Research shows that achievement gaps between the rich and poor start as early as kindergarten. However, high-quality preschool programs may be the solution to closing the disparity.
Less than 20 percent of black and Hispanic students from lower-income families attend high-quality, early-education programs. On the other hand, about 24 percent of white children and around 30 percent of children from higher-income families attend high-quality programs.
Children from low-income families begin kindergarten 13 months behind children from the same age. Typically, black children are seven months behind white students in reading while Hispanic children are 12 months behind, according to Huffington Post.
The discrepancies in learning between the rich and poor is largely due to low-income and minority students' preference to skip preschool learning, according to Parent Herald. While these disparities have made it difficult for minority students to catch up through further schooling, high-quality universal preschool programs can help long-term.
A new paper from the Center for American Progress observed how the high-quality universal preschool system could influence achievement gaps between students. Boston and Tulsa, Oklahoma are examples of cities that have already offed high-quality preschool programs which have shown great impact on children.
According to the analysis, students from low-income families gain five more months of additional reading skills with high-quality preschool programs. This improvement has the potential of reducing their learning gap by 41 percent. Black and Hispanic children, on the other hand, could close the achievement gap completely with almost seven months of learning and math skills.
Although gains were expected, such dramatic reductions in the achievement gaps for children with color were not expected, according to W. Steven Barnett, director of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University. Barnett is also one of the authors of the study that could eventually eradicate the gap in literacy as early as kindergarten.
Debates have started on whether publicly funded preschools should be offered to all children or programs should only target students unable to afford fee-based centers. Many argue that publicly funded preschools are not the most cost-effective ways to improve the future of vulnerable students.
Barnett argues by saying that the national data reveals that children of color and from low-incomes are far behind during the start of kindergarten. Statistics show that students also never get to catch up later on.
