Disadvantaged from the start

While other factors such as racial and ethnic disparities in literacy are prevalent, they are smaller than they were forty to fifty years ago. Socioeconomic disparities, on the other hand, are still growing to this day. (Reardon, Valentino, & Shores, 2012) This disparity is prevalent from an early age.

Strang and Piasta further illustrated this point in a study where they examined patterns of code focused learning at an early childhood center. The results revealed that during the initial test, children that came from families with lower SES knew fewer letter names and letter sounds than children that came from families with higher SES.

This research implies that socioeconomic status is prevalent even when assessing the building blocks of language such as letter names and sounds, and therefore will affect kids as they learn to read and write. (Strang & Piasta, 2016)

A research conducted by Waldfogel concluded that this disparity found in Strang and Piasta’s research is also prevalent in student’s academic career even after they began formal schooling. While low-income students scored at the 34^th percentile in early literacy, middle-income students scored at the 47^th percentile. (Waldfogel, 2012)

These findings suggest that this socioeconomic disparity puts children of lower socioeconomic status at a disadvantage in their first few years at school.