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In this technical comment, we argue that Morgan et al.'s claim that there is no minority overrepresentation in special education is in error due to (a) sampling considerations, (b) inadequate support from previous and current analyses, and (c) their failure to consider the complexities of special education disproportionality.

Analyzing data from two nationally representative kindergarten cohorts, we examine the mathematics content teachers cover in kindergarten. We expand upon prior research, finding that kindergarten teachers report emphasizing basic mathematics content. Although teachers reported increased coverage of advanced content between the 1998–1999 and 2010–2011 school years, they continued to place more emphasis on basic content. We find that time on advanced content is positively associated with student learning, whereas time on basic content has a negative association with learning. We argue that increased exposure to more advanced mathematics content could benefit the vast majority of kindergartners.

This article examines associations between observed quality in preschool center classrooms for approximately 6,250 three- to five-year-olds and their school readiness skills at kindergarten entry. Secondary analyses were conducted using data from four large-scale studies to estimate the effects of preschool center quality and interactions between quality and demographic characteristics and child entry skills and behaviors. Findings were summarized across studies using meta-analytic methods. Results indicate small, but statistically significant associations for preschool center quality main effects on language and mathematics outcomes with little evidence of moderation by demographic characteristics or child entry skills and behaviors. Preschool center quality was not reliably related to socioemotional outcomes. The authors discuss possible explanations for the small effect sizes and lack of differential effects.

Disparities in science achievement across race and gender have been well documented in secondary and postsecondary school; however, the science achievement gap in the early years of elementary school remains understudied. We present findings from the recently released Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010–2011 that demonstrate significant gaps in science achievement in kindergarten and first grade by race/ethnicity. We estimate the Black-White science gap in kindergarten at –.82 SD but find only a small gender gap by first grade. Large disparities between Asian student performance in science as compared to mathematics and reading are documented. Student background characteristics and school fixed effects explain nearly 60% of the Black-White and Hispanic-White science achievement gaps in kindergarten. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

Although many studies have explored shared book reading between preschoolers and their families, very few have examined this practice within a large, nationally representative sample. Using the ECLS-B dataset, this study investigated shared reading among nearly 700 families of diverse ethnic, linguistic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Coding of families’ book-related discussion focused on the variety of types of talk that parents used during reading. Results showed that parents focused primarily on the meaning of the story, with little attention to the code of the text. The range of talk techniques that parents used was largely independent of background factors such as child gender, ethnicity, or age, as well as family home language. A wider variety of meaning-related remarks by parents was linked to more advanced language skills among preschoolers. Findings provide a portrait of the nature of shared book reading discussion among American families, a profile of the background factors that are linked to this talk, and a precise account of the unique contributions of this talk to key emergent language and literacy competencies.

A growing literature documents the myriad penalties for children of incarcerated fathers, but relatively little is known about how paternal incarceration contributes to educational outcomes in early and middle childhood. In this article, we use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to provide the first estimates of the relationship between paternal incarceration and children's grade retention in elementary school. Propensity score matching models indicate that children of incarcerated fathers are more likely to experience early grade retention than their counterparts. This relationship is not driven by test scores or behavior problems; preliminary evidence suggests this relationship may be driven by teachers' perceptions of children's academic proficiency. These findings suggest that elementary school teachers may play an important role in the lives of children experiencing paternal incarceration and, more generally, highlight yet another way in which the large-scale incarceration of men limits their children's potential.

Using K–8 national longitudinal data, the authors investigate males' and females' achievement in math and reading, including when gender gaps first appear, whether the appearance of gaps depends on the metric used, and where on the achievement distribution gaps are most prevalent. Additionally, teachers' assessments of males and females are compared. The authors find no math gender gap in kindergarten, except at the top of the distribution; however, females throughout the distribution lose ground in elementary school and regain some in middle school. In reading, gaps favoring females generally narrow but widen among low-achieving students. However, teachers consistently rate females higher than males in both subjects, even when cognitive assessments suggest that males have an advantage. Implications for policy and further research are discussed.

Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Cohort, this study examines the role that bilingualism plays in children's academic developmental trajectories during their early school years, with particular attention on the school environment (N = 16,380). Growth-curve results showed that despite starting with lower math scores in kindergarten, Mixed Bilingual children fully closed the math gap with their White English Monolingual peers by fifth grade. However, because non-English-Dominant Bilinguals and non-English Monolinguals started kindergarten with significantly lower reading and math scores compared to their English Monolingual peers, by fifth grade the former groups still had significantly lower scores. School-level factors explained about one third of the reductions in the differences in children's academic performance.

Residential mobility has received notable attention in the literature, yet there remains limited consensus on how and when mobility is associated with detriments to children's development. Drawing on a nationally representative sample of 19,162 children in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study followed from kindergarten through eighth grade, this study compared cumulative, timing-specific, and interactive models of mobility. Results found that mobility during middle childhood and early adolescence was negatively associated with children's cognitive skills, with short-term effects that dissipated over time. In contrast, associations with psychosocial functioning emerged in relation to early and middle childhood mobility. Effects of residential mobility were robust to more conservative modeling techniques and adjustments for school mobility.

We investigated whether and to what extent children who are racial-ethnic minorities are disproportionately represented in early intervention and/or early childhood special education (EI/ECSE). We did so by analyzing a large sample of 48-month-olds (N = 7,950) participating in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Birth Cohort (ECLS-B), a nationally representative data set of children born in the United States in 2001. Multivariate logistic regression analyses indicate that boys (odds ratio [OR] = 1.66), children born at very low birth weight (OR = 3.98) or with congenital anomalies (OR = 2.17), and children engaging in externalizing problem behaviors (OR = 1.10) are more likely to be represented in EI/ECSE. Children from lox-socioeconomic-status households (OR = .48), those displaying greater numeracy or receptive language knowledge (ORs = .96 and .76, respectively), and children being raised in households where a language other than English is primarily spoken (OR = .39) are less likely to be represented in EI/ECSE. Statistical control for these and an extensive set of additional factors related to cognitive and behavioral functioning indicated that 48-month-old children who are Black (OR = .24) or Asian (OR = .32) are disproportionately underrepresented in EI/ECSE in the United States.