Class Stratification and Young Children’s Access to Print: How Poverty and Privilege Affect Early Literacy Development

• In Event: How the Hardening of the Class Stratification System Affects At-Risk Children and Literacy Development

Abstract

Building on a growing body of ecological research indicating the growing class divide (Reardon, 2011), this study examines young children’s access to print in two neighborhoods, one of affluence (e.g. average family income, $100,000 and above) and the other of poverty (e.g. 26% unemployment) in a large industrial city. It documents the availability of print in these neighborhoods, focusing on resources considered to be influential in a child’s beginning development as a writer and reader. Along with a team of 4 urban ethnographers, it examined through counts, video and pictorial documentation, and participant observations, the likelihood that children would find books and other resources, see signs, labels, and logos, would find public places (spaces) conducive to reading in these two neighborhoods (representing together over 12,000 children). It then examines the presence of books and school libraries in the preschools and elementary schools (in their catchment areas) these children’s are likely to attend as they grow older.
Results of our year-long study indicated stark differences between neighborhoods in access to print at all levels of analyses. In the middle-income neighborhood, for example, 11 places were identified where parents could buy a book for children; in the low-income neighborhood there were 4. Contrasting the number of different titles available to the parent, there were a total of 13 books available for every child in the middle-income neighborhood; compared to a total of 1 book available for every 300 children in the low-income neighborhood. Book quality and quantity in local preschools for children did not offer a safety net: in the middle-income area libraries were excellent compared to poor for those in the low-income area. School libraries with vastly different size collections were open two days a week in the poor neighborhood with no librarian compared to 5 days a week in the middle-income neighborhood with a certified librarian. These results suggest that, long before formal schooling begins, considerable variations in access to print is likely to be evident based on the opportunities afforded to children in these neighborhoods. The consequences of such differential access have been shown to have far-reaching effects on literacy development (Stanovich & Cunningham, 1992).

Authors

• Susan B. Neuman, New York University

• Donna Celano, La Salle University