Abstract:
Children in immigrant families, 88% of whom are U.S. citizens, will play a key role in
the future economy as they replace today’s aging population of wage earners.
Understanding their achievement patterns has therefore become a new challenge
confronting educators, researchers, and policy makers. A solid body of research has
documented that children’s skills and abilities upon entering kindergarten, or school
readiness, can help predict long-term achievement. However, the extent to which this
research applies to culturally-diverse immigrant children remains an open question, and
the unique role of English language acquisition warrants further exploration. Using a
structural equation modeling (SEM) framework, this manuscript examined relations
between school readiness and later academic achievement for a sub-sample of low-income
children from the Miami School Readiness Project (MSRP; N = 2,657).
Specifically, it investigated whether these relations were moderated by children’s nativity
status (immigrant vs. non-immigrant family) and whether there were any indirect
influences of school readiness on later achievement via the timing of children’s English
proficiency. As part of the MSRP, cognitive and linguistic school readiness were assessed
at age four with the Learning Accomplishments Profile – Diagnostic (LAPD), while
social-emotional and behavioral school readiness were assessed with the Devereaux Early
Childhood Assessment (DECA). Third grade academic outcomes were retrieved from the
Miami-Dade County Public Schools and included end-of-year grades and math and
reading scores from the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test (F-CAT). Results
indicated that the age-four school readiness measures predicted third grade outcomes
similarly across children in immigrant and non-immigrant families. After accounting for
a number of family background and demographic factors, greater behavior concerns at
age four predicted lower end-of-year grades and lower reading scores in 3rd grade, while
greater age-four pre-academic skills were associated with higher grades and higher
standardized math and reading scores in 3rd grade. Additionally, early pre-academic skills
exerted an indirect influence on immigrant children’s 3rd grade achievement by reducing
the amount of time it took them to become proficient in English. This finding persisted
across children in Hispanic/Latino- and Black/African-descent immigrant families.
Though previous research has found mean-level group differences in educational
outcomes between children in immigrant and non-immigrant families, findings herein
suggest linkages between outcomes across the early years may be quite similar between
the two groups. Discussion highlights the importance of behavioral and academic school
readiness, as well as early English proficiency, for the long-term achievement of children
in immigrant families.
