Preschoolers at Age 35: Reflecting on Life and Education in Chicago

• In Event: Poster Session 05
  In Poster Session: PS 05 Topic - Education, Schooling

Abstract

How does early childhood intervention affect lifelong outcomes? In 1967, the Child-Parent Center (CPC) early education program began serving economically disadvantaged, mostly black Chicago students. Recently, CPC participants and nonparticipants were surveyed at age 35. Survey topics ranged from educational experience and current living situation to health, arrest, and family status.

In Chicago, education and housing access have long been racially segregated through both legal and extra-judicial means, including restrictive housing covenants, limiting credit to Black and Hispanic communities, discriminatory landlord practices, and race riots in response to desegregation attempts (Daniel, 1980; Hirsch, 1995; Urban Institute). Fear of discrimination is common in both Black and Hispanic adolescents, many being deeply aware of the danger discrimination poses (Herda, 2015). Violence from both policing and within-community gun homicides traumatize students (Voisin, 2011).

To better understand both the impact of CPCs and the social and economic contexts in which the respondents have lived, we use a mixed-methods approach. In our quantitative analysis, we address confounding baseline variables with propensity score methods. We find CPC participants are more likely to rank highly both the value of K-12 (6.3%***) and satisfaction with pre-K education (3.5%***); they are also more likely to be employed (15.1%*), earn higher incomes (16.2%*), have their own children enrolled in CPCs (41.3%*); and to have voted in the 2008 (7.4%***) and 2012 (5.2%**) elections. However, CPC participants are more likely to report several types of discrimination, including being discouraged from pursuing higher education (33.2%***), being fear by others, (15.8%*), and being treated with less respect (15.5%**). They also tend to help their children with homework less often (7.7%*).

Qualitatively, we assessed three open-answer questions—“What are you most satisfied with in your life right now?” “What are you most dissatisfied with in your life right now?” and “What are your hopes for the future?”—which were coded and analyzed for emergent themes. Both CPC and non-CPC respondents emphasized family, personal growth or success, and mere survival as satisfactions in their lives. Meanwhile, unemployment or poor job circumstances, financial instability, and lack of educational attainment ranked highly as dissatisfactions (although the second most common response to “What are you most dissatisfied with…?” was “Nothing”). The only significant group difference observed was incarceration and criminal record, which CPC participants were less likely (3.46%***) to list as their main dissatisfaction. Finally, respondents centered professional advancement or employment (22.41%), family development (17.10%), further education (12.78%), and personal growth (12.33%) as hopes for the future. Across all three questions, respondents often explicitly situated their experience in Chicago, referencing the pervasive violence (“…the police are killing everybody. The police are killing people. I don't like it.”) and lack of resources (“All the murders happening in Chicago, gov’t acting like they cant stop it.”). Conversely, family and community structure were strong positives (“…I have my children, my family, and support system…”).

Authors

• Asa Morris Gold, St. Olaf College
  Presenting Author

• Mailao Xiong, St Olaf College
  Non-Presenting Author

• Brandt Richardson, St Olaf College
  Non-Presenting Author

• Arthur Reynolds, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
  Non-Presenting Author