- Significant model parameters and effect sizes indicated that child and family characteristics were more predictive of initial reading skills than of reading development over time. Minority segregation in elementary schools was associated with lower student reading performance after accounting for child and family background, classroom instruction, and school-level poverty.
- Children who attended full-day kindergarten evidenced enhanced reading performance at the end of kindergarten only.
- Children attending kindergarten classrooms with higher levels of comprehensive literacy instruction demonstrated higher performance in reading at the end of kindergarten.
- Minority segregation significantly accounted for children’s reading performance at the end of kindergarten, first, and third grades. The reading performance of children attending minority segregated schools was constrained by 1.23, 2.43 and 5.02 points at the end of kindergarten, first, and third grades, respectively, relative to peers attending nonsegregated schools after accounting for child, family, and classroom variables and children’s predicted reading trajectories.
- Children attending classrooms with higher percentages of students reading below grade level under-perform in reading on par with the benefits provided by comprehensive literacy instruction.