Immigration

Academic Readiness and School Outcomes among Second Generation Pre-School and Kindergarten Children

Project Date:

November 2004

Award Amount:

$89,845

Summary

Immigrant and minority children tend to have more difficulty in school than white, native-born children, at least in the early grades. There is reason to believe that cultural and language barriers – to say nothing of the economic deficits they face – may disadvantage the children of immigrants before they even reach school. For instance, immigrant children are less likely than their native-born counterparts to participate in formal, center-based childcare, which has more consistently positive effects on later school performance than other types of childcare. Does this disparity in childcare choice contribute to gaps between native-born and immigrant children in school performance? Are immigrant parents eschewing center-based care because their cultural background favors relative care, or are their decisions based primarily on financial constraints?

Grace Kao of Pennsylvania University will address these questions by examining how differences in parental behavior and childcare choices between immigrant and native-born parents affect school readiness and achievement in young adults. Using longitudinal data from 19,000 kindergarten students, Kao will evaluate the extent to which a child’s academic readiness and success are affected by his/her race, immigrant status, socioeconomic status, childcare arrangement, social networks, and parental involvement in school. By isolating each of these factors, Kao will be able to separate economic influences on educational outcomes from cultural effects.

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