How Innovative Social Policies Targeting Early Childhood Education, Health, and Basic Needs Support Equity Across Kentucky (Poster 29)

• In Event: Promising Scholarship in Education Research: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research

Abstract

Purpose Shining a spotlight on Kentucky’s investment in social services alongside education, I examine how state preK and Family Resource and Youth Service Centers (FRYSCs) support equity through elementary school.

Study design and methods Leveraging the eight cohorts from the Kentucky State Longitudinal Data System from 2013-2014 through 2020-2021, I examine demographic, academic, health, and service records of approximately 550,000 unique students in grades preK–Grade 5. This is linked to data from the American Community Survey, the Common Core of Data, Civil Rights Data Collection, and Stanford Educational Data Archive. I use hierarchical linear modeling, fixed effects methods, and comparative interrupted time series analyses.

Findings Children who attend center-based preK, school-based preK, or Head Start are more prepared for Kindergarten than children who do not. Racial and economic disparities in preschool enrollment directly predict disparities in kindergarten-readiness. Leveraging a discontinuity in funding for FRYSCs, I find that fourth and fifth graders in schools that receive FRYSCs for the first time show significantly more growth in one year in both reading and mathematics than children in similar schools that do not receive FRYSC support. Further, students who receive services experience more growth in one year than those who do not, even accounting for the fact that the centers target students with the highest needs.

Policy Implications This study shows how a strong foundation of support through innovative social policies may contribute to better and more equitable outcomes for children, especially those growing up in disinvested, low-income, rural school districts.

Author

• Carrie Townley Flores, Stanford University
  Presenting Author