Early childhood care and education: Effects on ethnic and racial gaps in school readiness

Future of Children

Volumn 15, Issue 1, 2005, Pages 169-196

  Magnuson, Katherine A ^a   Waldfogel, Jane ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN MADISON   (United States)

^b Och Spine at New York Presbyterian Hospitals   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CHILD CARE; CHILDHOOD; EDUCATION; ETHNIC DIFFERENCE; HEALTH CARE POLICY; HEALTH CARE QUALITY; HUMAN; RACE DIFFERENCE; REVIEW; SCHOOL;

AFRICAN AMERICANS; CHILD DEVELOPMENT; CHILD, PRESCHOOL; EARLY INTERVENTION (EDUCATION); EUROPEAN CONTINENTAL ANCESTRY GROUP; FEMALE; HISPANIC AMERICANS; HUMANS; MALE; PUBLIC POLICY; READING; SCHOOL ADMISSION CRITERIA; SCHOOLS, NURSERY; SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS; STUDENTS; UNITED STATES;

EID: 28044437535     PISSN: 10548289     EISSN: 15501558     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/foc.2005.0005     Document Type: Review

References (134)

1. NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, "Early Child Care and Children's Development prior to School Entry: Results from NICHD Study of Early Child Care," American Educational Research Journal 39 (2002): 133-64.
2. Few prior studies have explicitly considered these questions. For general discussions, see David Grissmer, Ann Flanagan, and Stephanie Williamson, "Why Did the Black-White Score Gap Narrow in the 1970s and 1980s?" in The Black-White Test Score Gap, edited by Christopher Jencks and Meredith Phillips (Brookings, 1998), pp. 182-226;
3. Marcia K. Meyers and others, "Inequality in Early Childhood Education and Care: What Do We Know?" in Social Inequality, edited by Kathryn M. Neckerman (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2004).
4. Cynthia T. Garcia Coll and others, "An Integrative Model for the Study of Developmental Competencies in Minority Children," Child Development 67 (1996): 1891-914. The racial and ethnic categories and terms we use in this article reflect the terminology and categorizations used in the bulk of studies we review.
5. Alejandro Portes and Ruben Rumbaut, Ethnicities: Children of Immigrants in America (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2003). Unfortunately, few studies distinguish among Hispanic children based on characteristics such as immigration status or language ability, so this review is unable to make these important distinctions.
6. Garcia Coll and others, "An Integrative Model" (see note 3).
7. Child care subsidy programs reach only a small share of eligible children: in 1998, only about 15 percent of eligible low-income families.
8. Forum on Childhood Family Statistics, "America's Children in Hrief: Key National Indicators of Wellbeing." Accessed from http://childstats.gov, on November 3, 2004.
9. Gina Adams and Monica Rohacek, "More than a Work Support? Issues around Integrating Child Development Goals into the Child Care Subsidy System," Early Childhood Research Quarterly 17 (2002):418-40;
10. Suzanne W. Helburn and Barbara Bergmann, America's Child Care Problem (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2002).
11. NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, "Child Care Structure → Process → Outcome: Direct and Indirect Effects of Child-Care Quality on Young Children's Development," Psychological Science 13 (2002): 199-206;
12. NICHD Early Child Care Research Network and Greg J. Duncan, "Modeling the Impacts of Child Care Quality on Children's Preschool Cognitive Development," Child Development 74 (2003): 1454-75.
13. Nicholas Zill and others, Head Start FACES: A Whole Child Perspective on Program Performance (U.S. Department for Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, 2003).
14. Helburn and Hergmann, America's Child Care Problem (see note 8);
15. Eugene Smolensky and Jennifer A. Gootman, eds., Working Families and Growing Kids: Caring for Children and Adolescents (Washington: National Academy Press, 2003).
16. NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, "Child Care Structure → Process → Outcome" (see note 9);
17. Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal, Rebecca L. Coley and P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, "Child Care and Low-Income Children's Development: Direct and Moderated Effects," Child Development 75 (2004): 296-312.
18. See recent reviews in David Blau, The Child Care Problem (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2001);
19. Helburn and Bergmann, America's Child Care Problem (see note 8);
20. Smolensky and Gootman, Working Families and Growing Kids (see note 11).
21. Suzanne W. Helburn, ed., Cost, Quality, and Child Outcomes in Child Care Centers: Technical Report (University of Colorado at Denver, Department of Economics, Center for Research in Economic and Social Policy, 1995).
22. NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, "Early Child Care and Children's Development prior to School Entry" (see note 1);
23. NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, "Child Care Structure → Process → Outcome" (see note 9).
24. In 2003, 12.5 percent of children in Head Start programs had disabilities.
25. A small number of children under the age of three are served by the Early Head Start program, which began in 1995.
26. These estimates are based on the number of funded Head Start slots and the U.S. poverty rates; see Janet Currie and Mathew Neidell, "Getting Inside the 'Black Box' of Head Start Quality: What Matters and What Doesn't," Working Paper 10091 (Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2003).
27. Zill and others, Head Start FACES (see note 10).
28. Carol H. Ripple and others, "Will Fifty Cooks Spoil the Broth?" American Psychologist 54 (1999): 327-43;
29. Edward Zigler and Sally. J. Styfco, "Head Start: Criticisms in a Constructive Context," American Psychologist 49 (1994): 127-32.
30. Private schools also offer such programs for a fee, but to simplify our discussions we use "prekindergarten" to refer to publicly funded programs.
31. Ripple and others, "Will Fifty Cooks Spoil the Broth?" (see note 20);
32. Karen Schulman, Helen Blank, and Danielle Ewen, Seeds of Success: State Prekindergarten Initiatives 1998-1999 (Washington: Children's Defense Fund, 1999).
33. "Quality Counts 2002: Building Blocks for Success," Education Week 21, no. 17 (January 10, 2002) (www.edweek.org/sreports/qc02/templates/ article.cfm?slug=17exec.h21[June 27, 2003]).
34. "Quality Counts 2002" (see note 23);
35. Schulman, Blank, and Ewen, Seeds of Success (see note 22);
36. Ripple and others, "Will Fifty Cooks Spoil the Broth?" (see note 20).
37. William Gilliam and Edward Zigler, "State Efforts to Evaluate the Effects of Prekindergarten," mimeo, Yale University, 2004;
38. Timothy Smith and others, Prekindergarten in U.S. Public Schools (U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2003).
39. Ripple and others, "Will Fifty Cooks Spoil the Broth?" (see note 20).
40. Smith and others, Prekindergarten in U.S. Public Schools (see note 25).
41. Blau, The Child Care Problem (see note 13).
42. Dan Bellm and others, Inside the Pre-K Classroom: A Study of Staffing and Stability in State-Funded Prekindergarten Programs (Washington: Center for the Child Care Workforce, 2002).
43. Gary Henry and others, Report of the Findings from the Early Childhood Study (Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University, 2003).
44. Cynthia Esposito Lamy and others, "Inch by Inch, Row by Row, Gonna Make This Garden Grow: Classroom Quality and Language Skills in the Abott Preschool Program," Working Paper (National Institute for Early Education Research, Rutgers University, 2004).
45. W. Steven Barnett, "Long-Term Effects of Early Childhood Programs on Cognitive and School Outcomes," The Future of Children 5, no. 3 (1995): 25-50;
46. Blau, The Child Care Problem (see note 13).
47. Barnett, "Long-Term Effects of Early Childhood Programs on Cognitive and School Outcomes" (see note 32)
48. Janet Currie, "Early Childhood Intervention Programs: What Do We Know?" Journal of Economic Perspectives 15 (2001): 213-38;
49. Lynn A. Karoly and others, Investing in Our Children: What We Do and Don't Know about the Costs and Benefits of Early Childhood Interventions (Santa Monica, Calif.: RAND, 1998);
50. Jane Waldfogel, "Child Care, Women's Employment and Child Outcomes," Journal of Population Economics 15 (2002): 527-48.
51. Cecilia McCarton and others, "Results at Age 8 Years of Early Intervention for Low-Hirth-Weight Premature Infants: The Infant Health and Development Program, "Journal of the American Medical Association 277 (1997): 126-32.
52. Jeanne Brooks-Gunn and others, "Enhancing the Cognitive Outcomes of Low Birth Weight, Premature Infants: For Whom Is Intervention Most Effective?" Pediatrics 89 (992): 1209-15.
53. Frances A. Campbell and Craig T. Ramey "Cognitive and School Outcomes for High-Risk African American Students at Middle Adolescence: Positive Effects of Early Intervention," American Educational Research Journal 32 (1995): 743-72;
54. Craig T. Ramey and others, Early Learning, Later Success: The Abecedarian Study (Chapel Hill, N.C.: Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, 1999).
55. Barnett, "Long-Term Effects of Early Childhood Programs on Cognitive and School Outcomes" (see note 32);
56. Karoly and others, Investing in Our Children (see note 33);
57. Waldfogel, "Child Care, Women's Employment and Child Outcomes" (see note 33).
58. Lawrence J. Schweinhart, Helen V. Barnes, and David P. Weikart, Significant Benefits of the High-Scope Perry Preschool Study through Age 27 (Ypsilanti, Mich.: High-Scope Press, 1993).
59. McCarton and others, "Results at Age 8 Years of Early Intervention for Low-Birth-Weight Premature Infants" (see note 34).
60. Hiro Yoshikawa, "Prevention as Cumulative Protection: Effects of Early Family Support and Education as Chronic Delinquency and Its Risk," Psychological Bulletin 115 (1994): 28-54.
61. Michael Foster, "Trends in Multiple and Overlapping Disadvantages among Head Start Enrollees," Children and Youth Services Review 24 (2002): 933-54.
62. Ron Haskins, "Beyond Metaphor: The Efficacy of Early Childhood Education," American Psychologist 44 (1989): 274-82;
63. Ruth H. McKey The Impact of Head Start on Children (Department of Health and Human Services: Government Printing Office, 1985).
64. Valerie Lee and others, "Are Head Start Effects Sustained? A Longitudinal Follow-Up of Disadvantaged Children Attending Head Start, No Preschool, and Other Preschool Programs," Child Development 61 (1990): 495-507.
65. Janet Currie and Duncan Thomas, "Does Head Start Make a Difference?" American Economic Review 85 (1995): 341-64;
66. Janet Currie and Duncan Thomas, "Does Head Start Help Hispanic Children?" Journal of Public Economics 74 (1999): 235-62;
67. Eliana Garces, Duncan Thomas, and Janet Currie, "Longer-Term Effects of Head Start," American Economic Review 92 (2002): 999-1012.
68. For an exception, see Alison Aughinbaugh, "Does Head Start Yield Long-Term Benefits?" Journal of Human Resources 36 (2001): 641-65.
69. Currie and Thomas, "Does Head Start Make a Difference?" (see note 44).
70. But see also Garces, Thomas, and Currie, 26quot;Longer-Term Effects of Head Start" (see note 44), who find some evidence that Head Start might reduce crime among black children;
71. and Lee and others, "Are Head Start Effects Sustained?" (see note 43), who find larger effects of Head Start on academic and social outcomes for black children than white children.
72. Currie and Thomas, "Does Head Start Help Hispanic Children?" (see note 44).
73. Gilliam and Zigler, "State Efforts to Evaluate the Effects of Prekindergarten" (see note 25).
74. Arthur J. Reynolds, "Effects of a Preschool Follow-On Intervention for Children at Risk," Developmental Psychology 30 (1994): 787-804.
75. Arthur J. Reynolds, "One Year of Preschool or Two: Does It Matter?" Early Childhood Research Quarterly 10 (1995): 1-31.
76. Reynolds, "Effects of a Preschool Follow-On Intervention for Children at Risk" (see note 48);
77. Arthur J. Reynolds and others, "Long-Term Effects of an Early Childhood Intervention on Educational Achievement and Juvenile Arrest: A Fifteen Year Follow-Up of Low-Income Children in Public Schools, "Journal of the American Medical Association 285 (2001): 2339-46.
78. William Gormley and Ted Gayer, "Promoting School Readiness in Oklahoma: An Evaluation of Tulsa's Pre-K Program," mimeo, Georgetown University, 2003.
79. Henry and others, Report of the Findings from the Early Childhood Study (see note 30).
80. Katherine A. Magnuson and others, "Inequality in Preschool Education and School Readiness," American Educational Research Journal 41 (2004): 115-57.
81. Gilliam and Zigler, "State Efforts to Evaluate the Effects of Prekindergarten" (see note 25).
82. Katherine A. Magnuson, Christopher Ruhm, and Jane Waldfogel. "Does Prekindergarten Improve School Preparation and Performance?" Working Paper 10452 (Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2004).
83. Gilliam and Zigler, "State Efforts to Evaluate the Effects of Prekindergarten" (see note 25).
84. Barnett, "Long-Term Effects of Early Childhood Programs on Cognitive and School Outcomes" (see note 32);
85. Meyers and others, "Inequality in Early Childhood Education and Care" (see note 2);
86. Smolensky and Gootm an, Working Families and Growing Kids (see note 11).
87. Deborah Phillips and Gina Adams, "Child Care and Our Youngest Children," Future of Children 11, no. 1 (2001): 35-51.
88. This study included Head Start and prekindergarten as center-based care.
89. NICHD Early Child Care Research Network and Duncan, "Modeling the Impacts of Child Care Quality on Children's Preschool Cognitive Development" (see note 9).
90. Magnuson and others, "Inequality in Preschool Education and School Readiness" (see note 53). Unfortunately, data were not available on the quality of care children received so we were unable to explore its influence on school readiness.
91. Jay Helsky, "Developmental Risks (Still) Associated with Early Child Care," Emanuel Miller Lecture, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines 42, no. 7 (2001): 845-59;
92. NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, "Does Amount of Time Spent in Child Care Predict Socioemotional Adjustment during the Transition to Kindergarten?" Child Development 74 (2003): 976-1005.
93. NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, "Does Amount of Time Spent in Child Care Predict Socio-emotional Adjustment during the Transition to Kindergarten?" (see note 62).
94. Authors' calculation of 1999 SIPP data.
95. NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, "Early Child Care and Children's Development prior to School Entry" (see note 1);
96. Phillips and Adams, "Child Care and Our Youngest Children" (see note 58).
97. These estimates and those that follow are from our analyses of the ECLS-K. For further details, see Magnuson and others, "Inequality in Preschool Education and School Readiness" (see note 53).
98. The October CPS began collecting data in 1964, but the microdata for 1964-67 are not readily available. The 2000 data were the most current available at the time the analysis was conducted.
99. From 1968 to 1984, the survey asked: "Is [name] attending or enrolled in school?" In 1985, the question was changed to read: "Is [name] attending or enrolled in regular school?" Then, in 1994, a prompt was added after the question, so that the full question now reads: "Is [name] attending or enrolled in regular school? (Regular school includes nursery school, kindergarten, or elementary school and schooling which leads to a high school diploma)." The October CPS and the National Household Education Survey find a similar share of three- to five-year-old children enrolled in preprimary school programs (for instance, both surveys find 68 percent in 1999). In contrast, two major child care surveys, the National Survey of American Families (NSAF) and the Survey of Income and Program Participation, find a lower share of three- to five-year-olds enrolled in center- or school-based programs; this is likely because these two surveys do not ask explicitly about school programs and also because they interview some families during the summer months, when such programs would be closed.
100. These figures chart the preschool enrollment of three- and four-year-olds, using data from the October Current Population Survey. See note 68 for more details.
101. Table 1 uses SIPP data. Rates of center care enrollment are lower than in the CPS, because infants and toddlers are less likely to experience nonparental care and more likely to experience informal child care than children aged three and four. Estimates of child care arrangements from various data sources should be compared with caution, because of differences in question wording, timing of data collection, and coding categories (see also note 68).
102. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Trends in the Well-Being of America's Children and Youth: 2002 (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2002).
103. It is beyond the scope of this article to consider whether racial and ethnic differences in parental employment have affected differentials in test scores, above and beyond any effects that may work through early childhood care and education. Parental employment could affect child development through several pathways, such as economic resources, parenting, and the home environment. For recent reviews on the effects of parental employment on child development, and discussion of how they may vary by racial and ethnic group,see Jack P. Shonkoff and Deborah Phillips, eds., From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development (Washington: National Academy Press, 2000);
104. Smolensky and Gootman, Working Families and Growing Kids (see note 11).
105. Authors' estimation of enrollment rates, using data from the Head Start Bureau and the 2000 decennial census. The calculation is based on the number of Head Start slots available, not the number of children served, which is larger because of turnover. Consequently, our estimates likely understate the number of children who have ever participated in Head Start.
106. These estimates are derived by subtracting each group's rate of attendance in Head Start from its October CPS rates of preschool attendance. For example, because 19 percent of black four-year-olds are in Head Start and CPS data indicate that 72 percent of black four-year-olds are in preschool, without access to Head Start (and without enrollment in other programs), their enrollment rate would be 53 percent. By comparison, only 5 percent of white four-year-olds are in Head Start, so without access to Head Start (and without enrollment in other programs) their enrollment rate would fall from 67 percent to 62 percent, resulting in a black-white enrollment gap of 9 percent (compared with black children's current enrollment advantage of 5 percent).
107. Reynolds, "Effects of a Preschool Follow-On Intervention for Children at Risk" (see note 48).
108. Per pupil expenditures in CPC and Head Start were comparable (in the early 1990s), and both programs emphasize parental involvement and deliver comprehensive services. See Reynolds, "One Year of Preschool or Two" (see note 49).
109. It is also important to keep in mind that Reynolds's estimated effect sizes are considerably larger than estimates derived from Head Start studies. For example, Lee and others, "Are Head Start Effects Sustained?" (see note 43) find Head Start effects of 0.25 on verbal skills at school entry;
110. Currie and Thomas, "Does Head Start Make a Difference?" (see note 44) find almost no lasting effects from Head Start on the academic skills of black children.
111. Reynolds, "One Year of Preschool or Two" (see note 49).
112. Smith and others, Prekindergarten in U.S. Public Schools (see note 25).
113. Calculations from the 1999 National Survey of American Families by the Urban Institute found the average numbers of hours spent in nonparental care by children under age three with employed mothers were as follows: twenty-two for white non-Hispanic children, thirty-two for black children, and twenty-one for Hispanic children. See Jennifer Erhle, Gina Adams, and Kathryn Tout, "Who's Caring for Our Youngest Children? Child Care Patterns of Infants and Toddlers," Occasional Paper 42 (Washington: Urban Institute, 2001).
114. Data from the National Household Education Survey in 1995 found the average numbers of hours spent in center-based nonparental care by children under age six were as follows: twenty-eight for white non-Hispanic children, thirty-six for black children, and thirty-one for Hispanic children. See National Center for Educational Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics, 2002 (Washington, 2003), table 44.
115. Smolensky and Gootman, Working Families and Growing Kids (see note 11).
116. Margaret R. Burchinal and Debby Cryer, "Diversity, Child Care Quality, and Developmental Outcomes," Early Childhood Research Quarterly 18 (2003): 401-26.
117. Burchinal and Cryer also provide information on the quality of care received by Hispanic children, but sample sizes for this group are so small that we do not include them in our summary. In addition, they examine whether the measures of quality of care had equivalent effects across ethnic and racial groups They conclude that these measures are equally reliable across groups and that higher quality care was linked to higher levels of cognitive and social skills among all groups. For a discussion of racial and ethnic differences in measuring the quality of child care, see Deborah L. Johnson and others, "Studying the Effects of Early Child Care Experiences on the Development of Children of Color in the United State s: Toward a More Inclusive Research Agenda," Child Development 74 (2003): 1227-44.
118. Black children in the CQO sample were much more likely than white children to be poor (30 percent versus 6 percent) or working poor (32 percent versus 11 percent). See Bu rchinal and Cryer, "Diversity, Child Care Quality, and Developmental Outcomes" (see note 81).
119. Zigler and Styfco, "Head Start" (see note 20).
120. Although improving the quality of informal child care might reduce racial and ethnic gaps, it is much more difficult for policies to influence the quality of informal care given by, for example, babysitters or grandparents, than to improve formal child care.
121. The estimate of 0.15 is from Magnuson and others, "Inequality in Preschool Education and School Readiness" (see note 53).
122. The estimate of 0.25 is from NICHD and Duncan, "Modeling the Impacts of Child Care Quality on Children's Preschool Cognitive Development" (see note 9).
123. The estimate of 0.65 is from Reynolds, "Effects of a Preschool Follow-on Intervention" (see note 48).
124. See Greg Duncan and Katherine Magnuson's article in this volume.
125. Pam Sammons and others, Measuring the Impact of Pre-School on Children's Cognitive Progress over the Pre-School Period (Institute of Education, University of London, 2002).
126. We do not attempt to estimate how children may benefit from improvements in informal care, because it is difficult to construct effective policies to this end.
127. Burchinal and Cryer, "Diversity, Child Care Quality, and Developmental Outcomes" (see note 81);
128. NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, "Early Child Care and Children's Development prior to School Entry" (see note 1).
129. If we estimate the effects of preschool or Head Start to be 0.65 (and increase the quality of care by 0.2), we find that the population effects would be larger; for example, closing 0.10 of the black-white gap and 0.11 of the Hispanic-white gap (compared with 0.07 for both gaps) for children under 100 percent of the poverty line. If we assume the estimated effects of preschool or Head Start care to be 0.15 (and increase the quality of care by 0.20), we find the population effects are smaller, resulting in slightly smaller reductions in the gap; for example, the black-white gap does not decrease, whereas the Hispanic gap would decrease by 0.06 (compared with 0.07) for children below 100 percent of the poverty line.
130. Shonkoff and Phillips, From Neurons to Neighborhoods (see note 72).
131. Zigler and Styfco, "Head Start" (see note 20).
132. Arthur J. Reynolds and Judy A. Temple, "Extended Early Childhood Intervention and School Achievement: Age Thirteen Findings from the Chicago Longitudinal Study," Child Development 69 (1998): 231-46.
133. Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, "Do You Believe in Magic? What Can We Expect from Early Childhood Intervention Programs?" SRCD Social Policy Report 17, no. 1 (2003);
134. Zigler and Styfco, "Head Start" (see note 20).