Latinx Segregation and Outcome Disparities in Kindergarten: Classroom Composition and Mechanisms

• In Event: Calling Out and Resisting Lasting Legacies of Racism in Policy, Teacher Education, and Across the Pre-K–20+ Pipeline

Abstract

Latinx-White disparities in achievement have been linked to school segregation, with little known about the specific classroom mechanisms that drive this gap. We expand the knowledge about school segregation--operationalized as “exposure” or school composition at school entry (kindergarten)--to consider the classroom mechanisms that may support Latinx children’s early literacy and executive functioning skills. Latinx-White disparities are linked to school composition: Latinx-White disparities are smaller in schools with greater percentages of White students. One source of this may be classroom relationships, which vary by school composition; teachers report less closeness with students in classrooms with a lower proportion of White and higher proportion of Latinx children. We examine how classroom mechanisms may mediate these outcome disparities.

Authors

• Margaret Bridges, UC Berkeley

• Jiehui Zhao, University of Maryland - College Park

• Francisco Lagos, University of Maryland - College Park

• Claudia Lucia Galindo, University of Maryland - College Park