The Transition into kindergarten for english language learners

Abstract

The transition into kindergarten often serves as the basis for long-term disparities in educational attainment because initially small differences in early learning widen throughout the K-12 educational system. Given the long-standing disparities in their academic achievement related to being of low socioeconomic status and a racial/ethnic minority, the large and growing population of English language learners constitutes an important population in which to study the transition into formal schooling. The purpose of this book chapter is to describe the vulnerabilities faced by English language learners during this transitional period and the implications of this transition for their short- and long-term educational success. Throughout this chapter, we highlight how this transition into kindergarten may be amenable to policy intervention, its role in inequality, and how researchers, policy-makers, and practitioners can capitalize on the many strengths of these children and their families to facilitate a successful transition to school. Although many children make a seamless transition into kindergarten, it is a period of vulnerability for many, who must learn to navigate a new institutional system, form and maintain new relationships with adults and peers, and develop new academic skills (Rimm-Kaufman & Pianta, 2000). This vulnerability is heightened when children have not had significant exposure to early childhood education prior to entering the K-12 system, their families' disadvantaged socioeconomic circumstances disrupt their opportunities to learn in and out of the home, and their parents lack familiarity with and status in the US educational system. In such situations, a smooth transition into kindergarten becomes less likely, which is notable given that even initially small differences in early learning at the start of formal schooling tend to widen across the educational career. The transition into kindergarten, therefore, is a fundamental component to long-term disparities in educational attainment (Alexander, Entwisle, & Olson, 2014). This chapter focuses on English language learners as one segment of the increasingly diverse US population that may be vulnerable during the transition into kindergarten. Certainly, disparities between English language learners-large numbers of whom come from immigrant backgrounds-and their fellow students in academic achievement and educational attainment are well-documented, but the connection between those population-level disparities and the transition into kindergarten needs to be better understood (Crosnoe, 2005; Reardon & Galindo, 2009; The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2017). After all, English language learners are less likely to attend early childhood education programs than other US children in the years prior to kindergarten, their families have high levels of socioeconomic disadvantage, and their parents often have trouble communicating with English-speaking parallels and may have little experience with the US educational system (Crosnoe, 2013). Consequently, what might be a challenging academic period for children in general may be particularly challenging for them, especially in the absence of sufficient supports and services (Crosnoe, Bonazzo, & Wu, 2015; Reardon & Galindo, 2009). What can be done to reduce or counteract this potential vulnerability among English language learners to break the cycle of cumulative disadvantage before it gains strength? To address this question, this chapter delves into the kindergarten experiences of English language learners in the US during a time of demographic change, the relations between their families and schools, the implications of these kindergarten experiences and family-school relations for their educational success, and the policy and intervention efforts to serve English language learners and their parents in order to shed light on possible answers to this question.