Timing of School Entry for African American Boys

Abstract

Disparate educational outcomes for African American boys remains a serious challenge. Opportunity gaps derived from disproportionate socioeconomic factors appear to influence school readiness and ultimately create gaps in academic achievement when comparing African American boys to all other children. The matter potentially exacerbates African American boys being overrepresented in the criminal justice system and further contributes to cyclical poverty, health, income, and wealth gaps that persist for African Americans in general. This study takes a closer look at the effect of school entry timing on academic achievement for African American boys. There is a bounty of research that suggest entering school later produces short- and long-term benefits, especially for at-risk children. The additional year is thought to allow children greater time to mature and develop emotional, social, and cognitive skills. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11 (ECLS-K:2011) and logistic regression predicting whether a child is performing at or above grade level on three subjects (reading, math, and science), I find no evidence of a salutary effect of delayed school entry by the fifth grade in my multivariate models. Inputs to academic achievement included in my models include socioeconomic variables, school readiness factors such as a child’s physical health, lack of emotional difficulty, social confidence and cognitive ability, and support and supplemental education variables, including parent health, parent support, early childhood education program participation, kindergarten length, and teacher gender. The results revealed the particular importance of school readiness measures on educational outcomes as a means to optimize academic achievement and equity.