Abstract
Low-income students are at increased risk for grade retention and suspension, which dampens their chances of high school graduation, college attendance, and future success. Drawing from a sample of 357 children and their families who participated in the Chicago School Readiness Project, we examine whether greater exposure to cumulative poverty-related risk from preschool through 5th grade is associated with greater risk of student retention and suspension in 6th grade. Logistic regression results indicate that exposure to higher levels of cumulative risk across the elementary school years is associated with students’ increased risk of retention in 6th grade, even after controlling for child school readiness skills and other covariates. Importantly, findings of the association between average cumulative risk exposure and student suspension are more complex; the role of poverty-related risk is reduced to non-significance once early indicators of child school readiness and other covariates are included in regression models. While, children’s early externalizing behavior prior to kindergarten places children at greater risk of suspension 7 years later, children’s higher levels of internalizing behaviors and early math skills are associated with significantly decreased risk of suspension in the 6th grade. Together, findings from the study suggest the complex ways that both early school readiness and subsequent exposure to poverty-related risk may both serve as compelling predictors of children’s likelihood of “staying on track” academically in the 6th grade.
Highlights
Much research finds lower income students lag behind their higher income peers in cognitive and social-emotional skills by school entry
The current study examines whether average cumulative risk is associated with student likelihood for retention and suspension in 6th grade, net of child school readiness and other stable characteristics of children and families
Many children within the analytic sample struggled in their coursework: 33% received a non-passing grade in math and 44% received a non-passing grade in an English/Language Arts (ELA) course that year
Summary
Much research finds lower income students lag behind their higher income peers in cognitive and social-emotional skills by school entry. In Head Start’s national impact evaluation, as well as in many other efficacy trials (including our own Chicago School Readiness Project), early gains in child outcomes are hard to maintain over time, suggesting that the benefits of early educational programming “fade out”. Rather than viewing these fade out findings as evidence that preschool interventions do not work, an alternative and plausible perspective may be that low-income children often face stressors inside and outside of school that make it less likely that any early educational gains “stick” over time
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