The early developmental competencies and school readiness of low-income, immigrant children: Influences of generation, race/ethnicity, and national origins☆
Section snippets
Research on school-aged immigrant youth
Over the last half-century, scholarly interest has resulted in numerous empirical studies on adjustment processes and educational outcomes for immigrant youth. Though the majority of these studies focus on middle childhood and adolescence (partly due to greater access to educational data), their results provide an anchor for our investigation into early childhood outcomes. Perhaps the most profound outcome of this line of research is deeper understanding of the sheer diversity of the immigrant
Theoretical models for the study of immigrant children
Just as our national demographics have evolved with increasing waves of immigration, so has theory surrounding processes of adaptation and adjustment. Writings emerging after early 20th century European immigration generally supported classic assimilation theory, suggesting that immigrants struggle initially but then experience increasing assimilation and accomplishment with each successive generation in the host country (Gordon, 1964, Lieberson, 1980, Park, 1928). More contemporary theories,
Family characteristics and parenting
Though the particular influence of the home environment may differ with the age and developmental stage of the child, structural family characteristics and parenting practices are undoubtedly important. Indicators of human capital, such as family socioeconomic status and parental education, consistently predict outcomes for all children (Gershoff et al., 2005, McLoyd, 1998), including those in immigrant families (Crosnoe, 2007, Magnuson et al., 2006), with higher income and parental education
Early education and child care
One common decision parents make, either by necessity or preference, is to enroll their child in non-parental child care. Although high-quality, center-based child care can be an important facilitating factor for low-income, immigrant children, research consistently shows that, on average, children in immigrant families are enrolled at much lower rates than those in non-immigrant families (Brandon, 2004, Capps et al., 2004, Crosnoe, 2007, Hernandez, 2004, Magnuson et al., 2006, Matthews and
The school readiness of young immigrant children
The school readiness of young immigrant children is a relatively new but growing area of study. The studies that do exist have shed light on their overall levels of preparedness for schooling, their progress in specific domains (e.g., cognitive and socio-emotional development), and the effectiveness of the early education programs in which they participate. Using data from the nationally representative sample provided by the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-K), Magnuson et al. (2006)
The present study
The present study examines multiple indicators of young immigrant children's school readiness during their pre-kindergarten year in Miami, Florida. Miami has long been known as a “melting pot” with a large, diverse immigrant population, and is the city with the highest foreign-born population in the world at 59% (United Nations Development Programme, 2004). Miami has three official languages (English, Spanish, and Creole), with much sociolinguistic support for use of the Spanish language in
Participants
Child participants consisted of 2194 four-year-old preschoolers attending either community-based child care via child care subsidies (80% attended center-based care and the remainder a mix of family daycare and informal relative care) or Title-1 supported public school pre-k in the Miami community during the 2003–2004 academic year. This is a subsample of a larger group of children participating that year in the Miami School Readiness Project (see Winsler et al., 2008). The larger group
Results
Following the order of the research questions, we start with broad conceptualizations of the term “immigrant” and reach finer levels of specificity with each analysis. We first compare first-generation immigrant children, second-generation immigrant children, and children from non-immigrant families on multiple domains of school readiness. We then ask what importance race/ethnicity (Latino, Black) has for the school readiness of children with and without immigrant parents and examine whether
Discussion
Immigrant children are extremely diverse in terms of language, culture, skin color, religion, and national origins, and this diversity has been shown to translate into variation in educational outcomes for different groups (Fuligni, 1997, Garcia Coll et al., 1996, Hao and Bonstead-Bruns, 1998, Leventhal et al., 2006, Magnuson et al., 2006). The first step in understanding this variation and closing the achievement gaps between children with different national and ethnic backgrounds is to start
Acknowledgements
Data collection for this study was supported by the Early Learning Coalition of Miami Dade/Monroe (ELCMDM) and time for data analysis and writing was sponsored by the Children's Trust. The Children's Trust is a dedicated source of revenue established by voter referendum to improve the lives of children and families in Miami-Dade County. We would like to thank the dedicated staff at the Early Learning Coalition of Miami-Dade/Monroe, Miami-Dade County Child Development Services, and Miami-Dade
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Portions of this paper were presented at the On New Shores Conference, Guelph, Ontario, Canada, October 2007. This work will also appear in part as a book chapter in E. Grigorenko & R. Takanishi (Eds.), Immigration, diversity, and education. New York: Routledge.