Classroom Composition and Mechanisms for Latinx Kindergartners

• In Event: “Nice White Schools”: How Do We Understand the Possible Benefits of Integration for Latinx Children?

Abstract

Introduction
Research indicates that Latinx might fare better in schools with a greater concentration of White students (Cook, 1984; Goldsmith, 2004; Mickelson, Bottia, & Lambert, 2013), although the mechanisms in classrooms that foster these advantages are rarely specified (Reardon, 2016). Predominantly White schools draw more public funding and higher quality resources, support services, and teachers (Lewis, 2003; Oakes, Joseph, & Muir, 2004), and may facilitate positive peer effects through stronger social norms for task engagement, which support teachers’ higher expectations, more complex forms of instruction, and eased classroom management–and children’s achievement. But, culturally situated resources (e.g. consonant language and ethnic-specific social supports or forms of discipline) and social capital, including trust and reciprocity (Coleman, 1988), may be absent (Bell, 1988; Borman & Pyne, 2016; Mickelson, 2015)--particularly when parents and teachers do not come from the same ethnic, class, or linguistic background (Lareau, 2003; Rosicgno, Tomaskovic-Devey, & Crowley, 2006). Thus it is unclear how integrated schools may yield distinct benefits for Latinx children. We examine five mechanisms through which variably integrated classrooms may facilitate cognitive and social-emotional outcomes, including: 1) resources, 2) social capital, 3) teacher quality, 4) pedagogical organization, and 5) classroom relationships.

Hypotheses
We anticipate that Latinx children attending kindergartens with a high proportion of White and middle-class children and a low proportion of Latinx children will be more likely to have greater classroom resources, more social capital, and more positive teacher-child relationships. We hypothesize that teacher quality and pedagogical practices in math will not vary systematically across the groups, with culturally situated resources countering traditional ones.

Method
Individual student and class-level data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Cohort, 2010-11 (ECLS-K) comprise our sample. It included 4,332 Latinx students (65% have foreign-born parents) who entered public school kindergarten (n=664) in fall, 2010. We conducted bivariate analyses of classroom characteristics and composition, comparing the top quartile (highest concentration of White, middle-class, other Latinx students) versus those in the bottom quartile (lowest concentration of each group), and examined whether the differences are statistically significant.

Preliminary Results
Latinx students enrolled in kindergarten classrooms that varied in their racial/ethnic and socioeconomic composition (see Table 1). Latinx kindergartners enrolled in schools with a high proportion of White and/or middle-class students, on average, have access more resources (i.e. full-day kindergarten, more bilingual teachers and Spanish books/materials). The findings were mixed for social capital; those Latinx kindergartners with more Latinx, and fewer White and/or middle-class, classmates were more likely to have teachers with higher school-readiness expectations (except EL skills), and more reported discipline issues. Teacher quality varied little, although those Latinx children with more Latinx classmates were more likely to have teachers who felt prepared to teach ELLs. Pedagogical practices varied by classroom composition; those with a high proportion of Latinx children (and lower proportions of White and/or middle-class children) were more likely to have teachers who reported frequently engaging in math skill-building. Latinx kindergartners with more White and/or middle-class classmates and fewer Latinx ones were more likely to have teachers who report greater closeness in their relationships with students.

Authors

• Margaret Bridges, University of California - Berkeley
  Presenting Author

• Jiehui Zhao, University of Maryland - College Park
  Non-Presenting Author