Tuesday, May 22, 2018

The Summer After Kindergarten: Children’s Experiences by Socioeconomic Characteristics

A higher percentage of children from nonpoor households were read to by a family member every day in a typical week (51 percent) than were children from poor households (39 percent). The National Center for Education Statistics released a new Statistics in Brief report today (May 22), entitled The Summer After Kindergarten: Children’s Experiences by Socioeconomic Characteristics,” that examines differences in children’s summer experiences after kindergarten, such as participation in summer care arrangements, programs, and activities.

Specifically, the brief describes students’ summer nonparental care arrangements, program attendance (e.g., at summer camps or summer school), participation in activities with family members in a typical week, and places visited with family members. Participation in summer activities is compared by two socioeconomic characteristics—household poverty status and parents’ highest level of education—utilizing data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010–11 (ECLS-K:2011).

Key findings include:
  • The use of computers for educational purposes over the summer differed by parents’ educational attainment and household poverty status. For instance, a higher percentage of children whose parents had a high school diploma or below (32 percent) than who had some postsecondary education (18 percent) or a bachelor’s degree or above (15 percent) never used a computer for educational purposes.
  • Overall, about 76 percent of children played outside every day during the summer after kindergarten. No measurable differences were found by household poverty status or parent education in how often children played outside every day.
  • More than half of all children visited a beach, lake, river, or state or national park; zoo or aquarium; or amusement park during the summer after kindergarten. However, differences existed by household poverty status and parent education. For example, a lower percentage of children from poor households (54 percent) than from near-poor (66 percent) and nonpoor (69 percent) households visited a zoo or aquarium.

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