Early Education Program Racial and Ethnic Composition and Associations with Quality and Children’s Language and Social-Emotional Development

ABSTRACT

This study identified patterns of classroom and family experiences and developmental outcomes for young children in segregated early education. This study is based on data from a high-quality early education program serving young children from low-income households in 19 schools across the U.S. The sample included 1,521 children during the 2016–2017 school year. The analysis examined patterns of association between the racial/ethnic composition of Educare sites and family risk factors, classroom quality, and children’s language and social-emotional performance and growth across the academic year. Research Findings: Findings indicated that although classroom quality, measured through traditional tools, did not vary by school racial/ethnic composition, sociodemographic risk factors, children’s language and social-emotional outcomes did vary by this variable. Practice or Policy: We discuss our results in relation to promotive and inhibitive processed within and outside early education programs, as well as the continued impact of structural equities and lack of culturally responsive pedagogy on children’s learning opportunities and development.

Acknowledgments

This work was reviewed and approved by the Educare Learning Network. The authors are current or past researchers in the Educare Learning Network. However, the content of this paper is solely the authors’ ideas and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Educare Learning Network and its funders.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. We use Black as a pan-ethnic description of anyone from the African diaspora including, but not exclusively limited to, African Americans, Africans, Afro-Caribbeans, Afro-Latino/a, or any other group that identifies as Black and/or having any ancestral heritage from Africa.

2. Consistent with experts in the field, we use Latine to refer to individuals whose cultural background originated in Latin America. In U.S. academic circles, Latinx is being used as a gender-inclusive term to refer to people from Latin American backgrounds, but Spanish-speakers find that Latinx is unpronounceable in Spanish. Therefore, we have opted to use the gender-inclusive term Latine, commonly used throughout Spanish-speaking Latin American (Melzi et al., 2020).