ECONOMIC REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT

Percent
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Figure 4-5
Disparities in Underlying Factors Behind Outcome Gaps
Below 100% of Federal Poverty Level
Above 185% of Federal Poverty Level
Note: HS stands for high school.
Source: Isaacs (2012).
these children face upon school entry has long-lasting consequences for academic
achievement and behavior throughout their schooling years (Duncan,
Magnuson, and Votruba-Drzal 2014; Duncan, Ziol-Guest, and Kalil 2010).
A child’s early years, beginning in infancy, are a period of profound
advances in reasoning, language acquisition, and problem solving.
Importantly, a child’s environment can dramatically influence the degree
and pace of these advances. By supporting development when children
are very young, early childhood development and education programs can
complement parental investments. Children who enter school at higher
levels of readiness have higher earnings throughout their lives. They are also
healthier and less likely to become involved with the criminal justice system.
Early Gaps in Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Outcomes
Socioeconomic disparities in cognitive, social, behavioral, and health
outcomes are evident in children as young as 9 months of age and these gaps
tend to widen as children grow older. At just 9 months, infants and toddlers
from low-income families score lower on cognitive assessments, are less
likely to be in excellent or good health, and are less likely to receive positive
behavior ratings than their counterparts from higher-income families; by 24
months, the cognitive and behavioral gaps have at least doubled (Halle et
al. 2009). By the time children enter school around age 5, children in poor
households are nearly 4 times more likely to score “very low” on assessments
162 | Chapter 4