Kindergarten

The Summer After Kindergarten

Last Updated Oct 5, 2008 08:59 PM

The Summer After Kindergarten: Children’s Activities and Library Use by Household Socioeconomic Status

Children enter kindergarten showing wide achievement gaps by family socioeconomic status (SES) (Coley 2002; Lee and Burkam 2002).1 A number of studies suggest that achievement gaps grow during the summer months when children are away from school (Heyns 1978; Cooper et al. 1996; Alexander, Entwisle, and Olson 2001). This finding may be related to a number of factors, including differences in children’s summer activities; children may differ by SES group in the extent to which they have the opportunity to engage in activities that reinforce school learning or broaden knowledge more generally—activities such as reading, attending library programs, or visiting museums. However, we know relatively little about the extent to which children actually differ by SES group in their engagement in these kinds of activities during the summer months. This Issue Brief provides a description of children’s participation in various activities during the summer after kindergarten. Children’s participation in activities is compared across a measure of SES. This Brief also takes a closer look at one summer activity in particular—children’s library use. The Issue Brief draws on data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–99 (ECLS-K), which provide nationally representative information regarding the approximately 3.9 million children enrolled in kindergarten during the 1998–99 school year. The ECLS-K included a parent interview in fall 1999 that asked parents about their children’s participation in activities during the summer of 1999.2

The categorical measure of household SES used in this Issue Brief is based on a continuous, composite variable derived from parental education, parental occupation, and household income in spring 1999.3 Findings are reported separately for children in households with low, middle, and high SES. Low SES signifies the bottom 20 percent of the variable’s distribution, middle SES the middle 60 percent, and high SES the top 20 percent. All findings presented in this Issue Brief are descriptive in nature and based on parent reports.4

Participation in Activities During the Summer Children in households with low SES were the least likely to participate in each of the nine activities listed in table 1 during the summer after their kindergarten year, while children in households with high SES were the most likely to do so. For example, 20 percent of low SES children went to art, science, or discovery museums over the summer compared to 38 percent of middle SES children and 62 percent of high SES children. Forty-five percent of low SES children went to a zoo, aquarium, or petting farm while 64 percent of middle SES children and 71 percent of high SES children did so. Some 46 percent of low SES children went to a library over the course of the summer compared to 66 percent of middle SES children and 80 percent of high SES children. The ECLS-K asked parents a series of additional questions concerning children’s library participation, including the number of visits children made to libraries over the summer, whether or not the children participated in story time at the library, and whether or not the children had a neighborhood library. Because library visits were so common for all groups of children, and because of this activity’s potential for academic enrichment (Heyns 1978), this Issue Brief explores children’s library usage in greater depth.

Library Use by SES and Neighborhood Library Availability Table 2 provides more detailed information on the extent and nature of children’s library use in the summer after kindergarten, in terms of average number of visits and participation in story time. While table 1 shows that low SES children were the least likely to visit a library at all over the summer and high SES children were the most likely to do so, table 2 shows that—of those children that visited a library—low SES library visitors went, on average, less often (4 times) than middle or high SES visitors (7 times each). However, among those children who visited a library over the summer, low SES and middle SES library visitors were more likely to attend story time at a library than high SES library visitors (27 percent and 26 percent compared to 20 percent). Library use also varied by parental report of neighborhood library availability. Compared to children whose parents reported having no neighborhood library, children whose parents reported a neighborhood library were more likely to visit a library at least once over the summer (70 percent compared to 47 percent). In addition, children who visited the library over the summer went more frequently if their parents reported having a neighborhood library (7 times on average compared to 5 times on average). These two relationships held for low and middle SES children. Parental report of neighborhood library availability varied by SES; low SES parents (64 percent) were less likely than middle SES parents (81 percent) to report having a neighborhood library, and both groups were less likely than high SES parents (91 percent) to do so. Another way to examine the data in table 2 is to look at how children’s library use varies by household SES while taking into account parental reports of neighborhood library availability. Among children whose parents reported no neighborhood library, low SES children were the least likely to visit the library (31 percent) while high SES children were the most likely to do so (72 percent). In addition, when no neighborhood library was reported, low SES library visitors went less frequently, on average, than middle or high SES library visitors (4 times compared to 5 and 6 times, respectively). These relationships also held among children whose parents reported having a neighborhood library. However, the difference between the percentage of low and high SES children who visited the library was smaller in neighborhoods with a library than in those without one (26 percentage point gap compared to 41 percentage point gap). Among children whose parents reported no neighborhood library, low SES library visitors attended story time at higher levels than high SES library visitors (28 percent compared to 15 percent).

Conclusion In summary, the broad picture of children’s involvement in activities during the summer after their kindergarten year shows substantial differences in participation by socioeconomic status (SES). Low SES children were the least likely SES group to participate in the summer activities investigated in this Issue Brief; high SES children were the most likely to participate in these same activities. Looking more closely at children’s summer library use reveals a more complicated picture. Low SES children were the least likely SES group to go to the library, and if they did go, they went less frequently than children in the other SES groups. However, low SES library visitors attended story time at levels as high as or higher than library visitors from other SES groups. The gap between the percentage of low and high SES children who visited the library was smaller for those children whose parents reported having a neighborhood library than for those children whose parents reported no neighborhood library. The list of summer activities investigated in this Issue Brief is by no means comprehensive, and further research could expand the list. Future research based on the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study could improve our understanding of the linkages between summer activities, socioeconomic status, and academic achievement.

See also Kindergarten 556 1 - 4