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Preschool Antecedents of Mathematics Achievement of Latinos

The Influence of Family Resources, Early Literacy Experiences, and Preschool Attendance

California State University, Los Angeles

Ronald Gallimore

University of California, Los Angeles

Helen Garnier

University of California, Los Angeles

Leslie Reese

California State University, Long Beach

Seventy-three Latino middle school students participated in a longitudinal study of the preschool antecedents of their mathematics achievement. Path analysis indicated that family resources (parents' educational level, occupation, and income) predicted home literacy activities, which predicted combined early Spanish literacy and English language proficiencies at kindergarten entry, which predicted elementary mathematics achievement, which in turn predicted middle school mathematics performance. These results and qualitative analyses with a subsample of 30 randomly selected families suggest that literacy and numeracy proficiency go hand in hand, and to close the Latino mathematics achievement gap a combined effort of preschool and early elementary literacy and numeracy interventions programs are needed to supplement efforts in middle and high school.

Key Words: mathematics achievement • Latino children • elementary school • home literacy • numeracy

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This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Lopez, E. M. Articles by Reese, L. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?