Hispanics, Language and Immigration. Gaps in the Early Years. Milagros Nores NIEER, Rutgers University & Claudia Pineda University of California, Irvine AERA. April 16, 2009

Motivation Gradients, Poverty –Poor children much > likely to be poor adults: significant differences across subpopulations, particularly minorities and single-headed hholds (Duncan, Corcoran) Early Childhood literature –Extensive research showing “timing” (age) of poverty matters for cognitive and social development (Brooks-Gunn, Duncan, Haveman, Klevanov) –Potential for policy intervention in the early years: Strong effects of pre-K interventions on early disparities & LT benefits (e.g. Barnett, Heckman) Gaps –Racial gaps increases in elementary, tapering off by the end & changing relatively little in HS; e.g. Fryer & Levitt (2004, 2005), Hanushek & Rivkin (2007), Reardon (2007) Hispanics –Hispanics’ Demographics (National Research Council, 2006) –Immigration: Intergenerational differences (Suarez-Orozco, 2008) Language studies (Ziegler & Goswani, 2005) in the phonetics of languages

Hispanic Gaps How much of the Hispanic Achievement gap can be explained by Language Background differences and immigration experiences? –How do achievement and skill gaps vary by race? –How do these differ by language backgrounds? –How do these differ by immigrant backgrounds? –And by language and immigrant background together?

Data ECLS-K public use (from NCES): –1st nationally representative dataset for this age group –Focus on transition to school, schooling performance in early grades, and interaction of school, family & community –KG (1998, fall & spring), first (1999), third (2001) & fifth (2003) –Academic measures of math and reading (IRT scores): standardized (Mean 0, SD 1) SES (PCA) : Mother’s and father’s ed, employment status & category, hhold income & size, and welfare benefits (AFDC) Hispanics: Language at home & immigrant parent variables Final sample has ~7,000 obs (16% Hispanics)

Model Achievement: A = Zscores (math, reading) T = input  skill differ by grade & complexity of skills f = other learning efficiency indicators (child and family) –language, race, immigrant background s = school quality factors (fixed-effects) e = error term For skills: = cdf of a standard normal function = family characteristics i at time t, = parameters

Racial Achievement Gaps Comparison group: Whites Controls include: gender, age, mother worked in the years between birth and K, center-based pre-k experience, non-English speaker, disability, family chose neighborhood because of school, family structure & school FE.

Gaps by immigrant background Comparison group: Whites

Gaps by English vs Non-English Background Comparison group: Whites

Immigrant & Language Background Comparison group: Whites

Skills & Language Background Comparison group: Whites

Skills & Immigrant Background Comparison group: Whites

Skills, Language & Immigration Comparison group: Whites

Summary The Hispanic-White gap is quite stable over time. Yet, flat trends appear driven by English background Hispanics while Non-English Hispanic start out with a very large gap (twice that of AfAmericans) and reduce their gap distinctively (stronger in reading). Looking at children w/immigrant background, same trends are evident, w/children w/immigrant background reducing their gaps & children w/non-immigrant backgr. evidencing much smaller gaps initially & sustaining these. These two constructions matter. Non-English background, non-immigrant Hispanic children are the only group that evidence no gaps throughout. All other groups show large initial disadvantages and differences in whether they reduce these overtime and how much. Overall, earlier disparities are reduced over time (unlike for African Americans, and unlike when looking at SES gaps), yet somewhat sustained.Particularly the combination of these two, which show sustained gaps in math. This group also evidences the largest differences in skills at the upper grades.

Research & Policy Implications Research: Differences in resources? –Connect to the SES gap work and school resource work, to understand differences among the language and immigrant groups. –Connect to availability of ELL programs? –Control for selection bias (routing test?) Policy: Pursue high quality early school education, to eliminate gap differentials early on (pre-k interventions) Bilingual/Dual language acquisition policies early on? –Combinations of ELL staffing/curricula