Children from families living in poverty or in
households in which parent education is low typically
enter school with lower levels of foundational
skills, such as those in language, reading, and
mathematics.13 On starting kindergarten, children
in the lowest socioeconomic group have average
cognitive scores that are 60 percent below those
of the most affluent group. Explained largely by
socioeconomic differences among ethnic groups,
average math achievement is 21 percent lower for
African American children than for white children
and 19 percent lower for Hispanic children than
for non-Hispanic white children.14 Moreover, due to
deep-seated equity issues present in communities
and schools, such early achievement gaps tend to
increase rather than diminish over time.15