This investigation tested the importance of early academic achievement for later achievement trajectories among 18,011 students grouped by level of socioeconomic risk. Students considered to be at highest risk were those who experienced homelessness or high residential mobility (HHM). HHM students were compared with students eligible for free meals, students eligible for reduced price meals, and students who were neither HHM nor low income.Socioeconomic risk and oral reading ability in first grade predicted growth of reading and math achievement in Grades 3 through 8.Risk status predicted achievement beyond the effects of early reading scores and also moderated the prediction of later growth in reading achievement from early oral reading. Results underscore the early emergence and persistence of achievement gaps related to poverty, the high and accumulating risk for HHM students, and the significance of oral reading in first grade as both an early indicator of risk and a potential protective factor.

The role of effective parenting in promoting child executive functioning and school success was examined among 138 children (age 4 to 6 years) staying in family emergency shelters the summer before kindergarten or first grade. Parent-child coregulation, which refers to relationship processes wherein parents guide and respond to the behavior of their children, was observed during structured interaction tasks and quantified as a dyadic construct using state space grid methodology. Positive coregulation was related to children’s executive functioning and IQ, which in turn were related to teacher-reported outcomes once school began. Separate models considering parenting behavior demonstrated that EF carried indirect effects of parents’ directive control to school outcomes. Meanwhile, responsive parenting behaviors directly predicted children’s peer acceptance at school beyond effects of EF and IQ. Findings support theory and past research in developmental science indicating the importance of effective parenting in shaping positive adaptive skills among children who overcome adversity, in part through processes of coregulation.

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