The effect of full-day kindergarten programming, teacher ethnicity, and classroom composition on special education eligibility of Black elementary students
Year: 2013
Type: article
Abstract: Framed by John Ogbu's cultural-ecological theory of minority academic achievement (1990) and general theories of acculturation, this study aimed to determine the effect of kindergarten program type (full-day versus half-day), racial matching between Black student and teacher, and Black student classroom composition in the kindergarten year on special education identification of Black students, within disability categories labeled as "judgmental" (Donovan & Cross, 2002; Klingner, Artiles, Kozleski, Harry, Zion, Tate, Duran, & Riley, 2005) by the spring of third grade. A two-level hierarchical generalized linear model (HGLM) analysis, using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999 (ECLS-K) database, revealed no significant effect of any of the three variables of interest on subsequent special education identification of Black students. Preschool attendance in the year prior to kindergarten significantly predicted special education identification by the spring of third grade. However, this effect is likely explained by an overrepresentation in the specific sample of Black students reported to have received therapy services or taken part in a program for children with disabilities in the year preceding kindergarten. The absence of an effect of full-day kindergarten on subsequent special education identification for Black students should be of interest to policy makers as extending publicly funded early education is currently finding both political and popular support.
Author: Sandra Slizewski-Meagher
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2519860176