Far Off and Far Behind: New Analysis of ECLS-K Shows Wide Disparities for Rural Young Children

APRIL 18, 2005 | Rural children are 60 percent more likely than non-rural children to be placed in special education in kindergarten, according to a new analysis by Rural Early Childhood of a large national study.

“Young children in rural America are not only far off from the centers of education and government, they are far behind,” Cathy Grace, director of the research program at Mississippi State University (MSU), said. “This analysis proves that we must pay more attention to learning experiences in the first five years for rural children.”

The analysis also found that rural children were significantly less likely to attend a center-based early education program in the year before kindergarten. Fewer than one in ten rural black children could identify beginning letter sounds in spoken words – a crucial early literacy skill – when they entered kindergarten, compared to four out of ten non-rural white children. A brief of Rural Early Childhood’s preliminary findings in the ECLS-K dataset is available here.

The center sponsored the analysis of the Kindergarten Cohort of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-K), an ongoing national study by the U.S. Department of Education, because there are few sources of information about rural young children.

The findings begin to fill the gap in information about rural young children that MSU’s National Center for Rural Early Childhood Learning Initiatives, known as Rural Early Childhood, uncovered late last year. Rural Early Childhood reported in December that most national surveys and other public data sources yield little information about rural young children and their families, typically because of the challenges in collecting samples large enough from remote and far-flung communities. See that report here.

Rural Early Childhood commissioned Child Trends, a private research organization in Washington, D.C., to conduct the statistical analysis of the ECLS-K. Martha Zaslow, Ph.D., Brett Brown, Ph.D., and Dena Aufseeser of Child Trends performed the analysis, comparing findings for rural and non-rural children and for different ethnic groups, income brackets, and geographic regions in baseline data collected in 1998.

While disparities between rural and non-rural children were significant for many indicators, the Rural Early Childhood analysis shows that disparities were even wider when rural black children were compared to non-rural white children.

For example, about three-quarters of non-rural white children were proficient in letter recognition upon entering kindergarten, but only about two-thirds of rural white children were proficient (77 percent vs. 66 percent). Non-rural white children were nearly one and a half times more likely than rural black children to be proficient in letter recognition upon entering kindergarten.

Only one out of five rural black children lived with both biological parents; one out of three non-rural black children and three out of four non-rural white children lived with both biological parents.

The analysis did find some benefits of rural life for young children, including better chances of having smaller and orderly kindergarten classes, demonstrating social competence at age 5, and living in safe neighborhoods.

Rural Early Childhood will issue additional briefs based on analyses of the ECLS Kindergarten and Birth Cohorts and of the National Health Interview Survey, as well as a comprehensive report, in the coming months.

About Rural Early Childhood

Rural Early Childhood is the National Center for Rural Early Childhood Learning Initiatives, a program of Mississippi State University. The center fosters original and applied research on the quality, accessibility, and replication of early educational intervention services for at-risk young children and families in rural America. The center was established in 2004 with a grant in the amount of $2.187 million from the United States Department of Education.

About Child Trends

Child Trends is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization dedicated to improving the lives of children by conducting research and providing science-based information to improve the decisions, programs, and policies that affect children and their families.  In advancing its mission, Child Trends collects and analyzes data; conducts, synthesizes, and disseminates research; designs and evaluates programs; and develops and tests promising approaches to research in the field.

 

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Updated 12/01/2006