3-048 - Contextual Influences on Low-Income Children’s Early Math Development

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Substantial math achievement disparities are evident among young children at school entry, with low socioeconomic status (SES) children scoring 1.3 standard deviations lower on kindergarten math assessments than their higher SES peers (Duncan & Magnuson, 2011). In fact, significant SES disparities in math skills are evident in preschool (Jordan, Huttenlocher, & Levine, 1992; Klibanoff et al., 2006; Stipek & Ryan, 1997), and these early math disparities have meaningful long-term effects on later achievement (Duncan et al. 2007), as well as SES attainment in adulthood (Ritchie & Bates, 2013). This symposium will bring together leading scholars in developmental psychology and education to examine low SES children’s math growth in three critical contexts of early development: home, preschool, and elementary school.
The first paper will examine parent-child interactions among very young children (2 year-olds) and link early supportive talk about spatial relations during puzzle play with math achievement in first grade. The second paper will present implementation and treatment findings from the MyTeachingPartner pre-K math and science intervention. The intervention results demonstrate sizeable math gains for low SES children when the intervention dosage is high, and significantly less growth than other peers when intervention dosage is low. The third paper will present nationally representative findings from the ECLS-K 2011 cohort that show greater math growth from K – 2nd grade for low-income children enrolled in charter schools than in traditional public schools. A renowned senior scholar with extensive expertise in early math development, pre-K math curricula, and interventions will discuss the papers.

Sub Unit

• Education, Schooling

Chair

• Heather J. Bachman, University of Pittsburgh

Discussant

• Douglas H Clements, University of Denver

Individual Presentations

• Maternal Spatial Stimulation at Age 2 Predicts Math Skills in Norwegian 1st Graders with Low Educational Backgrounds - Presenting Author: Beth Casey, Boston College, School of Education; Luisa Ribeiro, The Norwegian Center for Child Behavioral Development; Eric Dearing, Boston College; Kristin Berg Nordahl, The Norwegian Center for Child Behavioral Development; Henrik Zachrisson, The Norwegian Center for Child Behavioral Development & Center for Educational Measurement

• Implementing a math and science curricular intervention: Do some children benefit more than others? - Presenting Author: Jessica V Whittaker, University of Virginia; Virginia Vitiello, University of Virginia; Jamie DeCoster, University of Virginia

• The Impact of Charter School Enrollment on Low-Income Children’s Early Math Trajectories - Presenting Author: Heather J. Bachman, University of Pittsburgh; Leanne Elliott, University of Pittsburgh; Paul Scott, University of Pittsburgh; Monica Gabriel Navarro, University of Pittsburgh