The Role of ECE Classroom Processes in Closing the Black-White Achievement Gap in Academic Skills

• In Event: How Can Pre-K Contribute to Reducing the Black-White Achievement Gap?

Abstract

Despite ongoing efforts to ensure that all students enter formal schooling equally likely to succeed, Black children continue to display significantly lower school readiness skills than their White peers (Reardon & Portilla, 2016). This race-based achievement gap begins early and persists throughout formal schooling (Burchinal et al., 2011). Early childhood education (ECE) is often framed as an intervention to help close achievement gaps early-on and prevent disadvantaged students from continuing to fall further behind their more advantaged peers. However, not all ECE experiences are created equal and little is known about the specific classroom processes that may contribute to reducing racial disparities in early academic skills. As such, the current study seeks to identify the instructional and relational features of ECE classrooms that carry the potential to help close the Black-White (B-W) achievement gap in early academic achievement.
To explore this question, we used longitudinal data collected on 189 (121 Black; 68 White) children as part of the School Experiences and Early Development (SEED) study. Math and literacy skills were assessed across five time-points (fall/spring-preschool; fall/spring-kindergarten; fall-1st) using the Woodcock-Johnson Applied Problems and Letter-Word Identification tasks, respectively. Specific instructional and relational features of ECE classrooms were captured using the Narrative Record (Farran et al., 2015); the Teacher Observation Protocol (TOP; Bilbrey et al., 2010); the CLASS (Pianta et al., 2008) and the Student-Teacher Relationship Scale (STRS; Pianta, 2001) in the spring of preschool and kindergarten.
We used multi-level growth models to explore Black-White trends in academic achievement over time. While we did not observe racial disparities in literacy performance, we did observe that White children outperformed Black children in math across all time-points (Figure 1). To investigate whether certain aspects of ECE may help to reduce racial disparities in math, we included a series of ECE classroom process variables as predictors of first grade math achievement and examined interactions with race. In terms of preschool experiences, we observed that more time spent on literacy instruction, more time spent in whole-group instruction, and teacher-child closeness were associated with higher first grade math scores; while teacher-child conflict and more time spent in low-levels of engagement were associated with lower later math achievement (Table 1). In terms of kindergarten experiences, we observed that more time spent on math instruction was associated with higher first grade math scores, while teacher-child conflict was associated with lower later math achievement (Table 1). None of these early childhood experiences differentially influenced the math achievement of Black students and therefore did not aid in closing the B-W achievement gap in math.
These findings provide evidence to suggest that the B-W achievement gap may be especially pronounced for math. This is problematic as early math skills are thought to be one of the strongest predictors of later academic success (Claessens & Engel, 2013). While our findings do not inform efforts to reduce this gap, they highlight the instructional and relational aspects of ECE classrooms that may play an important role in the development of early math skills in general.

Authors

• Jane Hutchison, Georgetown University
  Presenting Author

• Anne Partika, Georgetown University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Deborah A Phillips, Georgetown University
  Non-Presenting Author