adult parents alike

• The negative effects of teen parenting on child outcomes were only present (or larger) when there was low parent-child attachment present.

• Interventions for teen parents should focus on parent-child

attachment and school completion for the young mother.

What are the consequences of kindergarten retention? Is it helpful for those retained compared to similarly low-performing children who are promoted?

Question # 10

Mead, D.L., Hutchison, L.A., Levitt, J., & Winsler, A. (in preparation). Effects of kindergarten retention on children’s academic performance through third grade for ethnically diverse, low-income children. Developmental Psychology.

Kindergarten Retention

• It is difficult to get a reasonable control group for kindergarten retention research because those retained are typically systematically different from those promoted.

• We compared children retained in K with a good comparison group of those who performed similarly poorly in K but were promoted anyway.

• Children retained in kindergarten did better on practically all

child outcomes from K to grade 3 including standardized FCAT scores, compared to similarly low-performing student in K who were promoted. Thus K retention might be OK for really at-risk low-income students like those in this study.

• The positive outcomes of retention were only found for typically

developing children without disabilities.