Can positive school climate ameliorate racial-ethnic disparities in pre-kindergarten quality? Evidence from a large urban school district

• Published in: Early childhood research quarterly Vol. 64; pp. 313 - 323
• Main Authors: Siegel, Jessica A., Ganimian, Alejandro J., Cappella, Elise
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 01.01.2023
• Subjects: Public pre-kindergarten; Racial-ethnic disparities; School climate; School quality; Public pre-kindergarten; Racial-ethnic disparities; School climate; School quality
• ISSN: 0885-2006; 1873-7706
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ecresq.2023.04.012

•Black and Latine students often experience lower-quality pre-kindergarten.•School climate (SC) is measured here as strong leadership, family ties, and trust.•SC ameliorated disparities in pre-k classroom organization and emotional support.SC did not moderate disparities in instructional support.•Improving SC may mitigate inequitable pre-k quality. We investigated whether school climate, specifically effective school leadership, strong family ties, and trusting relationships, moderates the well-documented disparities in pre-kindergarten quality for Black and Latine students relative to their peers. In a sample of 615 public schools in a large, urban school district serving a minoritized student population (the average school in the sample served 66% Black and Latine students), we first explored patterns of disparities and found that Black and Latine children, on average, experience lower-quality pre-kindergarten in terms of classroom organization, emotional support, and instructional support. Using structural equation modeling, we found that a multi-dimensional index of school climate moderated this relationship with pre-kindergarten quality in terms of classroom organization and emotional support, but not instructional support. These findings suggest a potential role for school climate in mitigating existing inequities in the quality of pre-kindergarten.