Children's Executive Function Development and School Socioeconomic and Racial/Ethnic Composition: Evidence From Nationally Representative Data

• In Event: Crown Plaza Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: Executive Function, Emotional Development, and Learning

Abstract

The links between children’s literacy and mathematics development and school socio-economic and racial/ethnic composition are well documented. This work, however, has generally ignored the potential effects of school demographics on children’s executive function development. Using data from ECLS-K: 2011 and piece-wise linear growth-curve models within a three-level hierarchical framework, we find somewhat mixed results. Among children who began kindergarten with weak or average levels of executive function, school socio-demographic composition had clear effects, with children attending higher-SES schools and schools with fewer black/Hispanic students gaining more skills. The results were less consistent for first and second grade and for children with strong initial executive function, due perhaps to the generally lower learning rates in these grades and among these children.

Authors

• Douglas Ready, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Jeanne Louise Reid, Columbia University