Racial/ethnic differences in kindergartners' reading and math skills: Parents' knowledge of children's development and home‐based activities as mediators

Abstract

Despite the growing body of research on parents' beliefs and practices, relatively little is known about the relations between parents' knowledge of children's development, home‐based activities, and children's early reading and math skills. This study used data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study‐Birth Cohort to examine the differences in Asian, Black, Latino, and White children's early reading and math skills at kindergarten entry and whether parents' knowledge of children's development and home‐based activities mediate the relation. Parents' knowledge of children's development was assessed when children were 9 months. Home‐based activities, including home literacy and enrichment, were assessed when children were preschool age. Asian and White children started kindergarten with significantly higher reading and math scores than Black or Latino children. There also were significant differences across groups in the frequency of engagement in home literacy and enrichment activities. Associations between race/ethnicity and reading/math scores were mediated by parents' knowledge of children's development and home literacy activities. Discussion addresses the importance of parents' knowledge of educationally relevant activities and how to engage in such activities to foster children's reading and math skills and to close racial/ethnic gaps. Highlights This paper examined racial/ethnic difference in children's reading and math skills in kindergarten and explores whether parents' knowledge of children's development and home‐based activities mediate the relation between race/ethnicity and children's reading and math skills. By using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Birth Cohort, this study found that there were systematic racial/ethnic differences in parents' knowledge of children's development, home‐based activities, and children's reading and math skills at the start of kindergarten. Parents' knowledge of children's development and home‐based activities were found to mediate the association between race/ethnicity and children's reading and math skills for all groups.

Academic socialization and the transition to kindergarten: Parental beliefs about school readiness and involvement

“…This finding is consistent with results from Puccioni (), who analysed data from ECLS‐B and found that parents of colour reported engaging in fewer home‐based involvement practices with their children during preschool in comparison to European American parents from similar socio‐economic backgrounds. One plausible explanation for variation in parents' home‐based involvement during early childhood may stem from differences in cultural perspectives about academic socialization in general and child development more specifically (Sonnenschein & Sun, ; Yamamoto & Sonnenschein, ). For example, Sonnenschein and Sun () analysis of data from ECLS‐B demonstrated that parents' knowledge of child development and home‐based involvement practices mediated the association between race/ethnicity and children's reading and mathematics achievement.…”

“…One plausible explanation for variation in parents' home‐based involvement during early childhood may stem from differences in cultural perspectives about academic socialization in general and child development more specifically (Sonnenschein & Sun, ; Yamamoto & Sonnenschein, ). For example, Sonnenschein and Sun () analysis of data from ECLS‐B demonstrated that parents' knowledge of child development and home‐based involvement practices mediated the association between race/ethnicity and children's reading and mathematics achievement. Future research should explore parents' beliefs about child development and school readiness simultaneously to further understand the ways in which parents' beliefs and expectations shape their practices and children's early learning and socio‐emotional competencies.…”

Children’s Block-Building Skills and Mother-Child Block-Building Interactions Across Four U.S. Ethnic Groups

“…A greater percentage of Chinese than Latino 4- to 6-year-olds in the United States engaged in block building at home at least once a week (56.4 vs. 45.9%; Sonnenschein et al, 2018). In contrast, when Black, Latino, and Asian parents were asked how often their children played with blocks, although in the context of many other activities, no differences were found (Sonnenschein and Sun, 2017). Thus, whether ethnic differences exist between Black, Chinese and Latino children in block-building performance and parent-child block-building behaviors remains relatively unexplored.…”

“…The 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) math assessment revealed that 4th and 8th grade Asian students score higher than Black and Latino students (Gonzalez and Kuenzi, 2012). Even by school entry, Asian kindergarteners’ math performance is higher than that of Black and Latino kindergarteners (Sonnenschein and Sun, 2017).…”

Why are the early elementary race/ethnicity test score gaps in science larger than those in reading or mathematics? National evidence on the importance of language and immigration context in explaining the gap‐in‐gaps

“…Additionally, home contexts could lead to differential exposure to both informal learning as well as formal early childhood education contexts outside of the home. For instance, exposure to home learning activities has been shown to vary by race/ethnicity as has access to preschool (Curran, ; Sonnenschein & Sun, ). In short, then, there are a variety of individual, familial, and cultural contextual factors as well as differences in informal and formal science learning opportunities that may explain differences in early test score gaps in science relative to other subjects.…”