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• The R3ISE Integrative Framework suggests that racist policies and practices have a multigenerational impact on children's development. • Regional levels of historical racism were positively correlated with contemporary structural inequality and implicit bias. • These regional differences were not significantly associated with the outcomes of Black children in high quality ECE programs. • High ECE programs show promise as places where Black children's outcomes do not relate to historical racism. Racial disparities in educational outcomes start early in childhood and persist through adulthood. High quality Early Care and Education (ECE) programs tend to show benefits for Black children, but less is known about how larger contextual inequalities, both historical and contemporary, relate to young children's outcomes in these high-quality settings. Previous work has shown that historical racism, such as the prevalence of enslavement in 1860 (just before the Civil War) relates to present-day structural inequalities and implicit bias across geographic regions. In this study (N = 1,343), we examined the relation between an area's historical racism, operationalized as the proportion of enslaved individuals living there in 1860, current structural inequalities (economic mobility, racial disparities in poverty, and residential segregation), implicit bias, and children's outcomes in high quality ECE settings. Although significant correlations were found among historical and current structural inequities, implicit bias, and children's outcomes, no significant relation remained after accounting for nesting and children's prior skills. Though more work is needed to establish the reliability and robustness of these findings, our analysis provides initial evidence that negative structural factors are not linked to children's outcomes within more optimal settings, such as high quality ECE programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Examined family engagement practices, linguistic match, and ELL child outcomes. • Teacher communication practices promote early literacy skills for ELL children. • ELL children in ELL minority classes benefit more from family engagement practices. • Families with few linguistically similar peers may need more support from teachers. As linguistic diversity increases in the U.S., it is essential for pre-kindergarten (pre-k) programs to expand their capacity to serve families whose home languages are not English. Family engagement is a key component of early childhood education; however, it is unclear whether family engagement practices uniformly benefit students from diverse backgrounds, including English Language Learners (ELL). In this mixed methods study, we explored whether teachers' family engagement practices were associated with ELL children's attendance and early learning, focusing on whether two aspects of the linguistic context—classroom composition of ELL students and teachers' practices for communicating in families' home languages—moderates these associations. Additionally, we used parent focus groups to shed light on ELL families' experiences with family engagement. We found consistent evidence that associations between teachers' family engagement practices and ELL children's attendance and socioemotional skills were moderated by classroom composition of ELL students. Specifically, family engagement practices were associated with better attendance and higher socioemotional skills among ELL children in minority ELL classrooms (less than 20% ELL) but not in classrooms with more ELL students (20% or more). Results aligned with themes from our qualitative analysis, which found that having few ELL families in the classroom made it difficult for ELL parents to make connections with other families, which might make it challenging to build a sense of community. This suggests that families without access to networks of linguistically similar peers at school might need additional support from teachers to feel welcome and encouraged to participate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• School readiness skills at age 4 predicted academic performance through 5th grade. • Socioemotional skills modestly predict achievement beyond pre-academic readiness skills. • School readiness predicts the odds of retention and suspension in elementary school. In this study, we use a large-scale (n = 33,717) ethnically diverse (59% Latinx, 34% Black, and 7% White/other) largely low-income sample to assess the predictive power of a wide range of school readiness skills measured at age four in preschool on authentic academic outcomes through Grade 5. Specifically, we explored the extent to which cognitive, language, fine motor, gross motor, and socioemotional skills at age four are related to GPA, standardized test scores, likelihood of retention, and likelihood of suspension in Kindergarten and key grades through Grade 5. OLS and logistic regressions revealed that each of these measures of school readiness was related to later academic outcomes, even when controlling for demographic characteristics and other measures of performance in preschool. Preschool socioemotional readiness skills were consistently related to K to Grade 5 outcomes. These findings suggest that school readiness skills at age 4 have long-term influence on academic performance in elementary school and that socioemotional skills are an important component of school readiness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Nearly one quarter of Australian children under the age of 5 experience multiple non-parental child care arrangements. Research focused on the relationship between multiple child care arrangements and child socioemotional development is limited, particularly in Australia. Evidence from the United States and Europe has linked multiple child care arrangements to increases in children''s problem behaviors (de Schipper, Tavecchio, van Ijzendoorn, & van Zeijl, 2004; Morrissey, 2009), but there is little corresponding evidence on Australian children''s child care experiences. Using a nationally representative sample of Australian children, we examined the associations between concurrent multiple child care arrangements and child socioemotional and behavioral development at age 4.5. We found suggestive evidence that child care multiplicity at age 4.5 is related to higher levels of behavior problems. However, this relationship is moderated by prior child care experiences. We found that prior care multiplicity mitigates the relationship between concurrent multiplicity and children''s prosocial skills and conduct problems. In contrast, moving from a single arrangement or no non-parental child care to multiple arrangements appears to be negatively associated with children''s concurrent socioemotional skills. Implications for policy and practice are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]