According to a special report on race, racism and systemic social inequity issued in June 2020 by the National Institute for Early Education Research after George Floyd's killing, Black preschoolers are, on average, seven months behind their White peers in reading, and as much as nine months behind in math when they begin kindergarten. Why?
The researchers, Allison Friedman-Krauss and Steven Barnett, pointed to the unequal treatment toward Black kids, starting at an early age and leading to subsequent development and learning inequalities. "Math and reading abilities at kindergarten entry are powerful predictors of later school success; children who enter kindergarten behind are unlikely to catch up," said the scientists.
The KIDS Count Data book, published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, revealed that in 2018 in Louisiana around half of African American kids under the age of 6 lived in poverty, compared to only 16% of White kids. "Put another way, a young African American child in Louisiana is more than three times as likely to live in poverty as a young white child," said Kenneth Francis, the director of child advocacy for the organization Agenda for Children.
Picture: Reading - SAD Hortons Kids (Wikimedia Commons, w/Effects)
