Do family investments explain growing socioeconomic disparities in children’s reading, math, and science achievement during school versus summer months?

Abstract

In the face of rising economic and social inequality, American parents increasingly seek to promote their children's academic achievement through provision of enriching learning opportunities. In this study, we hypothesized that parental investments in both home and out-of-home learning resources may partially explain socioeconomic disparities in children's academic skills, and may function differently during school versus summer months. Using data drawn from the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Cohort of 2010 -2011 (N Ϸ 4,000), we assessed children's reading, math, and science skills from kindergarten entry through second grade, attending to how achievement gaps shifted during school versus summer months. Multilevel piecewise latent growth models identified significant, small socioeconomic status (SES) gaps in children's academic skills at kindergarten entry. These initial SES gaps remained stable for reading skills, grew during school months for science skills, and grew during summer months for math skills. Significant, small family SES disparities in home reading-based learning activities, out-of-home enrichment activities, TV/video time, and time in summer camps/child care programs also emerged, helping to explain growth in SES achievement gaps. Specifically, growing SES gaps in science skills appeared driven in part through school-year home learning activities and summer out-of-home enrichment activities. Growing SES gaps in math skills also functioned in part through summer out-of-home enrichment activities. Results suggest the importance of enhancing year-round investments across home, school, and community contexts to support the school success of economically disadvantaged children. Educational Impact and Implications StatementEarly academic skills are essential for setting children on a trajectory of academic, and eventually, career and life success. As such, socioeconomic gaps in early academic skills are of significant concern. This study used data from a nationally representative sample of approximately 4,000 children to show that children from economically disadvantaged families start school with small but significant detriments in reading, math, and science skills compared to their more advantaged peers and fall further behind in math and science skills during their early years of schooling. The results further found that disparities in children's exposure to home learning activities such as reading, as well as out-of-home enrichment activities such as going to libraries, museums, and zoos, were partially responsible for growing gaps in science and math skills between children from lower and higher SES families. These results highlight the importance of increasing children's exposure to learning opportunities and resources, particularly among children from economically disadvantaged families.

Students home alone—profiles of internal and external conditions associated with mathematics learning from home

“…Regarding direct family support, both the teacher- and the family-supported profiles reported frequent assistance by family members during math learning. A supportive home learning environment—including a dedicated study place at home—can be considered an important protective factor compensating for missing routines and assistance during remote schooling (Andrew et al, 2020 ; Coley et al, 2020 ; Köller et al, 2020 ). Students in the high internal profile might have indicated lower direct family support for math learning because they did not perceive a high need for external support given their high internal resources.…”

“…There is already evidence that the guidance and structure provided by teachers outside the regular school context varies considerably (Eickelmann & Drossel, 2020 ; Ortiz, 2020 ). In addition to teachers’ provision of material and guidance during remote learning, the home learning environment—i.e., external support from the students’ social environment—might, in parts, compensate for the lack of structure and assistance during remote schooling (Coley et al, 2020 ). Factors internal to the student have to be considered as well when describing resources available in the face of learning mathematics from home.…”

“…These internal and external factors that directly reflect students’ experiences during remote schooling ( specific home learning conditions ) can be connected to more general internal and external conditions related to mathematics instruction and learning ( general learning conditions ). Among those conditions are internal factors such as students’ engagement or interest, and self-concept regarding mathematics (e.g., Broadbent, 2017 ; Broadbent & Poon, 2015 ; Fischer et al, 2020 ), as well as the family’s SES (e.g., Coley et al, 2020 ). In the next sections, we provide further details on the specific home learning conditions and general learning conditions considered in this study to investigate systematic differences in the resources that are available to the students when learning mathematics from home.…”

“…While SES skills gaps in science grew during the school year, skills gaps in math intensified during the summer months. Family investments involving home learning activities and out-of-home enrichment activities could partly explain exacerbation of SES performance gaps (Coley et al, 2020 ). Data from Switzerland and Germany, gathered during the COVID-19 pandemic, indicate reductions in children’s studying time of more than 3 h per day.…”

Predicting pathways to optional summer science experiences by socioeconomic status and the impact on science attitudes and skills

“…However, socioeconomic status still appears to play a role in summer learning opportunities. Many studies show that higher and lower SES students show similar academic growth during the school year, but higher SES students outpace lower SES students during the summer, also known as summer learning loss (Alexander, Entwisle, & Olson, 2007;Coley, Kruzik, & Votruba-Drzal, 2019). These differential summer changes are a large contributor to the achievement gap between low-income students and their middle-and upper-class peers, with students at the 10th percentile of the income distribution scoring 1.3 standard deviations lower on average than students at the 90th percentile of the income distribution in math and reading tests (Reardon, 2011).…”