Early childhood care and education: Effects on ethnic and racial gaps in school readiness
Early childhood care and education: Effects on ethnic and racial gaps in school readiness
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DOI：
10.1353/foc.2005.0005
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发表时间：
2005-03-01
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Waldfogel, J
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Magnuson, KA;Waldfogel, J
作者研究了黑人、白色和西班牙裔儿童在幼儿保育和教育方面的不同经历，并探讨了这些经历与入学准备方面的种族和民族差距之间的联系。参加中心保育或学前教育项目的儿童入学时更容易学习，但参加这些项目的儿童比例和他们获得的保育质量因种族和民族而异。黑人儿童比白色儿童更有可能上学前班，但可能会受到质量较低的照顾。西班牙裔儿童比白色儿童上学前班的可能性要小得多。孩子们参加的学前教育类型也各不相同。黑人和西班牙裔儿童比白色儿童更有可能参加“学前教育”。对幼儿保育和教育的公共资助，特别是“学前教育”，已经在缩小学前教育入学率的种族和民族差距。作者认为，进一步增加入学率和提高质量是否会减少入学准备差距。他们的结论是，入学率或质量的渐进式变化对缩小差距几乎没有作用。但是，西班牙裔和黑人儿童学前教育入学率的大幅增加，单独或与学前教育质量的提高相结合，有可能缩小入学准备差距。鉴于目前西班牙裔儿童的入学率较低，提高他们的入学率可能特别有益。针对低收入家庭（更有可能是黑人或西班牙裔）的政策也很有希望。例如，为贫困的三岁和四岁儿童普及学前教育，提高护理质量，可以缩小黑人与白色儿童入学准备差距的20%，缩小西班牙裔与白色儿童入学准备差距的36%。
The authors examine black, white, and Hispanic children's differing experiences in early childhood care and education and explore links between these experiences and racial and ethnic gaps in school readiness.Children who attend center care or preschool programs enter school more ready to learn, but both the share of children enrolled in these programs and the quality of care they receive differ by race and ethnicity. Black children are more likely to attend preschool than white children, but may experience lower-quality care. Hispanic children are much less likely than white children to attend preschool. The types of preschool that children attend also differ. Both black and Hispanic children are more likely than white children to attend Head Start.Public funding of early childhood care and education, particularly Head Start, is already reducing ethnic and racial gaps in preschool attendance. The authors consider whether further increases in enrollment and improvements in quality would reduce school readiness gaps. They conclude that incremental changes in enrollment or quality will do little to narrow gaps. But substantial increases in Hispanic and black children's enrollment in preschool, alone or in combination with increases in preschool quality, have the potential to decrease school readiness gaps. Boosting enrollment of Hispanic children may be especially beneficial given their current low rates of enrollment.Policies that target low-income families (who are more likely to be black or Hispanic) also look promising. For example, making preschool enrollment universal for three- and four- year-old children in poverty and increasing the quality of care could close up to 20 percent of the black- white school readiness gap and up to 36 percent of the Hispanic-white gap.