Investigates the effects of family social and economic status on children’s school readiness, with an emphasis on the relationship between racial and ethnic achievement gaps and family socioeconomic status. Research findings reveal that parent income and education, family structure, and neighborhood conditions have strong influences on children’s well-being, although income may not be as closely tied to children’s achievement as some early studies suggested, and parental education rather than family structure may account for a portion of achievement gaps. The extent to which socioeconomic differences across groups are linked to racial and ethnic achievement gaps can be established only tentatively. For example, studies find that differences in socioeconomic status explain about a half a standard deviation of initial achievement gaps. Given the absence of a definitive, causal link between socioeconomic status and achievement, wise policy interventions need to focus primarily on targeting children’s aptitude or mental and physical health and secondarily on reducing the racial and ethnic differences in family income.
