Given the critical role that literacy plays in children's academic and personal development, policymakers have increasingly focused on policies related to early childhood literacy, particularly among poor and minority students. In this study, authors use a census of data from Arizona, a state with a large and growing population of traditionally…

In this article I argue that insufficient attention is paid to the explicit teaching of comprehension in South African literacy policies and practices. Like elsewhere, governments reinforce the existing curriculum gap by trying to solve the achievement gap in early literacy. I substantiate my claim through a critical analysis of a report…

The Office of Shared Accountability (OSA) in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) conducted a study to examine the impact of student poverty on student achievement. This is the first study in MCPS to examine student poverty longitudinally. Using longitudinal data, students enrolled in Free and Reduced-priced Meals System (FARMS) services every…

Based on current research and preliminary results provided by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) regarding the West Virginia Early Learning Longitudinal Study, the West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) Office of Early & Elementary has reviewed the NIEER and other forms of data to make a concerted action plan.…

Recent shifts in policy and practice have brought an increasingly more academic focus to the early grades, evidenced in rising standards and the now widely accepted notion that kindergarten is the new first grade. These views however are mostly supported by teacher and parent self-reports and not by an analysis of literacy achievement data. We…

Using testing data from 2.1 million students in 10,000 schools in 49 states (plus D.C.), we investigate the role of remote and hybrid instruction in widening gaps in achievement by race and school poverty. We find that remote instruction was a primary driver of widening achievement gaps. Math gaps did not widen in areas that remained in-person…

Education has been traditionally viewed as an equalizer for the poor to gain access to a better life. With the advent of the skills premium paired with rapid technological advances, the stratification and changing nature of education has ironically become one of the main causes of the income achievement gap. Research confirms that by the age of 3,…

Large numbers of children of low income families in the United States arrive at kindergarten already far behind their more affluent peers on measures of school readiness. In the absence of any federal preschool policy and amidst alarm about this growing divide, universal prekindergarten (UPK) programs have been launched around the United States,…

Living in poverty disadvantages young children reducing school readiness. "Pedagogy of listening" can potentially support resilience remediating against poverty's negative effects. Little, though, is known about how early childhood education and care (ECEC) practitioners work with children in poverty and the attainment gap between such…

The goal of HISD [Houston Independent School District] prekindergarten programs is to offer the youngest learners strong foundations built on solid concept, as well as individual and group discovery. The program curriculum focuses on beginning literacy, numeracy, social emotional development as well as supporting the individual linguistic and…

The Every Student Succeed Act (ESSA) brings significant changes as well as opportunities for schools to improve their students' academic outcomes. One proposed regulation is for states to analyze the performance of student subgroups separately in order to show how states are levelling the playing field over time to ensure educational equity. This…

As students return to full in-person learning in 2021-22, California public schools face considerable challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Record-high funding distributed through the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) will provide some of the resources that will be key to an equitable recovery. In order to examine how school districts…

When do children become unequal in reading and math skills? Some research claims that inequality grows mainly before school begins. Some research claims that schools cause inequality to grow. And some research--including the 2004 study ''Are Schools the Great Equalizer?''--claims that inequality grows mainly during summer vacations. Unfortunately,…

Invest Early is a comprehensive early childhood collaborative of four school districts in Itasca County, Minnesota, that serves young children and their families with risk factors that may impede school success. Wilder Research, in conjunction with the Invest Early leadership team and staff, is conducting a longitudinal evaluation of the program.…

We use data from the 1968-2013 October Current Population Survey to document trends in 3- and 4-year-old children's enrollment in center-based early childhood education, focusing on gaps in enrollment among children from low-, middle-, and high-income families. We find that income-related gaps in enrollment widened in the 1970s and 1980s but…